A guide to growing healthy, happy plants in your home

by Alice Bailey September 17, 2025

How to find the right plant for your home - an easy guide to growing indoor plants

Finding the right spot to place your new plant can feel a bit overwhelming sometimes so we’ve put together a guide that explains key factors in determining which space is right for your houseplant, and did you know, it’s not just light and watering that play an important part…

Get to know your plant

Firstly, you want to find out more about your plant’s origin and natural habitat to better understand its main requirements. Look up their natural habitat and imagine them positioned in said habitat, say, a rainforest or desert, and from there envisage the types of weather conditions they would withstand in the wild. Take your Monstera deliciosa, for example, typically found in tropical rainforests thriving in a humid climate and dappled shade. Or your common Echeveria, which loves to bask in the sunshine and enjoys dry, arid conditions and would therefore thrive in a south-facing windowsill that doesn’t experience a lot of humidity. Each plants’ natural habitat is the best starting point and will reveal to you a number of key factors that will ensure their best chance of ample growth and happiness in your home.

It’s worth noting here that a regular watering schedule does contribute to plant health, so mimicking their natural habitat through a watering regime that mirrors this is an essential point of plant care, but if environmental needs are not met, you could still end up with a sad looking plant.

So the best chance of success lies in the ability to replicate your plants’ natural habitats as best you can. But it’s rare that a modern home is going to feel like a humid rainforest or arid desert! So read on to learn different ways to improve the environment of your home so that your plants grow happily and healthily.

Light is(n’t) everything

Contrary to popular belief, light isn’t the sole factor to encourage optimal plant growth. Whilst it plays a very important role for photosynthesis, sometimes plants can still thrive in less than optimal light conditions if other key conditions are taken into consideration. This is a particularly helpful point to remember when growing your houseplant collection if you live in urban spaces where modern properties are not always built to offer optimal lighting. As best as you can, you’ll want your plants to sit in the most suited light conditions, but if you consider this alongside the overall environment including temperature, humidity and air flow, then your plants will stand a much better chance of surviving and staying healthy and happy.

Temperature and draughty spots

You’ll want to pay attention to the whole environment of each of your spaces. And this includes the overall temperature of the room, taking into consideration any major fluctuations throughout the day and how draughty the room is. Draughts are caused by windows and doors that are not airtight, along with old floorboards in period properties and windows that are kept open for air circulation. Succulents and cacti are well-versed to temperature drops and draughts, making them very suitable houseplants for most spaces if there is ample light, but tropical plants will be sensitive to temperature fluctuations and dry air.

Maintaining the right humidity levels

Another key factor is the overall humidity in the room, which can be influenced by watering and misting habits but will also come down to the natural humidity of the space itself. This is particularly important for tropical plants that like high levels of humidity and little draught. Because of this, tropical plants usually love bathrooms or kitchens with high humidity and a steady temperature. You should also opt to mist plants regularly to maintain high humidity levels. Equally, spaces that home cacti and succulents should have less humidity so opening windows for gentle air flow will ensure an optimal environment for them.

Common problems in modern homes and how you can fix them:

Dry air and central heating

Modern appliances like fans, central heating and air conditioning can significantly reduce the amount of humidity in your home. This issue can cause some headache if you’re keen on tropical houseplants, especially during winter months. Although don’t worry, there are a number of remedies that will work, ensuring your tropical houseplants remain happy and thriving.

Group tropical plants together to create a microclimate - we love this approach that takes into consideration the natural habitat of tropical plants.
Place a dish filled with stones and water next to your tropical houseplants - key indicators of low humidity are brown and crisping foliage, and leaves dropping frequently. If you see this happening, try adding a dish of water filled with stones next to your plants and this will allow water to slowly release into the air.
Keep high humidity plants away from heat sources like radiators and log burners

High humidity

We’ve touched on the importance of maintaining the right humidity levels in your home, but often modern homes experience high levels of humidity due to modern insulating techniques. Whilst they will keep your house toasty, sadly for desert loving plants like succulents and cacti, this can prove to be problematic. Key signs that your houseplant is in a spot with too high humidity includes symptoms like soft, mushy stems and you will most often see this happen with succulents. To reduce humidity, you can:

Increase air flow - the main way to reduce high humidity is to increase the flow of air through each space. Either by keeping windows slightly ajar to allow a very gentle flow of air or try making use of electric fans.
You can also try a dehumidifier although this should typically be the last resort as they will use electricity and tend to be quite large.

