10 House Plants That Are Travel Friendly & Make Your RV Feel Like Home

Many RVers like to decorate their homes-on-wheels in such a way that it has that “homey” feel they’re used to from their “sticks-and-bricks” home. One great way to bring a warm feeling to any motorhome, travel trailer, or van is with a few RV-friendly house plants. However, many people think they can’t travel with indoor plants. They worry that they won’t fare well with the changes in sunlight, temperature, and/or humidity and that they’ll spill all over the rig as it travels over rugged terrain, potholes, around corners, and up & down hills.

But the truth is that you actually CAN travel in an RV with houseplants, and they can not only endure but thrive. In this post, we’ve got ten great RV-friendly house plant options for bringing warmth and many other benefits to your home-on-wheels.

What Are RV-Friendly House Plants?

When we use the term “RV-friendly house plants,” we’re generally referring to house plants that don’t have highly-specific sun exposure needs and that can survive (and even thrive!) in changing conditions. For the most part, these would be plants that are especially adaptable and hardy. They should also be small enough to be easily packable when the time comes to hit the road.

So there are really a couple of different qualities we’re looking for in RV-friendly house plants. We want the plant itself to be adaptable to changing environments, and we need to be able to attach, hang, or move/pack away the plants during travel.

Here are ten great options for houseplants that take those features into account, offering many RVers the luxury of using plants to bring a home-like decor and ambiance to their travel rigs.

Chinese Evergreen

The Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema) is a wonderful plant to have in an RV. Not only are they extremely adaptable (doing well in both warm and cold climates), they also require little in the way of sunlight and water.

Another benefit of the Chinese Evergreen plants is the fact that these plants tend to act as air filters, removing dirt and other impurities from the air.

Important Tip: Don’t keep a Chinese Evergreen plant on your dashboard! Direct sunlight is likely to scorch the leaves of this houseplant.

Philippine Evergreen

Also an Aglaonema from the Araceae family (Aglaonema commutatum), the Philippine Evergreen is another RV-friendly house plant that tends to do very well in the travel environment. Sometimes referred to as “the poison dart plant,” it requires very little light, is easy to grow, and is very forgiving of changing temps.

Later in the life of the Philippine Evergreen, the plant produces a flower that looks much like a calla lily. These little houseplants are often small enough to sit in a small space, so they take up little room while adding a nice sense of “home” to your rig.

Parlor Palm

The Parlor Palm (Chamaedorea elegans) is a little palm tree that is one of the most popular houseplants in the world. The Parlor Palm hails from the rainforests of Guatemala and Southern Mexico and is said to purify the air of the room in which it grows.

They grow well in bright, indirect light but also tend to fare quite well in low-light conditions, making them adaptable to the RV lifestyle. It might do particularly well in an east-facing window when you’re parked in one location. But this plant will also do just fine away from a window in a room that gets a fair amount of light or even behind a sheer curtain.

While the Parlor Palm is an RV-friendly house plant, it’s important to know that these tropical plants can grow quite large in size and could outgrow your RV at anywhere from 2-4 feet in height and 2-3 feet in width (a great time to move them to your stationary home… or re-home them to someone with more space).

ZZ Plant

The ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) is also a member of the Araceae family. A tropical herbaceous perennial, it’s native to Eastern Africa.

Perhaps most importantly, this plant is so adaptable and forgiving that it’s often billed as “hard to kill” or “indestructible” right on the label (now that’s OUR kind of plant)! This is one of the hardiest plants you can buy, so if you don’t happen to have a green thumb, this is a great choice for you!

The ZZ plant, sometimes called the Zanzibar Gem, doesn’t grow to a broad, bushy state… which means that it’s great for any corner of your RV. This plant is so tolerant that it can grow in lots of natural light, fluorescent lights, or even in low light conditions… so they don’t even need to be placed near a window.

Note that the ZZ Plant has dark leaves. This is important to note because the darker the leaves, the less light a plant tends to need. Plants with very light-colored leaves, on the other hand, require direct sunlight. If you find a nice little ZZ plant to add to the decor in your RV, it’s likely to do very well with little care other than a nice gentle drink when it feels dry to the touch, like most other plants.

Cacti

Cacti come in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and types, but all are adapted to live in very dry environments, which means they require very little care to thrive in your RV. While the name “cactus” doesn’t relate to one plant, we want to mention them here as a group because all types of cacti tend to fare well in an environment like that presented by an RV.

Cacti possess many adaptations to conserve water, which is why they’re found in deserts, some of the driest places on Earth. Almost all cacti are succulents (though not all succulents are cacti), which have thick fleshy areas that have adapted to store water.

Unlike many other succulents, cacti only use the stem to store water. This is why most cacti have spines instead of leaves. Their spines are leaves that have been highly modified by the adaptation process.

Even if your rig is a small van, you should be able to carry small cacti that are likely to thrive in the environment. They require very little water and do like sun. In fact, some varieties like up to 8 hours of sunlight a day so they can sit right up front as you travel and endure any of the sunny spaces in your RV.

With all types of cacti you’ll want the soil to be dry all the way through between watering. Also, it’s a good idea to measure the water you give to your cactus to avoid drowning it. Roughly 1/4 – 1/2 cup of water every week or two (depending on the size of your cactus) will allow the plant to thrive nicely. This does depend on the season, of course, and how much sun and heat the cactus is getting.

