Create a Leafy Home Office

Indoor plants help to improve your air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen and filtering VOCs, but their benefits aren’t just physical. Studies have demonstrated that plants can make you feel more relaxed, inspired and positive, plus help reduce stress and negativity. Plants make fabulous co-workers!

When choosing plants for your home office, let your selection be guided by the amount of sunlight that comes into the room across the day. Most plants will be happy in a brightly lit room, out of direct sunlight. If your workspace is more dimly lit, choose plants that can tolerate low-light conditions.

We’ve recommended our go-to favourites, which are all resilient enough to cope with occasional neglect or irregular watering. When you’re busy, it’s a good safeguard to have plants that don’t need much attention!

For simple tips to keep your indoor plants thriving, scroll down to the ‘care’ section below.

Perfect Plants for Low Light Rooms

Plants are powered by sunlight: if your workspace is low in natural light, this hardy, tolerant selection is the most likely to thrive.

Plants for Limited Space

Even if space is at a premium, you can still have plants close by. On a desk or shelf, compact plants like these will leave you enough elbow-room to get work done:

Plants for Shelves

For higher shelves, plants with cascading foliage or stems are ideal. Here are our go-to favourites:

Indoor Plant Care Tips

Your leafy office colleagues need to be cared for, to encourage lots of foliage and flowers...but it doesn't need to be difficult or time consuming. Here are three easy indoor plant care tips, that are quick enough to do the next time you get up for a break!

• As a general rule, water once every week (until water runs out of the drainage holes), but extend this to every 10 days or so during the cooler months. Many more indoor plants are killed by overwatering, than underwatering! Before you water, gently poke your finger into the top few centimetres of the mix, to gauge the moisture level. Some plants, like chain of hearts or sansevieria, prefer to be kept on the dry side. Others, like maidenhair ferns or calathea, need consistent moisture to thrive.

• During the warmer months, when plants are actively growing, feed them regularly by adding Yates Thrive Indoor Liquid Plant Food to their water. This easy-to-apply product is fantastic for providing plants with the exactly right amount of nutrients to support healthy growth. It also helps green up any lacklustre leaves.
• Fungus gnats are very annoying black winged insects that can plague indoor plants. To prevent them reproducing in your plant’s potting mix, apply a barrier layer of Yates Gnat Barrier granules over the surface of the pot. The abrasive granules deter adult gnats from laying eggs in the potting mix.