11 Best Low Light Indoor Plants for Your Home

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If you are trying to find the best houseplants to get and don’t have a lot of sun coming through your windows, you will want to find the best low light indoor plants.

You might have more light during the spring and summer, but then fall and winter tend to be pretty dark conditions.  Or a north facing window that doesn’t have that same bright light that southern windows have.

It can be difficult to find plants that not only survive but thrive in low light conditions.

You might think there aren’t many of these plants out there, but there is actually a large variety of plants that survive even with very little light.  I’ve found that many of these houseplants are also easy care.

In this article, we’ll look at some the best houseplants for low light and how to maintain them.

Best Low Light Indoor Plants

Lucky Bamboo

When it comes to the best low light houseplants, lucky bamboo is one of the best.

Lucky bamboo is also known as Dracaena sanderiana.

It is native to the West African countries and is known by many different names including Chinese water bamboo, ribbon plant, water bamboo and etc.   Even though it has many different names with bamboo in it, it isn’t really a member of the bamboo plant family.

Lucky bamboo is a popular indoor plant and is largely associated with Feng Shui and many think growing this plant indoors brings them good luck.

The lucky bamboo not only survives in low light conditions but also requires low maintenance as well.

It can be grown in water or in potting soil too.

One thing to remember is that the leaves of this plant are mildly toxic and care should be taken if you have kids in your home that they don’t touch or taste these plants leaves.

Lucky bamboo is known as being long-living and fairly indestructible plants since they can grow in very low light conditions.

Zamioculcas Zamiifolia

This is a great houseplant that is easy to grow.  It is an excellent choice if you are looking for the best low light indoor plant.

Something interesting about this plant is that there is no woody stem that grows above ground.

Golden Pothos

These are non-flowering plants and can even survive for a while without any water or sunlight.

As air pollution becomes worst, people are looking for plants that have air purifying capabilities and the Golden Pothos is an excellent choice.

The heart-shaped leaves look pretty, even in dark conditions and add beauty to your house.

Ferns

Not all varieties of ferns are the best when it comes to low-light conditions, but there are a few that are some of the best low light indoor plants.

It’s estimated that ferns have been around for close to 300 million years and they are able to grow in all sorts of conditions.

There are more than 12,000 species of ferns around the world

A couple of the best ferns for low lights are the staghorn fern, the maidenhair fern, and bird’s nest fern.

Snake Plants

The sansevieria species of snake plants is another popular choice for low-light indoor houseplants.

I love my snake plant.  I just need to water it every now and then and it is growing beautifully.  It’s in my kitchen, which isn’t the best spot for light in my house.  My snake plant doesn’t seem to mind at all.

I’m sure you’ve seen snake plants before.  They have long, thick leaves that grow vertically.

The snake plant is also called Mother-In-Laws Tongue.

The snake plant is another plant that is known for it’s air purifying ability.  Keeping these plants in your bedroom is a great idea since it helps convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Dracaena

The Dracaena is another largely popular low-light indoor houseplant that can be seen in many households, offices, and stores.

There are so many different varieties of the Dracaena (almost 40!).  You are almost guaranteed to find one that you like.

I don’t know if you can see it, but the Dracaena in the picture above is a red-laced one.  So the edges of the leaves are lined in red, which is a really cool effect.

Nerve Plant

The Nerve plant is another low-light plant that I love!

My sister-in-law has one of these in her kitchen.  The pink and green leaves are really cool

The nerve plant is known for its toughness and oblong leaves that protrude from its stem.

Depending on the variety of the nerve plant you grow will determine the color of the leaves.  This plant has leaves that are various shades of light to solid green.  The veins on the leaves can be pink, red, white or green.

Although these plants are native to tropical regions, they can also survive in low light conditions. They are also known as teh Fittonia.

Peace Lily

The peace lily has such lovely white flowers when it blooms.  The look similar to calla flowers.

I have a peace lily and it is in my kitchen, which is again a low-light area of my house.  (I miss my southern facing kitchen windows!)

My peace lily has survived quite well.  I’ve had it for almost two years and it did start to die back, but then a bunch of new growth appeared and it’s been thriving ever since.

Peace lilies tolerate low-light conditions and they are also an air purifying plant by removing VOC’s.

Spider Plant

I love spider plants.  I first heard about them in a book I read as a kid.  The teacher had a spider plant on her desk and at the end of the year, each child in the class took one of the baby spider plants home with them.

The spider plants or Chlorophytum comosum is another popular indoor houseplant that can survive in low light conditions considerably well.

The name spider plant was given due to the spider-like appearance the plant gives with its plants starts that spiders out from the mother plant.

The spider plant does well as a hanging or trailing plant.  It can also easily be grown in baskets or small pots.  The spider plant can adapt to low light conditions or in artificial lighting environments.

Spider plants were a very popular houseplant during the Victorian era.

In the summer you can see small white flowers appear on the stems with leaves that grow as small spiders known as pups.

This plant is also completely non-toxic and safe to be grown in environments with kids and pets.

I recently added a spider plant to our small collection of houseplants.  I love this plant.  It already has several “pups” growing.

Cast Iron Plant

The cast iron plant is another hardy plant that can survive low light conditions.  It gained its name because it seems to last forever no matter where it is.

It has beautiful dark green foliage that are leathery and grows to be 1 foot to almost 2 feet long.

You can find the cast iron plant here.

Heartleaf Philodendron

I love how all the low light plants tend to be hardy and easy to grow.  The heartleaf philodendron is no exception.

Not only is this plant easy to grow and does well in low-light, but it is also easy to propagate.

This beautiful green plant is a trailing or climbing plant, so it will look great as a hanging plant or growing up a trellis.

I hope you found some new low-light indoor plants for your home.  If you have a favorite not listed, let me know in the comments below.

Happy Planting!!!