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Five plants that forgive you

Travel a lot? Forget to water? These five will take everything you throw at them and still put out new leaves.

Fern & Foundry

Some plants keep score. These five don't.

The ZZ plant tops the list — cast iron nerves, happy in the dim corner where nothing else survives, content to be watered whenever you remember it exists. Golden pothos is the trailing classic: it wilts theatrically when thirsty and bounces back within the hour. The rubber plant 'Burgundy' wants bright indirect light but shrugs off a missed week. Snake plants thrive on neglect so reliably we've seen them survive a whole sabbatical. And the humble spider plant will throw out babies no matter what you do to it.

All five are on the bench this week, quarantined, root-checked and ready. Every one leaves with a hand-written care card — though with these, you'll barely need it.