The Best Office Plants for Every Workplace Scenario

Choosing the best office plants for your workspace isn’t a one-size-fits-all decision.

The ideal indoor plants for offices depend on light levels, available space, and maintenance time (and of course your personal tastes!)

In this guide, we explore the best office plants for low light spaces, bright sunlight offices, meeting rooms, and those that deliver the best air purification benefits. With it you can design a greener, healthier workspace that supports wellbeing, productivity, and looks amazing!

Low-light office? No problem!

These low-light office plants thrive in shaded corners and interior zones with minimal natural light. They’re perfect for offices without windows or areas illuminated mainly by artificial light:

• Aglaonema 'Stripes' 'Chinese Evergreen'

• Anthurium elipticum 'Jungle Bush'

• Ficus cyathistipula 'African Fig'

• Rhapis excelsa 'Broadleaf Lady Palm'

Read our full guide to the best office plants for low light here.

These plants are popular in commercial spaces for a reason: they’re dependable and low-fuss.

Not struggling for light?

If your workspace benefits from large south-facing windows (in the UK at least...), choose indoor plants that love sunlight. These bright office plants handle direct light beautifully, adding greenery to sunny desks and reception areas.

• Crassula ovata 'Gollum' or other Crassula cultivar

• Schefflera actinophylla 'Amate'

• Aloe vera (succulents)

These sun-lovers will thrive where others might wilt.

We get it, not everyone has time to look after plants as well as do their day job, and not all office budgets can accommodate professional maintenance (although, it's not as expensive as you might think!)

These are our top picks for low-effort, high-impact easy-care office plants. These plants are ideal for busy teams or workplaces without regular maintenance.

Each of these low-maintenance indoor plants can thrive with minimal watering and light, making them perfect for long weekends or hybrid work schedules.

• Sansevieria zeylanica

• Zamioculcas

• Dracaena marginata

You can read our full list of all the best low maintenence office plants here!

Tough, attractive, and tolerant of a bit of neglect - they’re our go-to for easy-care office planting.

Lots offices are starting to experiment with growing edible planting in the workplace, whether you just want to garnish your lunch or you're trying to build a community of office gardeners, here are some great options.

In-office hydroponic mini-farms make it easy to grow everything from chard to thyme year-round. Without one, stick to herbs which thrive in indirect light.

• Chives

• Parsley

• Coriander

To prevent common diseases like root rot and botrytis (grey mold), ensure good drainage, airflow, and avoid overwatering.

There's a lot to be said about plants and air purification. Some argue that air change rates in modern offices are so high that plants don't have a noticeable affect, others claim that even the localised purification is enough.

Either way, here are our favourite plants for air purification. These plants have higher transpiration rates, this refers to how quickly a plant releases water vapour from its leaves into the air through tiny pores called stomata.

Rhapis excelsa

Philodendron scandens

Aglaonema

Ficus elastica 'Robusta'

Spathiphyllum

We also have an extended blog about how plants purify the air and which are best here.

For the sake of this exercise, we're going to assume that your meeting room doesn't have a lot of extra room around your meeting table. You're most likely to want a statement plant that will fit within a corner without getting in the way.

It will probably need to be able to cope with low light conditions as the meeting room lights won't be on when people aren't using it.

Pleomele (Dracaena) reflexa or other Dracena varieties. We opt to use Plemomele because it holds a better shape/Architectural shape. Strong upright position for smaller meeting rooms.

For meeting rooms with more space, we could use a Caryota mitis.

Trailing plants are a great way to bring some added intrigue to your office space; these plants can grow in unique and interesting ways.

Some are more fragile than others, so we'll give you the hardier options here.

Scindapsus (Epipremnum) 'Aureum'

Philodendron scandens

Rhipsalis paradoxa

You can read more about the best office hanging plants here.

These are great choices if you want a dramatic, cascading effect without the drama of high-maintenance care.

Whatever your office conditions - dark corners, sunny sills, forgetful watering - there’s a plant that can work for you. Use this guide as a starting point, and don’t be afraid to experiment.

If you would like some more help, we are experts at designing and sourcing planting schemes for offices, so we would love to hear from you!

Want help choosing plants for your workplace? Get in touch with our team, we’ll help you design a planting scheme that fits your space, your people, and your budget.