1. Research is important

You should know a plant’s light and water requirements and where it’s going to go in the house before buying it, said Jennifer Aragon, owner of online plant store The Green Place.

“I think a lot of people buy plants because they like the way that they look and they just randomly put it somewhere, and the plant isn’t going to thrive if it isn’t getting what it needs,” she said.

2. Don’t forget elementary science class

Mackenna Rowley, owner of Piep in Riverside, Calif., said it doesn’t hurt to know the basics of how plants work.

“If you understand that all plants need light to photosynthesize, and that plants only take up as much water as they are going to be able to use to photosynthesize and that’s based on how much light they’re getting, then you can start to understand, OK, well, if I have poor light I’m not going to have to water as much and I’m really going to have to pay attention to how moist the potting mix is,” she said.

3. Picking the right plant

Some houseplants don’t respond as badly to rookie mistakes like overwatering, underwatering or providing the wrong amount of light. Rowley has four types of plants she generally recommends to beginners: pothos; Zamioculcas zamiifolia, also known as the ZZ plant; sansevieria, also known as the snake plant; and the peace lily.

Any variety of pothos — and there are many — is a good choice, she said.

“It’s a nice plant that can handle being ignored a bit but it’s also not going to die right away if you’re overwatering,” Rowley said. “It doesn’t need a ton of light. It can handle office environments and fluorescent light, even.”

She said ZZ plants are similar in that they’re low-maintenance and very forgiving, but they add a different decorative flair than the pothos, growing tall and full.

The snake plant also comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.

“The great thing about this one is it’s super low-light tolerant,” she said. “It actually does prefer high light but it will live in a very low light environment. And again, like the pothos, it’s much more tolerant of both over- and underwatering than other varieties.” And then there’s the peace lily, which Rowley described as “a plant on training wheels.” “As soon as the peace lily wants water, it starts to droop and it droops very dramatically and so you notice right away that it needs water,” she said.

“But the great thing is, a half hour after you’ve watered

it, it’s perked right back up to pre-abuse.”

The ZZ plant and snake plant make Aragon’s list as well, but she also recommends the Chinese evergreen, which she said also doesn’t require a lot of light or water.

However, there are some plants that look pretty but require a lot of care and can be picky, such as ferns.

“There’s no in-between, there’s no coming back from a little bit of neglect,” Rowley said about the maidenhair fern. “It looks beautiful — it’s really airy and soft and the leaves are so thin — but if it’s missing that moisture for an hour, it’s gone.”

Aragon said two plants that become really popular are Begonia maculata and the triostar. The plants, both tropical varieties, have become social media darlings for their bright colors and looks, but they have very specific care needs.

“I call them dramatic plants because one day they can look fine, but if you forget to water them or you forget to care for them, the next day they are just completely bent over,” Aragon said.

“Plants like these, people don’t realize that they need a lot of humidity to the point where you have to buy a humidifier to care for them because a lot of the plants that are really popular and great looking come from tropical climates, and here in California we obviously don’t have that kind of humidity.”

4. Don’t give too much love

“Most people, when they’re starting caring for their plants, they kill their plants with overcare,” Rowley said.

Deny that first instinct to give a drooping plant more water, because the overwatering may be what’s killing it. Aragon warned against immediately repotting house plants in a bigger pot or a decorative pot. If a pot is too big, it can collect too much water and cause root rot.

“I think that’s a big misconception,” Aragon said. “A lot of times when you buy from the nursery, they’re going to be OK in their nursery pots for a while.”

5. What to do when something goes wrong

If you have a plant that’s doing poorly and you can’t figure out why, it may not be best to get sucked into the deep depths of internet message boards.

“There’s a lot of information about plant care that feels almost mystical,” Rowley said.

“Like you step in these Reddit dark holes of recommendations that are off the wall, like, I only water this plant with three quarters of a cup on a full moon with perfectly filtered water. … Houseplant care is actually not that difficult. They lived in nature without people watering on the full moon for thousands and thousands of years.”

Rowley recommended getting a book on houseplant care or developing a relationship with your local plant store.