The 21 Best Indoor Flowering Plants to Instantly Brighten Your Space

Botanical name: Tillandsia Stricta
Light requirement: Bright, indirect

Air plants are epiphytes, which means they don't need soil to grow. Instead, they absorb water and nutrients from the air, whether they're perched upon your kitchen windowsill or have their roots attached to a rainforest tree.

Healthy air plants, like the head-turning beauty pictured here, will produce a flower at maturity—but the bloom only happens once in the plant's lifetime.

Botanical name: Phalaenopsis
Light requirement: Bright, indirect

Few flowering houseplants make a statement quite like the orchid. Sprouting from a base of broad leaves, each spindly stalk produces architecturally shaped blooms in colors spanning impossibly brilliant violets and magentas to delicate whites and ivories.

Despite the orchid's reputation for being fussy, the plant will thrive in areas with bright, indirect light and away from drafts. Humidity and adequate airflow around the roots are also key to the plant's health.

Botanical name: Anthurium
Light requirement: Bright, direct

Water your plant with six ice cubes every week, and you'll avoid root rot, which is a leading cause of death for this tropical epiphyte (read: air plant). This plant also needs a location with bright, full light in order for its lovely ruby-red flowers (which are actually leaves!) to put on their best display.

Botanical name: Oxalis Triangularis
Light requirement: Direct/indirect

The purple foliage and flowers of shamrocks are stunning on their own, but they also turn heads when grouped with common varieties of leafy houseplants. If you add these purple shamrocks to your cart, you'll receive 20 fingertip-sized bulbs that, according to reviews, are quick and simple to sprout.

Botanical name: Spathiphyllum
Light requirement: Bright, indirect

Although the peace lily does best in bright, indirect light, this easy-to-please houseplant tolerates lower-light conditions, too, proving it to be perfect for dimmer nooks of your home or office.

When its leaves start to droop, consider that your cue that your peace lily needs a good drink. If you keep it happy, your peace lily should produce beautiful white blooms twice a year.

Botanical name: Zygocactus
Light requirement: Bright, indirect

The Christmas cactus puts on a showy display of bright blooms during the holiday season, acting as a temporary antidote to the winter blues. For the full effect, keep your cactus in a bright spot to encourage it to put out the most flowers possible, and avoid watering the plant until the top one-third of the soil feels bone-dry.

Botanical name: Adenium Obesum
Light requirement: Bright, direct

Good things come to those who wait—like the blooms of the desert rose plant. This succulent, which is often sold as a bonsai, grows at a snail's pace (about a foot per year), and it only explodes with pink or red blooms during the summer.

Upon going dormant, the plant drops all of its leaves and flowers, then tucks itself in for a nice nap until spring.

Botanical name: Euphorbia milii
Light requirement: Bright, direct

Peppered with red or yellow blooms, this flowering succulent will feel right at home on a sun-soaked shelf or bright mantel. Allow its soil (fast-draining, please) to dry to the touch between waterings, and mist its leaves every so often.

P.S. Keep this plant out of the reach of kids and pets because its milky sap is poisonous.

Botanical name: Guzmania
Light requirement: Bright, indirect

Another epiphytic plant on our list, this flowering bromeliad does best when nestled into a light, well-aerated potting medium. Note, however, that in addition to watering the soil, you'll need to fill your plant's central "cup" with H2O in order to keep it hydrated and healthy.

Expect its striking star-shaped bloom to last up to four months before it dies back, signaling that your bromeliad is nearing the end of its life. The silver lining? Your plant should produce pups that continue its legacy.

Botanical name: Nematanthus wettsteinii
Light requirement: Bright, indirect

Cascading stems of green, waxy leaves and red-orange, fish-shaped blooms characterize this epiphytic flowering houseplant. Because of its sprawling growth habit, it creates a show-stopping display when planted in a hanging basket or placed upon a shelf. While the goldfish plant requires some know-how and finesse to keep it happy, it readily roots from cuttings, so you can easily create new plants.

Botanical name: Strelitzia reginae
Light requirement: Bright, direct

If you have a spot in your home with plenty of bright light and headroom, consider filling it with a bird of paradise plant.

Reaching heights of up to six feet, this stately tropical plant features elegant, glossy fronds that—with proper care—are joined by crane-like blooms during the winter months.

Botanical name: Aphelandra
Light requirements: Bright, indirect

Native to Brazil, this striped stunner bears up to four golden-yellow flower bracts every year. The plant's green-black foliage—which is marked by ivory veining—is gorgeous on its own, so you might not miss the blooms when they die back in about six weeks.

Keep your zebra plant's soil consistently moist (but not soggy), and place it near a humidifier to avoid browning leaves.

Botanical name: Gardenia jasminoides
Light requirements: Bright, direct

Use two of these gardenias in pretty planters to flank a mantel or sideboard, then await the unfurling on the delicate, cream-colored blossoms that will soon imbue your space with a sweet fragrance. This light-loving bloomer likes humid conditions, so place the pots upon a pebble tray or run a humidifier nearby.

Botanical name: Lavandula angustifolia
Light requirements: Bright, direct

Give a lavender plant plenty of full-sun exposure and some well-drained soil, and it will thrive. While the green stalks are vibrant and beautiful, the real prize comes in the flower—that fragrant, delicate, purple blossom at the tip of each stalk. Once half of the flower buds have opened, it's time to prune. Harvest some of the stalk below the flower so you can tie your lavender in a small bouquet. Hang it upside down to dry out, and in a couple of weeks, you can shake loose the dried flowers to be used in potpourri, soaps, or tea. The green lavender plant that remains will continue to grow and will flower again.

Botanical name: Cyclamen persicum
Light requirements: Bright, indirect

Truly a cool-weather flowering plant, your Cyclamen Latinia will sport wide, green-striped leaves all summer. You'll have to grow these from seeds (good for both indoor and outdoor use), but sometime around September, they'll start to bloom and can continue to do so well into the Spring. They prefer a cool, bright spot with indirect light. Just don't overwater them or expose them to heat and they'll thrive.

Botanical name: Pelargonium
Light requirements: Bright, direct

Colorful Geranium plants love warm weather and bright sunlight, but that doesn't mean you can't keep them going through the winter. Just let their soil drain thoroughly between waterings and make sure they don't get too cold. You should skip fertilizing your plant in the winter while it hibernates, but as Spring arrives, if you want big blooms, a liquid fertilizer works wonders.

Botanical name: Anethum Graveolens
Light requirements: Bright, direct

Here's the thing about growing an herb garden inside. The plants tend to grow quickly, and then you get to harvest them for recipes or other projects. In the meantime, many herbs come with the promise of a beautiful flower explosion, as is the case with the petite yellow blooms on a Dill plant. In about eight weeks, you can grow Dill from seed to flower. Plus, after flowering, look for the Dill seeds, tiny treasures you can use for cooking, pickling, or growing more Dill.

Botanical name: Begonia Rhinestone Jean
Light requirements: Full sun

As long as you don't overwater this small-leaved begonia—the key is making sure it retains a slight amount of moisture and never reaches sogginess—you'll be rewarded with little white flowers and leaves that range from maroon to yellow.