5 Small Indoor Plants You’ll Want to Smother with Love

What is it about thumb-sized terrarium plants that makes me clasp my hands together and coo? Their wee little leaves and teensy pots are too much for my heart to handle.

Beware though—plenty of those tiny plants sold “for terrariums” turn into monsters when you get them home. It’s sort of like adopting a miniature pig only to discover later that it’s going to weigh over 100 pounds when all is said and done.

If you’re in the market for a truly small plant, consider one of these diminutive options.

This teeny-tiny succulent really does look like teeny-tiny toes. Baby toes succulents (Fenestraria rhopalophylla) are a breeze to care for. In fact the only thing you shouldn’t do is baby your baby toes. Give it a sandy potting mix, plenty of sun, and limited water and you’ll be rewarded with daisy-shaped flowers in late summer and early fall.

These palm-sized cuties top out at about six inches in height—but what they lack in stature they make up for in style. Oxalis have unique clover-shaped leaves and can be found in deep purple and shamrock green hues.

The only possible growing challenge with these plants is their dormancy period. If all the leaves fall off for no apparent reason, oxalis is just going into rest mode for a few weeks. If that happens, set it in a dark corner and allow it to hibernate undisturbed as long as it likes. When new foliage appears, move it back out in the light and resume watering.

The living rocks (Lithops) plant is so easy to care for, it may as well be an actual pet rock. This plant also has about the same amount of personality as a pet rock… which is to say, not much.

Growth tops out at about one inch, and the leaf-count caps at two. But after that, the lithops bowls you over with a big, bright flower that’s larger than the rest of the plant. Be very, very careful not to overwater this plant, and provide it with extra-bright light.

Classic African violets are the perfect choice for a lifelong plant partner. My grandma has always had four or five on her kitchen windowsill, most at least 35 years old. African violets have fuzzy leaves that beg to be petted and sweet, coin-sized flowers in shades of white, pink, and purple. They don’t take any fuss either; just dappled sunlight and damp (but not wet!) soil.

Haworthia grows at a snail’s pace—but I’m perfectly okay with that, given the limited square footage of my apartment. This little succulent looks a bit like aloe vera, but with deeper-green leaves with a bold white zebra pattern. It can be planted in a teacup or any container about that size. Give it plenty of sun, and if you forget to water it for a month or two, you should have nothing to worry about.