Home / Home Decor / Grow Beautiful Indoor Plants In Water: So easy!

Grow Beautiful Indoor Plants In Water: So easy!

This is perhaps the easiest and most foolproof way to grow houseplants: in glass bottles filled with water! I love bringing nature into our homes in any way we can, but keeping our growing number of houseplants well watered isn’t always easy, especially when life gets busy!

Having successfully grown many houseplants without soil over the past few years, I’m excited to share with you this easy method of growing houseplants that works wonders! We will look at how to grow indoor aquatic plants, names of plants that grow easily in water and lots of helpful tips. If you’re drooling over all those gorgeous glass bottle propagation stations and healthy houseplants in the water, let’s get started!

Should you grow plants in water?

Ah, houseplants. We all love them and what they do for the look of our homes, but keeping them alive is often a different story. Too little water kills them, but so does too much water. The same goes for fertilizer, and let’s not even talk about those species that seem to shrivel if you just look at them wrong!

It’s easy to think you’ve got a bad thumb if you’ve failed to keep a few houseplants alive, but I encourage aspiring houseplant growers to look at things differently. Rather than just giving up and going for faux plants, it’s all about being creative in finding a way to keep houseplants alive and thriving, one that works for you and your schedule.

One way to achieve this is to grow your plants in water, with the roots submerged but the stems and leaves sticking out. It doesn’t work for every plant lover or every plant, but it can be so life-saving that I sometimes wonder why more people don’t do it!

Many of us long-time enthusiasts already root cuttings in water, but few know that you can grow plants this way indefinitely.

Imagine:

You almost never need to water your plant(s). This avoids the risk of overwatering or the leaves wilting from thirst.
Travel without worrying about your plants and without having to organize a plant sitter.
You can let your creativity run wild with beautiful presentations in unusual vases.
You’ll be able to see your plant’s roots growing, giving you the added bonus of keeping an eye on root health.
Related: The Sneaky Way to Water Your Houseplants (and Why They Love the Shower)

In horticulture, growing plants in water is called hydroponics. If your interest is piqued, let’s take a look at how to do it. I promise it’s easy!

How to grow plants in water

If you’d like to grow a houseplant in water, you can start with a fully grown plant previously grown in soil or with a cutting. I’ve tried both methods and they’ve worked fine, although I personally prefer using cuttings: it saves me the time of having to clean all the dirt off the roots first, and also eliminate the small chance of a plant failing to adapt to life in water.

We’ll discuss a bunch of different plants that grow in water in a bit. You can take pretty much any of these (the vining ones are especially vigorous growers), snip off a piece and pop it in a pretty vase. Just make sure the stem is submerged, but the leaves are not. It’ll develop a thriving root system before you know it.

The best containers for plants that grow in water

So, what kind of container should you use to grow plants in water? Any kind you like!

The only thing you have to keep in mind is the width of the neck if you use a bottle, as your plant will likely grow such an extensive root system that soon you won’t be able to take it out anymore without breaking the container.

visitsono