My Professional Gardener Husband Always Buys Houseplants At IKEA – Here’s Why

Every single time my husband and I go to IKEA (which is surprisingly more often than you’d expect), he trundles us off to look at the houseplants.

This isn’t particularly surprising. He’s a professional gardener, after all, which means I’m married to someone who can apparently find a reason to inspect a plant in virtually any building, garden center or supermarket we happen to walk past (the man carries secateurs with him on our dog walks, for goodness sake!).

What does surprise me is that he genuinely rates IKEA as one of the best places to buy houseplants – and not just because they’re convenient or inexpensive.

Why IKEA Houseplants Are So Good

Now, his reasoning for all of this is remarkably simple: if a plant can sit in the artificially lit basement of a busy superstore, surrounded by people, trolleys, heating and air conditioning, and still look happy enough to sell? Well, it’s probably going to cope pretty well with ordinary life at home.

It’s for this reason that my husband has branded IKEA‘s toughest houseplants “bulletproof and beginner-friendly”, and he’s not wrong. If you look at the shelves, you’ll tend to spot snake plants, ZZ plants, pothos and peace lilies – aka houseplant varieties that are considerably more forgiving of imperfect light, missed waterings and the general chaos of real life than some of the more demanding divas you’ll find.

If you’re anything like me, then, and don’t live in a perfectly controlled greenhouse, this is brilliant news. Because, hey, we have radiators, we go on holiday, we forget to water things (far too frequently), and we put plants in rooms that don’t get quite as much sunlight as we’d hoped. So sue us, right? Sometimes life simply gets in the way (even when it’s our birth month houseplant on the line).

Shop IKEA Houseplants:

This is where these IKEA houseplants have the advantage. Oh sure, they’re not necessarily the rarest or most exciting plants in the store, but they’re the sort of houseplants that thrive on neglect. And for a beginner – or anyone who has already accidentally killed one too many “easy-care” plants – I’d argue that reliability is a fairly underrated quality.

As my husband all too readily points out, there’s also the not-so-small matter of price. After all, IKEA makes it relatively painless to experiment with houseplants without spending a fortune, and you can pick up everything else you need at the same time. My husband heads for the compost and plant-care supplies; I head straight for the pots. Everybody wins.

And there’s one other thing my husband has noticed over the years: because IKEA has such a high volume of shoppers, the plants don’t tend to sit around unnoticed forever. When we visit, we’re often seeing fresh plants coming into the store rather than the same sad specimens gathering dust in a corner. (Of course, stock varies by store and season, but a busy plant section can be a good place to look for healthy specimens that have been newly delivered).

If you’re nervous about buying your first houseplant because you’re convinced you’re going to kill it, spending a relatively small amount of money makes the experiment considerably less intimidating; you can try a snake plant in one room, a ZZ plant in another, a pothos in a thirdand see what actually works in your home. If something doesn’t thrive, you’ve learned something without having spent a fortune.

And because IKEA sells pots, saucers, compost and other plant-care essentials alongside its houseplants, you don’t need to make three separate trips to get everything set up.

Of course, my husband isn’t claiming that every houseplant at IKEA is indestructible, so be sure to stick to the tried-and-tested classics. And whatever you buy, check the individual plant before putting it in your trolley; you’ll want to look for healthy foliage, avoid plants sitting in obviously waterlogged compost, and check underneath the leaves for signs of pests.

Shop Indoor Plant Essentials:

Basically, I suppose my husband is saying that IKEA tends to stock many of the plants that are already naturally good at surviving the less-than-perfect conditions of ordinary homes – and it makes them accessible, affordable and easy to buy.

You can’t say much better than that now, can you?