Compact Elegance: Top 5 Small Plants for Modern Office Desks
Bringing your office workstation to life with a small desk plant is one of the best improvements you can make to improve air quality and boost your productivity.
You'll enjoy watching your plant grow and adapt to its environment, and with the easyplant self-watering pot, you don't need to worry about watering.
The easyplant self-watering pot has a hidden reservoir that delivers water directly to the roots for optimal hydration with one watering cycle. Refill the pot monthly (or when it runs dry), and your small office plant will thrive.
Join us below to discover the five best small plants for office desks, including options for desks with direct, indirect, and low light.
How to Ensure Your Small Desk Plant Thrives
Before exploring the best desk-friendly office plants, it's crucial to know that various factors influence a plant's ability to thrive in your workspace:
Humidity
Some offices have air conditioning that maintains an indoor humidity level between 30% and 50%. Otherwise, indoor humidity is roughly equal to outside humidity with open windows. Take a humidity reading with a hygrometer to check.
Temperature
If your office experiences extreme heat and cold, your plant might not thrive or grow optimally. Most plants thrive in temperatures between 63-78°F / 17-26°C. Consider taking your small office desk plant home if your office experiences extremes.
Light
If your desk gets a lot of direct or bright indirect sunlight (this usually means you are near a window), your small office plant needs to enjoy lots of light. Some indoor plants, such as the Snake Plant, can adapt to bright and low light.
Watering
Your watering cycle should follow your retailer's recommendations. easyplant has a self-watering pot that you water monthly – the system then waters your office desk plant when necessary to provide optimal watering.
Cleanliness
To ensure photosynthesis efficiency, you should clean the leaves of your desk plant to remove dust, cobwebs, and other nasties. Cleaning the area around your plant—your desk, screen, and windowsills—is also helpful.
Best small plants for your office desk
You want a plant that’s interesting, resilient, and easy to please. easyplant spoils you for choice with over 20 small plants, and out of all these, five stand out:
1. Snake Plant
The snake plant is available as the golden snake plant and green snake plant. They share the same upkeep but have a different aesthetic.
The green snake plant’s zig-zag pattern and green leaves contrast with the golden snake plant’s subtle leaf pattern and bold yellow outline. The tall, narrow, sword-shaped leaves will give your office desk a sense of life and direction.
The best thing about the snake plant? It’s not fussy! It thrives in well-lit spaces with direct and indirect light and adapts to low-light spaces and those without natural light (although it does best with at least some indirect light).
easyplant’s self-watering pot takes care of watering, and you can add a stand to your order to help your small snake plant stand out.
2. Black ZZ Plant
The black ZZ plant is an office desk favorite with charcoal-green, almost black foliage, and small but broad leaves. New leaves start as a pale bright green, creating a fantastic contrast and sense of life as your plant grows.
Your ZZ plant will grow best on a well-lit office desk with medium to bright sunlight, but like the snake plant, it also adapts to low light and no natural light. Watering is hassle-free as the easyplant pot only needs refilling every two months.
The growth rate is slow, and sticking to a small easyplant pot will keep your black ZZ plant around 8 inches tall, excluding the pot – perfect for your desk.
Another fantastic thing about the black ZZ plant is its air purification qualities, which can make your workstation a more pleasant space.
3. Marble Pothos
The Marble Pothos is a vine plant perfect for your office desk if you want something that’ll sprawl out and over the sides of the pot.
After a few months, your marble pothos will drape elegantly over your desk, and you can control the spread by trimming the leaves. Adding an easyplant stand will help your plant grow downwards rather than outwards.
If your office desk has bright, direct, indirect, or medium to low light, a marble pothos is an excellent pick with minimal upkeep. However, it won’t adapt to offices without natural light (check out the ZZ plant and snake plant if you have no natural light).
The easyplant pot needs watering once per month, and you can expect your marble pothos to grow quickly, up to 18 inches in one month.
4. Anthurium Red
You can’t beat the anthurium red for a flowering small office desk plant. Its striking red, heart-shaped leaves, yellow flower tails, and green foliage will give your desk a welcome dose of color (it flowers from spring to summer).
The anthurium red does best in bright indirect light, such as on a desk adjacent to a window or in front of a window with a Venetian blind for diffused light.
Your anthurium will let you know if it needs more exposure to light if the leaves become darker. If it’s getting too much light, the leaf edges will turn brown or yellow.
Its long-lasting blooms are drop-dead-gorgeous, and the upkeep requirements are minimal, with the easyplant pot needing a refill once monthly.
5. Parlor Palm
The parlor palm is an easy-going small office desk plant with a slow growth rate and a gorgeous, ruffled tropical appearance.
It loves bright indirect light and adapts to medium and low-light spaces, making it the perfect plant for your workstation with a window nearby.
Your parlor palm will grow to around 14 inches tall in a small easyplant pot, with an equal spread outwards if given the space. It isn’t fussy about water, and the easyplant pot needs a top-up just once a month.
Misting the leaves once weekly will help raise the humidity around your parlor palm, giving it a more hospitable environment that mimics the tropics.
Transform Your Office Desk with easyplant
easyplant makes upkeep of your tropical and exotic indoor plants easy with a self-watering pot. You fill the pot by opening the lid and adding water. Your plant then drinks when it needs to for optimal hydration.
Small plants like the parlor palm, anthurium red, and marble pothos will thrive on your office desk and bring your workstation to life.
If you want more than one plant, the Emerald Trinity collection is perfect with a green snake plant, heartleaf philodendron, and parlor palm.
Each easyplant has more than ten years of lifespan when properly cared for. Check out the easyplant plant care library for in-depth tips to care for your plants.
Click here to shop all small plants.
