The Best Plants for Outside and Inside your Garden Room

Whether you use your garden room as a quiet office to work in, as a craft room or art studio, or as a home gym, you’ll likely want your room to tie in with its natural surroundings.

Choosing the right plants can be key to achieving this. At Outside In, we don’t just build garden rooms, we also work with landscape specialists to transform your outside space into a beautiful and welcoming environment. Having designed garden structures and spaces for many clients across Scotland, we feel we are well placed to share our expertise and ideas of what to plant in and around your garden room. 

What are the benefits of plants for your garden or garden room?

Plants can have a number of benefits, whether that’s in an indoor space or outside in your garden. As well as creating an aesthetically pleasing environment, plants also have mood-altering abilities. Research has found that their shape, smell, and colour can make us feel healthier, happier, and less stressed, and improve productivity. 

The best plants for outside your garden room

Rhododendrons

Rhododendrons are perfect spring-flowering plants for brightening up shady gardens and can create a magnificent frame for a garden room.

Box (Buxus sempervirens)

Box, or boxwood is ideal for creating neat, structured hedges or topiaries around your garden room. It is an evergreen shrub that thrives in partial to full sun and well-drained soil. Depending on the variety, boxwoods can grow to between 1-20 feet.

Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)

Japanese maples are slow growing trees and are easy to grow in the ground or in containers. They have many varieties, consisting of an assortment of shapes of leaves and colours including red, green, orange, and white. Japanese maples thrive in partial shade and well-drained soil.

Camelia

Among the most glamorous shrubs, camellias are upright or spreading, glossy-leaved evergreens, with white, pink or red flowers. Impressive in shrub borders, they are also ideal for containers and you can also grow them more informally in light woodland beneath deciduous trees as can be seen in this gorgeous example below.

Ornamental grasses

Ornamental grasses are ideal for adding texture and movement to your garden. They thrive in a variety of conditions, from full sun to partial shade, and require minimal maintenance. There is a huge variety of grasses you can grow; some will flower in the summer months and others will keep their shape right through winter.

Hostas

If your garden room is surrounded by shady spots, hostas are an excellent choice. These perennials come in various shades of green, blue, and variegated patterns, and thrive in moist, well-drained soil and partial to full shade.

The best plants for inside your garden room

Rubber plant (ficus elastica)

Rubber plants are a striking addition to any inside space. Part of the fig family, they have broad, dark green leaves, and can grow up to 10 feet tall indoors if properly cared for. They prefer bright, indirect light, and don’t mind colder winter temperatures.

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera is a succulent plant that doesn’t require much care or attention. It needs very little water but does like lots of sunlight, so a windowsill is an ideal place for it. Its sap can be used to soothe skin irritations or insect bites. Simply cut the leaf at the base and rub it directly onto the skin.

Peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii)

With their glossy green leaves and white flowers, peace lilies add a touch of elegance to any room. They like sunlight but don’t place them anywhere where they will get direct sunlight all day as it can dry them out. An east-facing or north-facing window would be an ideal spot.

Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa)

Native to South and Central America, the Swiss Cheese plant is so named because as its leaves grow they develop elongated holes. Swiss cheese plants like bright but indirect sunlight and the soil should be kept moist. Keep out of reach of pets as all parts of the plant are toxic to pets. 

We hope this has given you inspiration for creating your very own garden space. Happy gardening.