You Can Actually Keep These 7 Plants INSIDE Your Shower
Keeping houseplants in your bathroom is a great way to make it feel like a calming spa —and that's particularly true when it comes to water-loving shower plants. These plants can help improve your bathroom's air quality, absorb excess moisture, eliminate bacteria, and instill a sense of serenity. Perhaps the best thing about adding plants to your shower is that most of their care needs will already be handled since you can water them just by washing yourself.
Here are some great plants to invite into your shower, as well as cool ideas for where to place them. Your best choices depend on the layout of your shower and the kind of light available.
The Best Plants for Your Shower
1. Golden Pothos
Given the popularity of the golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum), you might already have one in the house. With bright leaves trailing down vining stems, a pothos plant looks fabulous cascading from ceiling-hung baskets or pots positioned on high shower shelves. Pothos is an easy-care plant that doesn't like direct sun or dry soil, so it's a natural for placement in the shower.
Our pick: Costa Farms Golden Pothos Plant, $18.88
The Home Depot
Nothing brings the tropics into your shower like moth orchids (Phalaenopsis spp.) with their stunning, long-lasting curve of blossoms. These are rainforest epiphytes, easy-care plants that grow in tree bark in the wild. They will thrive in the damp, warm shower conditions as long as there is bright, filtered light. Try grouping a few containers on the back lip of the bathtub or tuck an orchid pot into the shower caddy. Let your orchids dry out well between drinks.
Our pick: The Home Depot Phalaenopsis Orchid, $22.25
Amazon
Peace lilies (Spathiphyllum wallisii) are lush, beautiful, and undemanding. Their bright green leaves and elegant ivory flower-bracts add energy to a room but calm it at the same time. They seem tailor-made for a shower space since they love low light and require little care other than the occasional watering. In a humid spot like the shower, you probably won't need to water your peace lilies at all.
Our pick: American Plant Exchange Peace Lily, $21.02
Amazon
Remember Jurassic Park? Ferns have shed their Victorian association and are ready for new, wild adventures, like an in-shower placement. The filtered light and humidity of a shower will remind your ferns of their prior lives in the forest and keep them green, growing and happy. Try Boston ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata) for lower-light showers or lacy asparagus ferns (Asparagus aethiopicus) if you've got a window or skylight.
Our pick: Fern Leaf Asparagus Fern, $19.99
Amazon
NASA named this as one of the top air purifying plants, and that's a good start for a shower plant. But English Ivy (Hedera helix), with its vining habit, is undeniably romantic in a bathroom. Hang a pot in the window and let the sunlight filter through its cascading leaves, creating pretty patterns of shade and light. Or if you have the space, give English ivy a pipe or post in the shower corner and watch it climb.
Our pick: American Plant Exchange English Ivy, $19.99
Amazon
The popular Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema spp.) is an excellent, slow-growing foliage plant that loves a warm, humid location. You can select a variety that works with your shower space. Keep in mind this rule: the paler the Chinese evergreen leaves, the more light it needs. If your shower has a skylight or is positioned near a window offering bright, indirect sun, consider one of the pale variegated varieties like 'Silver Spear' (Aglaonema communatum). For low-light showers, go for the forest-green species plant.
Our pick: Costa Farms Chinese Evergreen, $38.98
Amazon
If your shower offers some light, you'll be hard-pressed to find a cooler plant than the tropical pitcher plant (Nepenthes spp.) with distinctive "pitchers" that attract insects to their doom. Pitcher plants love moist soil, diffused light, and high humidity, so a Nepenthes in the shower is a match made in heaven. These guys get big so pick steady support like a built-in shower shelf.
Our pick: JM Bamboo Pitcher Plant, $32.99