Plants That Bring Good Luck, and What Each One Is For

Search for lucky plants and you will get the same list everywhere, usually with no explanation of what any of them is supposed to do. Luck is not one thing. Protection is not prosperity, and neither is the slow steady kind of fortune that just means things keep going.

Here is what people actually keep these seven for, and which one fits what you are trying to say.

seven plants, seven things to say

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Luck, protection and prosperity are three different things. Each one has its own plant.

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First, a word on believing it

You do not have to.

These meanings are old agreements between people, and a few of them are not old at all. They work the way a wedding ring works: the object does nothing on its own, and it matters anyway, because two people decided it does. Giving someone a plant that means protection is a way of saying you thought about them being safe. That lands whether or not either of you thinks the leaves are doing anything.

So take the list as tradition, not as a claim. We are a plant shop, not an oracle.

For prosperity

The money tree is the one everyone means. Braided trunk, five leaves to a stem, kept by doorways and shop counters for wealth. Its story is stranger and more recent than most people know, so it has a post of its own.

The jade plant is the other money plant, and the older tradition. Thick coin shaped leaves, slow and steady, often placed near an entrance or on a desk. We give it a slightly different meaning, friendship that keeps, because a jade will outlive the friendship that started it and frequently does. Both readings fit the same plant. Send a jade.

For protection

The ti plant has stood by Hawaiian doorways for generations, a green guard for the house and everything good inside it. If the new place needs a blessing more than it needs decor, this is the one. Luck by the door.

Aloe vera is protection you can actually use. Kept by the kitchen door, broken open when the day goes wrong. It means healing and good luck, and it is the only plant on this list that will treat a burn. Send aloe.

The snake plant stands guard in any corner, asks for almost nothing, and quietly cleans the air. In feng shui its upright blades are read as protective. We call it quiet strength, which is the same idea in plainer words. Quiet strength.

For luck that simply keeps going

The dracaena is lucky bamboo's taller, easier cousin, and it keeps going in the corners where other plants give up. That is its own kind of fortune, the unspectacular kind. Good for a first apartment or a dark office. Steady luck.

The olive tree is the odd one here, because it does not carry luck at all. It carries peace. It is the oldest symbol we have for let us mend this, and it belongs in this collection because a house at peace is its own good fortune. Send it to apologise, or to wish someone calm. An olive branch.

Money treeProsperity and good energyfrom $36 Jade plantFriendship that keepsfrom $24 Ti plantLuck by the doorfrom $16 Aloe veraHealing and good luckfrom $24 Snake plantQuiet strengthfrom $28 DracaenaSteady luckfrom $20 Olive treeAn olive branchfrom $60

Where to put them

Traditional placements agree on more than you might expect.

• Entrances for the ti plant, the money tree and aloe. The idea is that luck should meet you at the door.
• The southeast corner for the prosperity plants, money tree and jade, in most feng shui schools.
• Anywhere you will see it for the snake plant and dracaena, which are protective rather than directional and are happy in the corners nothing else survives.
• Not the bedroom, traditionally, for the active plants. A room for rest is not meant to be busy.

Practically, all seven want bright indirect light except the snake plant and dracaena, which will forgive a dark hallway.

Which one to give

That table is the whole idea behind the shop. Start from the sentence, not the species.

Every plant arrives with a meaning card naming what it stands for, with its story on the front and your message inside.

Shopping for a different moment? See all seven collections.

pick the sentence, we will send the plant

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Potted, hand packed, and it arrives with its meaning on a card.

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or read the money tree story