5 Best Winter Indoor Plants To Grow To Turn Your Home Into A Cozy Houseplant Hideaway

Winter days can be dark and even depressing, especially for gardeners who long to see the first spring growth. But you can combat this by selecting winter indoor plants that will bring light and life into your living space even when the sun doesn't shine. When selecting hard-to-kill houseplants for winter cheer, think bright, lively foliage, and – as always – the easier care, the better. Here's our shortlist of the best indoor winter plants to grow to lift your spirits while you’re waiting for the sun to arrive.

Choosing the Best Winter Indoor Plants

Many of the perfect houseplant combinations can help to bring us comfort and color in the relatively humdrum colder months of the calendar year, but there are definitely a few that have a unique ability to boost morale. Understanding houseplant winter care gives us an innate ability to tap into their full potential, while delighting at their ability to bring visual interest, calm and cheer. Discover some of the finest winter houseplants you can grow for instant sensation while you wait for brighter days.

1. Painted Lady Philodendron

With its bright colors and climbing habit, a painted lady philodendron (Philodendron erubescens Painted Lady) will keep the summer mood flowing straight through that difficult season that runs from the holidays to spring. This hybrid is an indoor favorite, popular for its highly variegated, arrow-shaped leaves – green and chartreuse with pink petioles. It's a climbing, vining plant that can grow to five feet tall (2.5m) and three feet in diameter (1m) and become the focal point of a living area.

Like all philodendron species, the Painted Lady Philodendron, available from the Gardening Know How Shop, is a tried and true easy-care houseplant. Place several feet from an east or west-facing window and water when the soil dries out every week or so.

2. Lemon Meringue Pothos

Pothos is one of the best easy-care indoor plants for the winter – tolerant of low light and different types of soil. But they are not necessarily exciting and uplifting during the dark days of winter. But now there's a new pothos on the block, Epipremnum aureum Lemon Meringue. The Lemon Meringue Pothos, available from the Gardening Know How Shop, is a sport mutation of the species. It has smaller leaves (forest green) with stunning golden yellow edging. The vines of a pothos can grow to six feet (2m) long and need water when the top of the soil is dry.

The look is special, but the care need not be. Lemon Meringue is just as tolerant and low maintenance as any other pothos, but note this: you'll need better than low-light conditions if you want to keep those bright yellow splotches bright.

3. Chameleon Zamioculcas

Does it occur to you that the best indoor plants for the winter are all hybrids or cultivars of our all-time favorite houseplants? We've seen philodendrons, pothos, and now, the popular ZZ plant. But like other standard species plants, ZZ plant foliage – though spectacular – is basic green and so doesn't shoulder out the winter weather. Now, however, there is the Chameleon ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia Chameleon), loud, proud, and spectacular. Miss the summer sunshine? The Chameleon's new growth comes in canary yellow. That'll wake up many a winter morning before the foliage matures to a deep forest green.

Many have called the ZZ plant indestructible and I have recommended it as a great plant to send to a college dorm room with your kid. The Chameleon ZZ plant, available from the Gardening Know How Shop, will accept low light, low humidity and irregular irrigation. But since it is the new growth that shines with Chameleon, it’s best to give it reasonable light exposure and adequate water.

4. Moth Orchid

No, you don't have to rely completely on bright foliage for winter houseplant allure. If you dream of bright flowers in winter, bring in a moth orchid (Phalaenopsis spp.) These are the easy orchids, not the prima donna plants, and they offer brilliant-colored blossoms right in the heart of winter.

Moth orchids are actually vining plants and require peat moss or coir potting soil. They prefer a bright light location and a moist environment, but you get so much beauty in return. Flower spikes show up in November, and you can take your pick of a rainbow of beautiful color options. The flower buds open early in the year, often in January, and the blooms can last three months or longer.

5. Christmas Cactus

If you think of cactuses as green and prickly, it's high time to update that perspective. Small, holiday plants called Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi) burst into bloom around the holidays. They are wonderful houseplants for winter, with their abundant showy flowers on the tips of their branches. Buds appear in November, followed by flowers in late December that last for months. They are typically red, pink, or magenta – but new varieties appear every year.

This plant is a favorite indoor houseplant and is relatively easy to care for. The Christmas cactus needs bright light during the growth period in summer, but the shortened days and cooler weather of winter are necessary to trigger the plant's blooming process. Given appropriate care, a Christmas cactus can live and thrive for decades.

Frequently Asked Questions

Try These Other Gorgeous Gifting Ideas from GKH

• Delight plant lovers in chilly times with these winter plants for seasonal interest to guide you through the cold months to the new year.
• Tempt indoor gardeners to cultivate more gorgeous green plants with houseplant gift ideas for any space or size of home.
• Inspire evergreen lovers to stretch their arboreal horizons with these unique holiday evergreen ideas for the holidays – and beyond!
• Browse even more ideas in the Gardening Know How Shop's Garden Gifts section.

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