Aloe Vera

Like cacti, there are also many different types of succulent plants and many tend to fare very well in a changing environment like a home-on-wheels can present. A popular example of a succulent would be an aloe vera plant (contrary to a popular misconception, it’s not a cactus – it’s a succulent).

The aloe vera plant is an evergreen perennial originally from the Arabian Peninsula. However, it also grows wild in tropical, semi-tropical, and arid climates all over the world. The leaves of the aloe vera plant contain a gel known as acemannan, which is often used in commercial products as a topical remedy for dry skin, burns, abrasions, insect bites, etc.

It’s especially important to note, however, that the SKIN of the aloe plant contains aloin, which is considered toxic. This is not a plant you want to risk a young child or pet chewing on despite the helpful gel inside its leaves.

The Aloe vera plant can grow nicely in your RV, but you’ll need to place it in an area where it’s likely to get plenty of sunlight. The Aloe plant requires regular watering when the soil is dry to the touch, which (depending on location and season) may be around once per week.

Spider Plant

The Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum) has many different names, including airplane plant, ribbon plant, hens & chickens, and spider ivy. Among the most popular houseplants of all, the Spider plant is a species of evergreen perennial from the Asparagaceae family.

Their arching leaves grow to around 12-18″ long. They sit nicely on a table or countertop but also fare very well as a hanging plant if you don’t have a lot of tabletop room in your RV.

Spider plants most enjoy light shade, though they tolerate low light and even heavy shade very well (but they may not growth as much). They grow best in a warm, humid environment, though direct sunlight can scorch their leaves.

A window of your RV with indirect sunlight is a great area for a spider plant, but it’s important to note that these otherwise hardy plants don’t tolerate temperatures below 50°F well and are best kept away from direct exposure to air conditioning vents.

You’ll want to keep the soil of the Spider plant moist but not soggy, as overwatering can kill them due to root rot.

Dracaena (Dragon Tree)

There are many different types of Dracaena (Dracaena marginata) spanning about 120 species of succulents. Dracaena can be found in various colors, all with narrow arch-like leaves. The leaves of the Dracaena marginata (Dragon Tree) have red edges.

These plants do best in bright, indirect light, but they’re hardy, low-maintenance plants… making them perfect for the RV life. They require very little watering or attention in general.

Dracaena is a nice air-purifying plant. In fact, one type of Dracaena (Dracaena compacta) was studied by NASA and found to effectively remove 96% of formaldehyde from the air in a 24-hour period.

SAFETY NOTE: One very important thing to know about Dracaena is that they can be highly toxic to dogs and cats, so if you travel with pets, you may want to consider a different plant.

Mini-Terrarium

The next two on our list aren’t particular species of plants but rather a great way to keep a few plants in your RV without having to worry too much about their care.

Mini-terrariums allow you to have several small plants in one well-laid-out container. This way, if you have limited space in your rig, you can still carry multiple small plants in an environment that keeps them healthy.

Mini-terrariums come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and generally contain small succulents, cacti, or other very small plants. They generally require very little care, and the terrarium itself provides a controlled environment for the plants, often including decorative materials such as pebbles, moss, and driftwood.

Herb Garden

And finally, if you think you might like the smell of rosemary, mint, thyme, or any other herb wafting through your RV (and especially if you enjoy cooking with fresh herbs), an herb garden might be just the plant life for you to carry as you travel.

Herb gardens can be a lot of fun and they can take up as much or as little space as you have available. They can reside on a window sill or a kitchen counter, or they can hang. You can choose a couple of your favorite herbs, or you can have a dozen.

You’ll need to tend to your herbs, making sure they’re kept slightly moist and that they’re not in a location where they’ll be dried out by the sun. You may want to plan to water your little herb garden 2-3 times a week, but make sure you’re not overwatering them. They can’t be left to sit in water.

Like the aloe plant, if you’ve got herbs in your RV, you have a few remedies on hand. For example, thyme contains thymol, which is an antiseptic. Basil repels insects, and parsley is an antibacterial and an anti-oxidant.

As with any other plant, if you travel with pets, you’ll want to research which herbs are dangerous to dogs or cats. You’ll also want your herbs to have drainable soil, and with relatively temperate weather and a bit of sun, they should thrive beautifully in your RV.

Traveling With RV-Friendly Houseplants

We all know that traveling in an RV means securing things so they don’t spill, fall, or crash as we drive. The same is true of RV-friendly houseplants, of course. No one wants to end up with a floor full of soil and plants that don’t survive the fall. Fortunately, there are several ways to go about keeping your plants safe while you’re traveling down the road.

Depending on the size of the plants you have in your rig and how you generally display them, you may not need to move your plants at all when you travel. But for some plants, it’ll be necessary to store them in a safe manner as you drive. You can use any of the following tried-and-true ways to store your plants to keep them safe on travel days:

1. Plants can be placed in a box or plastic keeper which can be set in the shower, tub, or in a storage bay with towels around them if necessary to keep them from falling.
2. Place a tall plant in an empty garbage can or laundry hamper (again, protected if necessary).
3. Very small plants (like tiny succulents, cacti, or herbs) can often stay attached to the sill, shelf, or table on which they sit using a product like Quakehold or something similar.
4. The kitchen sink is a great place to put things you want to keep safe when driving, including plants.

Here’s a YouTube video with some great tips and tricks for how to grow plants when you’re living in an RV or a van:

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