The big-leafed tropical plants that fill design magazines are mostly rainforest understorey species, and they ask for the same three things indoors: bright but indirect light, air that is not bone dry, and a pot that drains. Get those right and an Australian home is one of the easier places in the world to grow them. This guide matches the popular exotics to the light you actually have, then covers care, pests, repotting and the points where Australian conditions differ from the advice written overseas. If you are starting from scratch, our guide to keeping indoor plants alive covers the habits that matter most in the first few months.
Matching plants to the light in your home
Bright light: beside a north or east window
Directly beside a north or east window, with a sheer curtain softening the midday sun, you can grow the showiest species: the fiddle leaf fig with its large violin-shaped leaves, bird of paradise, alocasia and most variegated cultivars, which need strong light to hold their patterning. The bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae) is the obvious pick: large paddle leaves, an architectural upright habit to about 1.8 metres indoors, and the orange and blue flowers it is named for once the plant is mature and getting enough light.
Medium light: a metre or two back from a window
This is where most indoor exotics are happiest. Calathea, philodendron, peperomia and the Swiss cheese plant all thrive here, producing large, well-marked leaves without scorching. If the monstera is the plant you are after, our fruit salad plant care guide covers its habits in detail.
Low light: the far side of the room
Only a few exotics tolerate it, and none of them grow much there. Our low light indoor plants collection gathers the reliable performers, and our guide to the best low light plants for the home goes further into placement.
Whichever band your room falls into, our indoor plants for beginners collection is the safest place to start, and the air purifying plants range covers the species most often chosen for bedrooms and studies.
Exotic indoor plants in Australian homes
Australia is unusually well placed for indoor exotics. Our warm regions grow outdoors what most of the world keeps in a heated glasshouse, and even in the south, indoor conditions are closer to tropical than they are in Europe. The traps here are different from the ones overseas guides warn about.
| Factor | The Australian issue |
|---|---|
| Light through glass | Our UV is among the world's highest; it scorches foliage indoors |
| Air conditioning | Dries the air severely through a Queensland or Perth summer |
| Ducted heating | Same effect through a Melbourne or Canberra winter |
| Aspect | North is brightest here, south is shadiest, reversed from overseas |
| Humidity | Excellent in Brisbane and Darwin; the limiting factor in Perth and Adelaide |
Many of these grow outdoors here
Worth knowing, because it changes what is possible. Monstera, philodendron, bird's nest fern, fiddle leaf fig and lady palm all grow outdoors year-round in Brisbane and further north, and in sheltered Sydney courtyards. In Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra the same plants are strictly indoor or must live in pots that shelter over winter. If you garden in the subtropics, an "indoor exotic" is often just a shade plant you could put in the ground.
Biosecurity
Australia has strict quarantine laws and importing plants, seeds or cuttings without permits is illegal and carries serious penalties. Movement between states is also restricted, particularly into Western Australia and Tasmania. Buy from Australian nurseries that ship legally into your state; anything legitimately sold here has already cleared those requirements.
Toxicity, which matters with the popular ones
Most fashionable indoor exotics are aroids and contain calcium oxalate, which irritates the mouth and throat if chewed. Monstera, philodendron, peace lily, devil's ivy, alocasia and Zanzibar gem are all in this group. Safer choices in a household with cats or dogs: spider plant, lady palm, bird's nest fern, calathea and maranta.
Care that suits our conditions
- Bright indirect light, set back from unshaded glass or behind a sheer curtain.
- Move plants off the air conditioning vent; this fixes more brown-edge problems than any watering change.
- Water only when the top few centimetres are dry, and empty saucers. Overwatering kills far more indoor plants here than neglect.
- Group plants together to raise local humidity, particularly in Perth, Adelaide and heated southern homes.
- Feed in spring and midsummer only, not in winter.
- Repot in spring or autumn, never midsummer, going up one size only. Pot size is the quietest cause of trouble indoors, so it is worth reading how to choose the right size pot for your plant before you repot anything.
- Dampen potting mix and wear a mask; it can carry Legionella longbeachae, and Australia records cases every year.
Preventing pests and disease indoors
Check new plants before they join the others and look under the leaves once a fortnight. Mealybugs show as white cottony tufts in the leaf joints, scale as brown bumps along the veins, spider mites as fine speckling and webbing in dry air, and fungus gnats as tiny flies rising from mix that stays wet. Wipe or dab with methylated spirits, spray with horticultural oil a week apart, and let the mix dry further between waterings for the gnats. Leaf spots that spread are usually fungal and mean the foliage is staying wet or the air is still; water the mix, not the leaves, and give the plant space.
Pruning, propagation and repotting
Prune to shape in spring, removing leggy stems above a node, and wipe large leaves with a damp cloth so they can use the light. Stem cuttings taken below a node will root in water or a free-draining mix for monstera, philodendron, pothos and rubber plant. Our range of plants for pots includes many of the species that respond best to this treatment.
Display ideas
One large specimen in a plain pot does more for a room than five small ones on a shelf. Put a tall plant in a corner where it has wall behind it, stand a trailing one on a stand or a shelf so the stems hang, and group three plants of different heights near a window with their pots in one material. A well-placed group also does real work for how a room feels, which our guide to creating a calmer home with plants explores in more depth.
Troubleshooting
- Brown, crisp edges: dry air or a vent nearby, occasionally salt build-up from tap water.
- Yellow lower leaves, wet mix: overwatering; let it dry and check the drainage.
- Bleached patches: sunburn through glass; move it back or add a curtain.
- Leggy, pale growth: too little light; move it closer to the window.
- Leaf drop after a move: normal for figs; leave it in the new spot and it settles.
Ready to plant?
To begin, browse our range of house and indoor plants and match each choice to the light you actually have; the exotic and rare plants collection has the less common species. For the small flowering plants that share this light, see our guide to African violets and other gesneriads, written with the Australian violet societies' advice.
