Small indoor plants

The second point is the pot. A small pot dries through fast, and that is what most miniature plants fail on, not the light.

Succulents, cacti and most peperomias have a compact habit and are still small after years. They are the most dependable choice when the space is fixed.

Trailing plants like golden pothos or heartleaf philodendron are sold small and then grow long. They work as small plants only if you cut them regularly, and the cuttings go straight back to use.

Young plants of large species are the third group. A Monstera or a dwarf umbrella tree in a 4-inch pot is a start, not a final state. Expect them to outgrow the spot in a year or two.

Echeveria makes flat rosettes of thick leaves and stays the size of your palm. It wants the brightest place you have and dry stretches in between.

A cactus assortment in a shallow bowl suits the same window. The individual plants grow so slowly that the arrangement barely changes for years.

African violet flowers almost continuously on a sill where the light is bright and free of hard midday sun. Water it from below or at the rim, because water on the hairy leaves leaves marks.

Polka dot plant brings speckled pink and white leaves and stays compact as long as you pinch the shoot tips now and then. In too little light the markings fade, which is its own signal to move it brighter.

Chinese money plant grows as a short stem with round leaves on long stalks and turns toward the light. Give it a quarter turn every few weeks and it stays straight.

Baby rubber plant has firm, thick leaves and does fine on a shelf without direct sun. It stores some water in the leaf and forgives a forgotten week.

Sweetheart plant is often sold as a single heart-shaped leaf. For a shelf it is ideal, because almost nothing about it changes for months. A shoot only comes if the leaf was cut with a piece of stem, and that takes plenty of light and patience.

String of hearts spills thin stems with small heart-shaped leaves over the edge of a shelf and forms little tubers below the surface. It needs bright light and little water.

Inch plant grows fast and turns silvery purple in good light. It only stays compact if you shorten it regularly, and the pieces you cut root in a glass of water within a few weeks.

Parlor palm is the one palm that stays small in a small pot for a long time and copes with the part shade of a shelf or a bathroom.

Air plants grow without soil. They sit on wood or in a bowl, get misted every few days and have to dry off quickly afterward.

A pot 3 or 4 inches across holds little soil and therefore little reserve. Above a radiator or on a sunny sill a pot like that can dry through within two days.

So check more often than you would with large plants, and go by weight. Small pots lift easily, and the difference between freshly watered and dry is clear in the hand.

Water thoroughly all the same, until it runs out the bottom, and empty the saucer after 15 to 20 minutes. Small sips every day keep the surface permanently damp and draw fungus gnats.

Succulents and cacti are the exception. They get watered through and then dry out completely, in a small pot as well.

The pot sets the size. To keep a plant small, do not move it up a size every year. Take it out, trim the outer roots back by an inch or so and set it back in the same pot with fresh mix.

Take some leaf mass off at the same time, so roots and growth match. Cut above a leaf node, and the plant breaks new growth there and gets bushier instead of longer.

A brighter spot does more for the shape than any pruning. In the dark the gaps between the leaves stretch, and a plant like that still looks thin after a trim.

A row of small pots looks calmer when the pots match and the plants want the same things. Put succulents with succulents and foliage plants with foliage plants, or you will always be watering one of them wrong.

A shared bowl with no drainage hole makes it hard, because you cannot let the water run out. Better to leave the plants in their own nursery pots and use the bowl as a cover.

Whether any of these plants suits a home with a cat, a dog or small children is covered in its own care guide. On a windowsill at head height they sit differently than on a low shelf anyway.