Whether you’re an experienced gardener or a newbie plant parent just starting out, you may be looking to update your garden or indoor plant assortment now that 2023 is upon us. It can be enjoyable — and surprisingly easy — to give your home, office, or backyard a fresh floral twist that’s very 2023. So without further ado, here’s a rundown of the plant and floral trends you’ll be seeing everywhere in the coming year.
Big, Bold, and Leafy
Bring on the drama! Plants with large, visually striking foliage will rule the roost this year. You can thank the monstera deliciosa, often affectionately called the “Swiss cheese plant” due to the numerous holes in its leaves, for ushering in this horticultural fad. In 2023, expect birds of paradise, banana plants, and thaumatophyllum, also called the philodendron stenolobum, to pop up everywhere.
When you see them everywhere, from your doctor’s office to your city’s cutest craft cocktail bars, you’ll feel ahead of the trend because you heard it here first! Stock up on thaumatophyllum, in particular, to lend your space a jungle vibe, and banana plants and birds of paradise if you’re looking for more of an island-inspired feel. With this beautiful, versatile, and fun group of plants, it’s hard to go wrong.
Mellow Yellow
The yellowy tones of gold jewelry are part of what makes those pieces such enduring classics, but when it comes to plants in 2023, golden hues are fresh, new, and of the moment. For a unique and trendy take on the theme, stock up on philodendrons, neon pothoses, and chameleon ZZs (as the name suggests, these are like the ZZ plants you know and love, only in a fun new hue!). For a bright, fresh, lemony look, venture no further than this sunny-looking category of plants. If we compared these leafy buddies to a library’s offerings, we’d say yellow-toned plants look a little sci-fi, a little fantasy, and a little fairy tale — they’ll definitely add a subtly otherworldly look to your space!
Adventures in Wall-Mounted Botany
If you love a good DIY, you’ll really take to this 2023 wall-mounted plant trend. Mounted plants are a real think-out-of-the-box move, an especially good pick for places where space is tight (i.e., New York City apartments and any home built in the style of one). It’ll impart a modern, pleasantly offbeat look to any home or workplace and is, of course, a great choice for spaces that do double duty as both. It’s also a fun opportunity to stretch your home improvement muscles and your imagination. As any seasoned furniture assembler knows, even though it may take some effort, hammering nails and building stuff is fun!
As a bonus, every room looks larger when fewer objects are on the floor. A wall-mounted plant or two (or seventeen — we’re not judging!) can bring out the best in your space and help it look its most expansive. Wall-mounted plants also tend to look especially terrific in bathrooms. The off-the-floor plant location helps avoid a jumping-out-of-the-shower-and-into-the-planter scenario. Wall-mounted plants are form and function unified in one pretty, leafy package.
Orchids
There’s nothing like a bloom so beautiful that it might entice some spontaneous plantnapping (that’s kidnapping, but where botany’s involved)! On a recent trip to one of New York City’s famous botanical gardens, we noticed that the orchids, magnificent in their classic and colorful splendor, were suspended around a dozen feet off the ground. When we asked the tour guide about this unusual plant placement, she replied without missing a beat, “We keep them up there so that way, they stay with us! There won’t be any field trips off the grounds for them.”
Get your hands on an orchid or two to bring a pretty, luxe, and sophisticated touch to your living room or study. Orchids look especially terrific perched atop coffee tables and side tables. Add a stack of cool coffee table art books between the furniture and the flower if you’d like to get some extra botanical and interior design street cred.
They’re also a great way to bring color into your space. You can find orchids in everything from vivid blue combos to soft, warm peach tones to classic purple-and-yellow colorways. A vibrant, colorful orchid looks stunning in a room with an otherwise neutral-hued décor theme. It creates a visual focal point that’s fresh, striking, and unique. Exotic yet classic, an orchid can simultaneously dress up and punch up nearly any room.
The National Garden Bureau, an organization that promotes gardening in North America, is in on the trend too. The National Garden Bureau declared 2023 to be “the year of the orchid.” Evidently, friends in high places agree — don’t sleep on the orchid moment this year!
Variegated Plants
Unlike orchids, it’s possible that your houseguests may have never seen these before. They’re plants with greenery (or red-ery or pink-ery or white-ery) that feature multiple colors in a single leaf. There’s usually at least some green in every leaf of a variegated plant, and the other tone in such a plant’s leaves (the accent color) can run the gamut from lighter, brighter tones of green like lime to red, pink, cream, white, purple, or yellow.
To make things even more interesting, the colors on a variegated plant’s leaves can shift with the seasons and with changes in light exposure. It’s a “choose your own adventure” plant if ever there was one!
If you like brownie points, read on: knock out two trends in one pass by choosing a variegated plant with yellow tones in its leaves. You’ll be surfing the wave of both the golden-hued plant trend and the variegated plant fad in one single planter!
Final Thoughts on Your 2023 Botanical Adventure
No matter which trend you choose to explore first, let the rainbow of exciting trending-in-2023 plant and flower options inspire you! The best gardens, window boxes, and centerpieces often come from a blend of the current trends and a gardener’s own time-tested — and time-honored — sense of personal botanical style.
We’d love to see what you come up with! Tag us @plantshednyc when you post your most beautiful botanical creations or discoveries and stop by one of our five fun plant-shop-and-café locations. We’d love to be part of your story, both on and off Instagram!
