If you live in a residence hall, you know that dorm rooms can be a little bit disheartening upon first glance. Blank walls, bad lighting, questionable floor tiles, bland wooden furniture – you know, the works. And if you never decorate, or you and your roommate couldn’t find a happy medium in your decorating choices there is one really easy way to fix that: plants.
Plants bring happiness and a pop of color to any space they take place in. And as all of our residence halls have windows and running water (hopefully), there’s not really an excuse that someone can’t have plants. Even if you don’t know how to take care of any life other than your own, plants can brighten up your dorm room, and add some pizzazz to any sad decor choices.
Coming from someone who works at a greenhouse; here are some good plants to keep in your dorm.
ZZ Plant
ZZ plants have beautiful, thick green leaves, and roots that naturally hold a lot of water. They enjoy low light or bright light, and are pretty hard to kill.
However, they are just a tad poisonous so don’t let anyone or anything try to eat the leaves. You can even forget to water these for a few weeks and it would be fine, just remember to only water when the plant has dry soil and give it a well drained pot (so you don’t kill the plant by letting it get root rot).
Snake Plant
Snake plants, also known by many other names that include (but are not limited to): the Mother-In-Laws Tongue and St. George’s Sword, have very stiff, tall leaves that can sometimes have a yellow border to them. While being a unique looking plant, they’re a very common houseplant.
Snake plants purify the air, something especially good for stuffy dorm rooms. They prefer rather low lighting and dryer soil. Keep in mind if you get one, get a well draining pot and water when the soil is dry.
Succulents/Cacti
I’m sure you were expecting to see succulents or cactus on the list, and I would never let anyone down: succulents and cacti are really easy to take care of and are so pretty (and the most Instagram-able plants over the last five years).
These plants love lots of sunlight and dry soil! As mentioned for all these plants, succulents and cacti need pots that have drainage holes and you must wait until the soil is absolutely dry before watering again. These plants love and need lots of sunlight, if they aren’t given sun they will stretch out and potentially die.
If you don’t like any of these options, here’s a more simple plant.
Air Plants
Air plants don’t need pots and require no soil at all. They take up little space, they need soaked in lukewarm water once every one to two weeks or you can use a water mister and give it a more humid home, and they’re super unique and cute.
They enjoy the bright indirect light
