Top 10 Indoor Plant Trends for 2023 (including Plant of The Year)

Happy Planty New Year! Get out your crystal ball with me and let's check out the Top 10 Indoor Plant Trends for 2023. These planty predictions combine what you guys have been telling me (I love hearing about your plant journeys), the local New Zealand and international houseplant industry trends heading our way, combined with PlantTubers takes on what they're expecting for 2023. Find out the predicted Plant of The Year for 2023, what our plant pennies are being spent on this year and more.

#1 Gotta’ Care for Them All

2023 has been dubbed 'The Year of Plant Care'. Serious hobbyists and interior designers might consider plants a must-have to make a house a home, but for many of us, house plants are a luxury.

With recessions and interest rates dominating headlines, pennies get pinched, and plant budgets go down. That doesn’t mean no plants, just more considered purchases. Instead of the Gotta Catch ‘Em All frenzied building of collections in year's past, 2023 is about caring better for the plants we do have. Better fertiliser, substrates, growth boosters... Indoor plants in 2023 should get set to be spoiled.

#2 Less is More

After the maximalist interior design (and plant) trends in recent years, minimalism is back on the rise. Instead of a lush indoor jungle, collections are being reduced, more curated, and focused on a particular genus. We’re shifting from generalists to specialists.

#3 Variegated Everything

Every new plant haul in 2023 seems to bring a new variegated variety. The new ‘rare plant’ will be variegated versions of our old favourites (as well as a few newbies, but not like before). Expect to see more variegated Philodendrons in particular being released this year. Although who knows if or when they’ll make it to NZ shores!

#4 Bigger is Better

As plant prices drop, expect to see fewer cuttings and more plants being grown to maturity instead. Mother plants get a chance to get their grow on without being chopped and propped. As we care more for what we have and add less to our collections this year, expect to see more larger, mature plants on our feeds this year. Think @sydneyplantguy big.

#5 Easy Peasy

As our lives become busier again post-covid, and more and more of us return to work away from home, high maintenance plants get put in the ‘too hard’ basket and plant burnout will hit more hobbyists this year. Expect to see some selling their entire collections, and others shifting focus back to easy-care, low-maintenance varieties to bring the joy back into plant collecting. Proof in point? Check out the predicted Plant of The Year coming up near the end.

#6 Get Your Feet Wet

Water is trending. Enclosed systems that recirculate their water supply, terrariums, indoor ponds, cabinets, and the shift to growing hydro and semi-hydro. Matching the increased in demand for leca and pon. Say hello to water lovers like Syngonium, Pothos and Peace Lily.

#7 It’s So Cute!

Little is taking over. Collections are decreasing, as are plant budgets, but for those still in search of the rush of getting new plants while spending less (my hand's up for that), baby plant collections will increase. Hobbyists are down-sizing, not just in total plants owned, but the size of what they buy, making collections easier to care for. Plants with smaller leaves are predicted to pick up in popularity too. 

#8 Shut the Door

As the world opens up again after covid, and we start catching the travel bug instead, plant cabinet sales are set to increase (and expensive, high-tech grow tent sales decrease). Cabinets make caring for plants so much easier when you’re away. Pop in a grow light on a timer, easily maintain higher humidity, water less often, less risk of bugs. Cabinets tick all the boxes.

Plus as plant collections reduce in number in 2023, and minimalist interior design trends dominate, plant we will keep shift from ‘all over the house’ to being displayed in plant cabinets. Thank goodness Ikea cabinets are becoming easier to get in NZ. I have a Rudsta on the way right now myself.

#9 Curated Cuttings

As plant prices drop, we buy less and care more for what we've got, propagation will become more curated. Instead of propagating often and no cutting going to waste when doing a little plant maintenance, knowing you can make a quick buck selling the cuttings even unrooted, we’ll be propagating less and with more purpose.

#10 Plant of the Year

Last year most agreed Philodendron and Peperomia took the title for 2022's Indoor Plant of the Year (and Hoya for Flowering Indoor Plant of the Year). The predicted Plant of the Year for 2023 is a tie again this year, with Begonia and Anthurium both taking the lead. No surprise considering both families include some of the easiest care indoor plants. Sounds good to me :)

Bonus Trend

#11 More 'You'Tube

Expect to see fewer plant hauls from our favourite planty YouTubers this year, reflecting the trends towards less is more and The Year for Care. With the focus shifting on caring better for the plants we do have, and wanting to better understand how to make our plants happier and healthier, more plant care YouTube content is predicted instead.

Are you trending?

I can already see myself heading down the path of many of these trends this year. I'm a little Begonia-addicted already (especially the Maculata, wowsa). I just splurged on an Ikea Rudsta cabinet (loving it so far). I started using Lechuza Pon fuelled by a hard-to-root Hoya (spoiler alert: Pon worked), and have been slowly cutting down and curating my own indoor jungle to the ones I love. Here's to 2023, The Year of Plant Care :)