Best Plants for Offices with No Windows

Author:

CarlBroadbent

October 11, 2021

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Working in an office environment can be a bit dull.

As you’re slogging your way through another day staring at the blank walls and tedious pastel furniture, built by the lowest bidder at an off-brand Ikea, you’ve probably considered getting some plants.

But what to do without sunlight?

The best plants for offices with no windows, and therefore no sunlight, are low-light plants, such as Aloe Vera, Snake Plants, Monstera, and Bamboo. Some are more feasible than others, however, there are a good variety of choices available.

Of course, there are always the fake plant versions and out of all of them, you can’t argue the fact that they aren’t the most low-maintenance of the bunch.

But if you’re looking for something that will bring some vibrancy and a sense of life to a bland environment, stick with the living.

Table of Contents

Best Low-Maintenance Office Plants

An extremely busy day in the office doesn’t leave much time for plant maintenance. If you’re going for low-maintenance, choose ZZ plants, Sansevieria, or Philodendrons. They don’t require much in the way of tender loving care while livening up your office.

ZZ Plants

You decided against fake plants but, ironically, ZZ plants look like fake plants.

They have a glossy surface which is easy to mistake for those dull, lifeless things people like to toss in a corner for “decor.”

ZZ plant for office without windows — ZZ plant

ZZ plants originally come from East Africa, so they’re used to drought, lack of sunlight, and your conspicuous lack of attention.

They don’t care much about low light levels and don’t require buckets of water to survive.

Perfect Choice: ZZ plants store water quite well, allowing them to survive for extended periods, such as when you forget to water them or take a week-long vacation.

Sansevieria Plants

Sansevieria, also known as Snake plants, is a very low-maintenance plant that’s known for its ability to filter formaldehyde from the air.

This is a good thing since formaldehyde isn’t healthy and is often found in insulation, pressed wood, and glossy paper.

Since you’ll find all of those things in an office environment, Snake plants make the perfect cubicle buddy.

If your office is in a morgue well, isn’t that convenient?

It’s also a bit unique, resembling long tongues of dark green occasionally lashed with lime.

Like ZZ plants, these tongue-like leaves store plenty of water, allowing them to go days without a watering session.

Philodendrons Plants

Philodendrons are ambidextrous, they can hang or sit on the ground in a pot, so you can add a little bit of choice and creativity to your office space.

They also have broad, heart-shaped leaves that are a pretty vivacious sort of green. There’s no mistaking it from a fake plant.

Be sure to add a water catcher at the bottom because unlike the previous two, this one does require a decent amount of water every time the surface of the soil feels a bit dry.

Outside of that, you don’t have to do much to care for a philodendron.

It always pays to add a little household plant fertilizer once every 6-8 months.

But Philodendrons don’t need much in the way of TLC to maintain their abundance and shine.

Best Large Plants for the Office

There are plenty of much larger plants that don’t require much in the way of sunlight and are plenty self-sufficient. Some are even considered trees. There’s the Dracaena, Pothos, and Bamboo just to name a few.

Dracaena Plants

Dracaena are highly adaptable, able to survive with a lot of indirect light, and adapt to low-light environments.

Dracaena are highly adaptable plant — Dracaena

These veritable juggernauts of survival and adaptability grow fans of leaves that extend straight up from stalks and suck harmful toxins right out of your precious air space.

Like many survivors and low-maintenance plants, Dracaena stores moisture in their leaves for sustainability, even though you really should water them on a regular basis, if not daily.

Make sure you empty the bottom saucer after each watering. You don’t want to drown the poor thing.

What We Like: The best thing about Dracaena is there are a lot of types to choose from and they are all similar in their needs and maintenance. Some are like small trees while others are more of a shrub.

Pothos Plants

Pothos plants have broad, pretty leaves that are generally green in appearance with a marbled, yellow either shot through or splashed along the surface.

These things can get quite large, however, around 10 feet, in either direction if you never prune it and it grows to full potential.

You can inadvertently end a Pothos’ life cycle by overwatering them, so be careful to create a regular schedule while removing the saucer beneath the pot once the water has drained out.

Also, be sure to toss it some fertilizer once every few months.

When the surface of the potting soil gets a little dry to the touch, don’t be afraid to thoroughly water it, just remember to wait until the soil comes around to that state again before you give it some more.

Bamboo Plants

Bamboo really is the stuff of legends, with stalks that are seemingly unbreakable without some serious exertion on your part.

But why would you do that when it can happily fill a blank corner in your office space?

Bamboo gets even better when you discover that there are over a thousand varieties to choose from.

Be sure to water your bamboo whenever the soil gets that dry appearance along its surface and, like the aforementioned plants, empty the saucer once the water has drained.

Bamboo plants are very hardy and don’t require much. They also lend an office an atmosphere of wildness, despite their sedentary nature.

Even Better: They really don’t need much in the way of light and so long as you water them and toss out the occasional fertilizer, bamboo is an excellent office plant.

What Are Some Good Office Plants That Are Tiny?

If you have an office in name only, that’s actually something like a storage closet, then you’re in luck. There are plenty of what’s often referred to simply as “desk plants.” Cacti, Aquaponic Fish Tanks, and the Orchid Bonsai will surely keep the office chatter going.

Aquaponic fish tanks are especially neat because you get pieces of office decor in one.

The plant needs no maintenance so long as the fish survives, so stock up on fish food that you can quietly hide in the filing cabinet.

Cacti desk plants are another easy-to-grow and maintain desk plant. Also, they grow in different sizes, colors, and even stripes, such as the Zebra Cactus.

Because cacti hold water in their prodigious forms, they don’t require much watering.

The Orchid Bonsai is its own little terrarium. You can order it in a kit that comes with its own “gel” which has all of the nutrients the plant will ever need.

You can use it as a paperweight while confounding fellow office workers as they pass by.

Final Word

Just because your office doesn’t have any windows doesn’t mean you can’t turn it into a thriving jungle or at least turn your office corner into one.

The great thing about plants is the overwhelming variety and that means plentiful choices for indoor, low-maintenance plants.

Whether you want to keep it minimal with an Orchid Bonsai that grows out of some alien gel or fill the corner up with lush, green bamboo stalks, there are a ton of options for spicing up your office decor.