Discover the best easy growing plants for the kitchen window to enjoy a year-long supply of fresh produce right at your fingertips!
While indoor plants can boost your mood and enhance your home’s decor, it’s true that not all houseplants thrive in every environment. But does that mean you can’t grow beautiful plants in the warm, humid conditions of your kitchen? Absolutely not! In fact, there are several plants that flourish in the humidity of a kitchen and can even adapt to lower light levels, making them low-maintenance additions to your kitchen window.
Best Easy Growing Plants for the Kitchen Window
1. Coffee Plant
Botanical Name: Coffea arabica
Coffee plants naturally grow best in hot and humid conditions, considering they are tropical plants, of course! So, if you have ever wanted to grow your own coffee, now you can! They will take a couple of years to yield flowers and berries, but in the meantime, appreciate their beautiful green leaves while watering them once a week, fully saturating the soil.
2. Cast Iron Plant
Botanical Name: Aspidistra elatior
The perfect plant to tolerate the low-light conditions of a kitchen window and fluctuating heat levels, the hearty, hassle-free cast iron plant is quite hard to kill! Thanks to the humidity in the kitchen, you can even get away with infrequent watering when it comes to this pretty evergreen.
3. Aluminum Plant
Botanical Name: Pilea cadierei
If you want to add to your kitchen decor with a gorgeous, unique-looking plant with foliage of green and metallic silver, the aluminum plant would be the best choice! It prefers indirect sunlight, warm temperatures, and high humidity levels, so your kitchen window would be a great place to display it.
On the other hand, if the windowsill is not wide enough, you can create a hanging display near your kitchen window for the aluminum plant.
4. Basil
Botanical Name: Ocimum basilicum
Save up on your grocery money by growing your own basil on a south-facing kitchen windowsill! Not only is it one of the easiest herbs to grow, but it also loves the high humidity levels that a kitchen provides. The best part, of course, is that you can make a delicious pesto at any time, thanks to growing your own produce!
5. African Violets
Botanical Name: Sauntpaulia ionantha
If you’re more of a flowering plant person than one who likes herbs, African Violets would be the one to steal your heart! They are compact houseplants that make them perfect for the kitchen windowsill. If you keep them happy with temperatures between 65°F and 80°F and about 80% humidity, they will flower beautifully in shades of blue, purple, pink, and white with stippling patterns.
6. ZZ Plant
Botanical Name: Zamioculcas zamiifolia
Also commonly known as the “Zanzibar gem,” this stately houseplant with variegated foliage showcasing multiple colors like green, white, yellow, and purple maroon can adjust beautifully to low-light conditions. So, if your kitchen is not situated in a sunny location, you can still display this plant on the windowsill. Plus, the fact that these plants grow from rhizomes means they hardly need to be watered.
Just remember to grow them in a well-draining potting mix with some perlite.
7. Baltic Blue Pothos
Botanical Name: Epipremnum pinnatum ‘Baltic Blue’
A real stunner of a houseplant that needs high humidity levels to retain its gloss, and interesting green-blue fenestrated foliage, this Pothos variety can even develop slits as they mature. Thanks to its ability to adapt to different indoor environments, it handles low-light conditions in the kitchen quite well, making it the ideal decor plant for your kitchen window.
Just ensure good air circulation to keep fungal diseases that are common in high-humidity environments at bay.
8. Jade Plant
Botanical Name: Crassula ovata
Jade plants cannot survive in very low-light conditions, and they do need bright, indirect sunlight for a few hours a day. Yet, you can still grow it on your kitchen windowsill, provided it is a south or west-facing window. With fat, shiny oval leaves over a mini “tree” like appearance, jade plants are plants that won’t make a fuss and won’t even take up a lot of space, perfectly content on the windowsill.
9. Hurricane Fern
Botanical name: Asplenium ‘Hurricane’
Ferns can really alter the look of a room, and the Hurrican fern, with its thick, wavy, swirly front retaining water, is one of the best ferns you can display in a high-humidity kitchen environment. Though this fern prefers bright, indirect light, they can adapt to low-light conditions, too, making no fuss on a partly-shaded kitchen windowsill. Just ensure that it doesn’t experience any drafts from stoves or ovens.
