House Plants

House Plants FAQ

At Primrose, we put house plants into three categories (foliage, succulents and flowering) to help narrow your search. This is because, as a rule of thumb, nearly all flowering house plants are bought exclusively for their flowers and foliage plants for their foliage.

Flowering house plants are pretty easy to identify and can be divided into bromeliads, orchids and traditional garden plants. Bromeliads and orchids are both epiphytes that can be found throughout tropical regions growing on trees. Traditional garden plants include hydrangeas and some bulbs, which have been grown under special conditions and are usually sent in bloom.

Foliage plants are highly varied, but can be split into variegated and green foliage plants. Variegated plants are notable for their multicoloured leaves and the variegation is affected by light levels.

Nearly all foliage plants are within a few genera: codiaeum, dracaena, ficus and monstera.

• Codiaeum (or crotons) are notable for their variegated, deeply veined leaves, which first start green before turning yellow, orange and red.
• Dracaena (or dragon trees) are tree-like with a spiky top and sometimes variegated.
• Ficus (or fig trees) are again tree-like, but with large leaves.
• Monstera are easily identifiable by their large, perforated leaves, with the swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa) being typical.

Succulents are easily identifiable by the various morphological adaptations that help the plants conserve water. These plants usually have small surface areas and are sometimes hairy which helps trap moisture.

Light can be important as lots of house plants originate from low light environments and are vulnerable to scorching in direct light. If you are unsure, we recommend placing plants in bright, but indirect sunlight.

Room type generally doesn’t affect light as rooms can face any direction, although rooms do affect humidity. In general, bathrooms and kitchens have high humidity, greenhouses and conservatories low and all the other rooms lie between these extremes. Tropical rainforest plants benefit from high humidity and desert-dwelling plants low humidity.

The key is not to overwater plants. As a rule of thumb, only water when the soil is dry, pushing your finger into the soil to check for dampness. Please read our care guide for more detailed care instructions.

It’s common knowledge that plants have the ability to remove harmful gases, but it’s questionable whether the effect is significant. What is true is the fact that plants improve your wellbeing by colouring your interiors and giving you something to nurture. The most effective way to reduce indoor air pollution is to reduce the use of chemicals indoors and regularly air out interiors.

Primrose only labels the most effective pollutant absorbing houseplants as studied in NASA’s Clean Air Study. Of all the plants studied, the peace lily came out on top, removing all the volatile organic pollutants studied.

In general, house plants benefit from inattention rather than fussiness; although if you are looking for plants you can ignore for long periods succulents need occasional watering and can survive very long periods without water.

Rarity can be explained by demand and supply. Unusual plants can go viral on instagram, creating high demand, and they can be hard to propagate, creating limited supply.

Scindapsus, Begonia ‘Polka Dot’ and Tradescantia ‘Purple Leaf’ are all excellent choices.

Croton, Dracaena, Ficus, Monstera and Yucca all look fantastic as large plants. However, it’s worth noting that all house plants look better when grown on.

Pretty much any evergreen plant can be grown indoors, but usually house plants are tropical plants that can’t normally be grown outside in the UK. Deciduous plants are unsuitable as excessive warmth and light may wake a plant out of hibernation.