12 Vacation-Proof Houseplants

Packing your bags and heading off on vacation doesn’t have to mean you return to a house full of dead plants. Choose the right low maintenance houseplants, and you can take off for even a few weeks without losing a single leaf.

Keep the home fires burning with this colorful succulent. As leaves mature, they shift colors from green, to gold and orange, and finally ripen to bright red. Bright light coaxes the best leaf hues from indoor plants. The thick leaves hint that you can leave this plant for a week or two with no watering worries. The formal name for this beauty is Crassula capitella ‘Campfire’.

Just give this sturdy succulent bright light, and you’ll be on your way to a happy, healthy houseplant. Aloes need watering only every couple of weeks or so, which means you can take more than a weekend away with no worries. Well-draining soil provides the right rooting environment for this low maintenance houseplant.

Flattened paddle leaves give this succulent a playful feel and bring strong architectural interest to any setting. Indoors, give this South African native bright light, and water only when the top inch of soil is dry. Low thirst means you can skip town for a week or two with no thought for watering. Also known as dog tongue, desert cabbage and paddle plant, this plant is known botanically as Kalanchoe luciae.