10. Silver Streak Pothos
Botanical name: Epipremnum amplissimum
Unlike other Pothos varieties, the Silver Streak Pothos showcases more of an upright than a vining form. Though its long, strappy leaves streaked with silver become more vibrant with better light levels, the Silver Streak Pothos is well-known for surviving even in low-light conditions. Plus, the higher humidity in a kitchen environment is also quite beneficial for the Silver Streak Pothos.
11. Peperomia
Botanical Name: Peperomia obtusifolia
Alternatively called the American rubber plant, the baby rubber plant, and even the pepper face, this Peperomia variety is another great choice for your kitchen windowsill as it thrives in low to moderate light conditions. This plant also enjoys a humid growing environment because that prevents the plant from drying out and also keeps its foliage vibrant and healthy. Last but not least, Peperomia is a relatively low-maintenance plant, too!
12. Asparagus Fern
Botanical Name: Asparagus setaceus
Want something a bit different to adorn your kitchen windowsill? The asparagus fern, with its feathery foliage, loves high-humidity environments that define kitchens! Though, like many other houseplants, the asparagus fern likes bright, indirect light, it can tolerate light conditions, something prevalent in most kitchen windowsills.
13. Begonia Plant
Botanical Name: Begonia spp.
While you would think Begonia varieties, with their elegant blooms and striking foliage, would need a lot of sunlight to stay vibrant and healthy, that is not actually true. The Begonia ‘Iron Cross’ positively thrives in low-light, high-humidity areas, especially in a kitchen, and even the Polka Dot Begonia loves the high humidity while tolerating low-light conditions.
While you might have slower growth and fewer flowers, you would surely not regret growing Begonias on your kitchen windowsill!
14. Arrowhead Plant
Botanical Name: Syngonium podophyllum
As you can gauge by the name itself, these plants showcase arrowhead-shaped foliage, which tends to be an instant conversation starter when displayed on the kitchen windowsill. The kitchen is an ideal environment for this plant, as the high humidity promotes healthy growth and lush foliage. Low-light conditions don’t hamper their growth much, either.
15. Parsley
Botanical Name: Petroselinum crispum
Can you guess this plant that is sometimes a non-negotiable addition to soups and sauces and that features a light scent and fresh taste? We are talking about parsley, of course! If you do have a south-facing kitchen window that receives a couple of hours of bright sunlight, you will have an abundance of parsley in your kitchen, as it loves high humidity.
The humidity level prevents the plant from drying out too quickly, while air circulation from the window will prevent your plant from getting fungal diseases as well.
16. Mint Plant
Botanical Name: Mentha piperita L.
Coming to yet another herb, the peppermint too prefers the bright sunlight for a couple of hours a day that comes from a south-facing kitchen window. Besides thriving in the high-humidity kitchen environment, peppermint, with its lush green foliage, is one herb that you can not only use to season your food but also just allow its fragrance to refresh the room.
Ensure there’s some airflow around the plant, which can be achieved by opening the window occasionally.
17. Peacock Plant
Botanical Name: Calathea makoyana
Known for its gorgeous striped and variegated foliage, the peacock plant is a warm-weather plant that enjoys high humidity levels. It does not even need much sunlight! And all of this combined makes the peacock plant the star for you to display on your kitchen windowsill. All you have to ensure is that there should be no sudden fluctuations in temperatures.
18. Heartleaf Philodendron
Botanical name: Philodendron hederaceum
Quite a low-fuss plant, the Heartleaf Philodendron showcases shiny heart-shaped leaves and a vining growth habit. While they grow best in medium to bright indirect light levels, they are known to adapt to low light levels as well. Plus, direct sunlight can actually cause scorched leaves. If you avoid sudden temperature changes, they will grow beautifully in the high-humidity environment of your kitchen window.
