Picking plants for an office desk

My mom always said there should be a plant in every room of a house, and from our living room to our bathrooms, she held true to this philosophy. Well, I think the same goes for the office! 

Indoor plants are great for their decorative use, but also have health benefits that shouldn’t be ignored! Indoor plants, including succulents, work to clean the air and I’ve seen studies that show they lead to lower stress levels – how cool is that?

I also just love plants, they make me happy, so not having any greenery around me at work is not ideal! My palm leaf computer background is not bad, but there’s nothing like the real thing.

Well, all of that being said, I had no plants at my desk at work. Not for lack of wanting, but I’d not gotten around to finding the right plants! Over the weekend, my goal was to turn that around and find a couple of small plants for my desk at work.

Before jumping right into the plants I got, let’s take a look at a few of the top plants for offices.

Top desk plants

Here are my four favorite low maintenance plants that can thrive in an office setting:

Snake plant

These plants can live in low light and can survive a lengthy drought, they’re perfect for office life where you may forget to water it and it may not get much light.

 

Cacti

First plant? Get a Cactus. These plants only need to be watered once a week or every other week. They’re also resilient, my desk neighbor literally rolled over hers with her chair and it’s still thriving.

 

Aloe

While not recommended, aloe can go weeks without being watered. A perfect first plant or plant for the forgetful. They also don’t require too much light so they will be happy in just about any office.

Succulents

These waxy plants actually store water in their thick leaves. With that, they only require weekly or biweekly waterings.

Picking Succulents for work

With the understanding that only certain plants would work for my desk at work, I set out to pick up a couple of office-friendly plants. In my search, I found the cutest succulent shop in San Francisco – Succulence. The shop is dedicated to succulents of all sizes, and even has a workshop that lets you get down and dirty and create your own arrangement, right in the shop!

Succulents are a great option if you don’t have a ton of natural light in your office, but please be aware that they do in fact need some light! We luckily have big windows that I can place my plants in for an hour or two, every couple of days. 

my new desk plants

I now have a single succulent and the cutest little succulent garden on my desk!

To see how I put this cute arrangement together, check out my post on Creating a Mini Succulent Garden for more on how to take succulents and turn them into a beautiful piece!

xoxo, jackie