5 Houseplants Everyone Should Know, but Elevated — How Plant Artists Make Common Plants Look Cool

Houseplants are so often an overlooked element of an interior scheme, when in fact, they can completely transform a space. As 'living art', they add movement, texture, color, and organic depth, forging a natural connection with the outdoors, which we are increasingly craving in modern interiors, bringing visual interest and intentional design moments to unused corners and stark shelves.

Plus, they don't have to be 'rare' plants either — many well-known, popular houseplants can elevate a space — the key is in the styling. As Macy Lucarelli, plant artist and co-founder of LA-based design studio The Plant Daddies, explains, "At The Plant Daddies, we like taking plants people have seen a million times and finding ways to make them feel uncommon, whether that's through age, growing conditions, training, shaping, or simply finding a specimen with a ton of character."

As interior designers' and celebrities' go-to plant artists, The Plant Daddies' M.O. is centered on finding and harnessing the form in plants, and celebrating and enhancing that form with a perfectly paired vessel. These are the five houseplants they say everyone should know, but taken to a whole new level — and the best part? They're not too tricky to care for either.

Macy Lucarelli

Macy Lucarelli is a co-founder of The Plant Daddies, the Los Angeles/Orange County plant-design studio he launched with his best friends Dane Jordan and Kenny Rickerd in 2020. A lifelong plant obsessive, friends nicknamed him “The Plant Daddy" for his passion for fruit vines, and the name stuck to the company. He left a career in real estate to build the business full-time. Today he leads sourcing of rare, mature specimens across the studio's Inglewood and Irvine locations, and The Plant Daddies' work has appeared in Vogue, Architectural Digest, and Livingetc.

1. Money Tree

The money tree, or Pachira aquatica, is a classic houseplant known for its "prosperous" qualities, but it brings as much in good looks as it does in good luck — and certainly when styled by The Plant Daddies.

As Macy says, "You see braided money trees everywhere. They're exceedingly common. So for us, the challenge becomes: how do you take something everyone has seen before and make it look cool?"

Their trick is to use bonsai wire to shape the branches. This creates movement, Macy explains, that wouldn't necessarily happen on its own.

"The one you see in the photo actually took us hours to shape," he says. "We went branch by branch, wiring and positioning everything until we got the canopy where we wanted it. That's really what makes these interesting to us. It's not necessarily the species itself; it's what you can do with it."

Not only is a money tree one of the best indoor plants for making a room look more expensive, but it's also not a fuss to look after either. Macy advises giving the plant good indirect light and letting the soil dry partially between waterings, and voila, a visual delight.

2. Rubber Tree

Ficus elastica, or the glossy-leafed rubber tree, is one of the most common houseplants, but as Macy says, a very mature rubber tree is entirely different.

"We like finding older specimens where the roots are growing and bursting out from the seams, with trunks and branches that have developed interesting shapes over time," Macy explains. "That's where they start to feel less like an office plant and more like a piece of sculpture."

Sculptural houseplants are having a real moment in design — and for good reason. They add an architectural quality to a space that's hard to match; the plant is at one with its surroundings rather than merely being 'placed' there.

"The [rubber tree] in the photo is extremely architectural, and it played perfectly with the dark tones and accents in our client's room," says Macy. "That's also a big part of how we approach styling. We're not just looking at the plant; we're looking at its shape and figuring out how that shape interacts with the room around it."

It's not hard to see why this easy-to-care-for tall indoor plant has remained a popular choice for so long.

3. Elephant Bush

Elephant bush, or Portulacaria afra, is also known as 'dwarf jade,' looking like a miniature version of a true Jade plant. It's a slow-growing succulent with small, glossy green leaves and is another forgiving houseplant variety.

"What made this particular one interesting actually came from the conditions we grew it in," explains Macy. "For a while, it was growing in an area that didn't have much light, so it began etiolating, stretching and branching farther and farther in search of light. It ended up developing this crazy canopy that we probably couldn't have intentionally designed from scratch."

This is without a doubt a show-stopping specimen. Macy and The Plant Daddies' team shaped and selectively trimmed it to "lean into what the plant was already doing," he explains. The plant now lives outside where it's very happy with plenty of light.

What The Plant Daddies do so well is finding beauty in imperfection — it's like our love of burl wood; what makes it so wonderful are the knots, the 'flaws,' and that unique quality that can make a space feel more curated and characterful.

As Macy says, "Sometimes an imperfection or unusual growing condition creates the thing that ultimately makes a plant interesting."

4. Split Leaf Philodendron

The split-leaf philodendron, or Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum, is an impressive tropical houseplant that is commonly, and understandably, confused with Monstera deliciosa — they look incredibly similar, except Monstera has interior holes in its leaves, which are generally also waxier than the more velvety Philodendron's leaves, too.

"We see split-leaf philodendrons growing on the side of the road all the time. They're definitely not rare, but once they're mature, they can be incredibly sculptural. They develop these amazing aerial roots that drop down from the plant and give older specimens a ton of character," explains Macy.

What makes these popular houseplants even more popular is their shade tolerance, making them particularly well-suited to an indoor garden.

"I think a lot of people just haven't realized yet how good they can look inside," Macy says. "Find a mature one with an interesting shape, give it some room, and it can become a huge sculptural element in a space. I have a feeling we're going to start seeing a lot more of them in magazines and interiors over the next few years."

5. Ficus Audrey

"Ficus Audrey has definitely become more common lately, and rightfully so," says Macy. "They have beautiful leaves, they're relatively easy to care for, and it's a straight-up tree. With the right specimen, you can have something inside your house that genuinely looks and feels like an old tree. The trick is finding the right Audrey."

Ficus benghalensis, or Banyan fig, is a type of ficus plant that is a more approachable relative of the fiddle leaf fig for its low-maintenance qualities. The difficulty, as Macy explains, is that two Ficus Audreys can be of the exact same species but look completely different.

"For us, it's about finding the one with the right trunk, roots, branching, and personality. That's what takes it from being another Ficus Audrey to something we'd actually want in our showroom," Macy says.

"We love mature Audreys, especially the gnarled, weird ones. As they age, you can start getting roots growing down from different branches rather than just seeing roots at the base of the trunk. That gives them this sense of time and age, which is something we're always looking for."

The beauty of an indoor plant lies in how it grows and adapts within its space, its journey informed by its surroundings, while enhancing them at the same time.

Stylish Pots for Stylish Plants

"You don't necessarily need a rare plant to create something extraordinary," explains Macy. "Some of the most common houseplants became common because they're adaptable, resilient, and genuinely good at living indoors.

"Rather than fighting that, we like to take advantage of it. The interesting part is what happens when you give those plants time, train them differently, embrace unusual growth, find specimens with character, and pair them with the right vessel. The species can be common. The specimen doesn't have to be."

If you're looking for more unique ways to style plants indoors, I also asked The Plant Daddies to share their top tips for styling lucky bamboo spirals, and the result is impossibly chic.

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