Very dark, shady spots

We all have shady spots in our homes that at first glance may seem unsuitable for any plant due to their need to carry out photosynthesis. However, there are some savvy ways to increase light in even the darkest of locations so that you can have luscious foliage throughout every area of your home.

Strategically place a mirror in such a way that it reflects light from a window or light source into the shady area to increase natural light levels
Remember that the colour white is the greatest reflector of natural light so take any doors or walls into consideration and they can bounce light further down into shadier spots.
Try grow lights if you’re struggling with a lot of shady areas. Plants will require a minimum of 8 hours of sunlight a day but they will ensure plants are kept very happy in shady areas. Make sure to increase humidity if you are using grow lights on tropical plants as they can be drying.

What a plant’s leaf shape can tell us

A plant’s leaf shape can tell us how they will respond to your home environment and sometimes this can be an easy way to indicate which spot to put them in.

Plants with long, fine leaves: e.g cacti, cycas, sedum burrito, senecio rowleyanus, crassula hobbit

Plants with what horticulturalists refer to as ‘reduced leaves’ are plants that typically have long, thin leaves or a reduced leaf surface and this means they can withstand extreme heat, cold and also draughts. These plants usually require less watering compared to broad leaf plants and can tolerate full-sun conditions without getting burnt.

Plants with large, broad leaves: e.g Alocasia, Monstera, Calathea, Aspidistra, Ficus

Plants with large leaves are often more sensitive to temperature changes in the home. With this in mind, they can photosynthesise in low light conditions, so here your priority would be to place your houseplants like monstera or calathea in a place that maintains a regular temperature with little fluctuation. Because of their broad leaves, houseplants with larger leaf characteristics can tolerate low light conditions much better than reduced leaf houseplants. However, if you were to place them in draughty locations or a spot with a lot of temperature fluctuation then they are likely to struggle. Because of this, these types of plant with larger leaves are much better suited to spots with low light and this is worth considering when you observe the movement of light in your home across the day.

Succulents: echeveria, aloe, crassula, cacti, agave, peperomia

Succulents are water storing plants and will tolerate periods of drought and can often deal with extreme temperature fluctuations as it would mimic desert environments where they are found in their natural habitat. So for your succulents, you can place them in spots like a bright sunny windowsill and be sparing with watering patterns. A handy note on succulents; if your succulent plant has a thicker leaf or stem then they will withstand less watering compared to a succulent with smaller leaves or stems due to the ability to hold more moisture for longer.

Plants with hairy leaves: Begonia, gynura, kalanchoe,

Plants with hairy leaves can also handle temperature fluctuations, often searching for brighter light conditions and low humidity. Hairy-leaved plants may rot in humid spaces so you’re best to avoid bathrooms and humid kitchens for this plant-type. In general they require less watering than smooth-leaved plants and is a good rule of thumb to follow: broad, smooth-leaved plants will require the most watering out of all of your houseplant collection.

Powdery-leaved plants: e.g Kalanchoe pumila, sedum morganianum

We refer to the powdery residue on these types of plants as ‘bloom’, like the powdery film you see on a grape, and this layer that you see on the surface of the leaves is designed to reflect harsh UV rays. These types of plants can handle full sunlight, bright spaces and/or a space that is dry and draughty. Similar to succulent and cacti, they require less watering than plants with large, broad leaves.

Something you may observe over time with your houseplant collection: Plants with the large, broad leaves that we’ve discussed above will absorb moisture easier and photosynthesise faster than smaller leaved houseplants, meaning you will see them grow larger, stronger and taller in comparison to reduced leaf plants.

Try these methods at home

So here you have an initial quick-reference guide that will help you understand your plants’ requirements beyond water and light, taking into account the other important conditions – temperature, humidity and air flow. You can find a comprehensive summary in our book, The Green Indoors – and pocket size version, The Houseplant Handbook –which goes into much greater detail on how to care for your houseplants and ensure they’re in the best environment as well as a full list of plants that love particular spots, like full sunshine or deep shade.