Feng Shui Plants for Love

February 10, 2025 • 2 weeks ago

The wood element, one of the five elements we work with in feng shui, symbolizes healing, kindness, and flexibility. These are all critical components when it comes to love, whether it’s self-love or a love in a partnership. There are many ways to invite the wood element into your home in feng shui, and one of the easiest and most delightful ways to do this is by adding living green houseplants to your space. Living green plants also encourage us to take care of others and ourselves with mindful, attentive care.

Where to place feng shui plants in your home

You can also layer in more meaning by placing plants in a particular area of the bagua. The feng shui bagua is a metaphysical map that we use to understand and adjust the energy of a home. It’s a three-by-three grid that is superimposed onto a space, and it shifts and expands to fit that space. It’s also always oriented in a specific way.

One of the areas of the bagua, called Kun in Chinese, is connected to these ideas of love, self-love, romantic partnership, nurturing, and care. In our book Mindful Living we call this area Nurture. We picked this word intentionally because it really does encapsulate a lot of the essence of this bagua area.

It’s generally easier to find Kun in your bedroom rather than your whole home. We also recommend working with the bedroom because it’s the part of your home that’s most closely connected to you. To find Kun in your bedroom, stand in the primary door of your bedroom looking in and find the far right corner of the room. This is an ideal spot for you to place a feng shui plant with the intention of enhancing nurture, love, or self-care in your life. Intention is a big part of feng shui, so be sure to set a clear intention and place your plant mindfully. Any healthy, living plant will bring life to this area of your bagua, but you can also choose a specific type of plant based on what kind of love you’re looking to attract in your life.

Our favorite feng shui plants for love

Below, we’ve included some of our favorite plants for inviting a new partnership as well as deepening love for yourself and existing partnerships. Keep in mind that you’ll also want to consider your own style and preferences, what’s available near you, and the conditions of your space. For example, be sure to pick a plant that can thrive in low light if that’s what you have!

• Pothos

  Pothos is one of our go-to plants because it’s really easy to care for and it works well in most home environments. It also has soft, heart-shaped leaves. All of these qualities lend it a soft, kind, welcoming qi that aligns with inviting in a new partner, growing an existing relationship, or healing your heart. Pothos is great for people who don’t need the most rare and handsome partner coming into their life, but are looking for someone steady who will be there for them.

• Orchid

  From a feng shui perspective, a flowering orchid plant is said to invite a noble and elegant partner into your life. If your intention is to support an existing relationship, you can add an orchid with two flowering stalks. If you want to bring in a new partner, it could have just one flowering stalk. Many people don’t know that when an orchid has finished blooming, the plant is still alive and can bloom again in the future if properly cared for. This is very similar to a romantic partnership — once the honeymoon phase is over, the orchid reminds us that there’s still love to cultivate, and in both cases, it requires some thought and effort! If you do bring in an orchid, be sure to research how to care for it, and reflect on how this aspect of the orchid may reflect on your existing partnership or the new partnership you want to invite into your life.

• Lucky bamboo

  Although it’s a different plant, lucky bamboo looks a lot like bamboo, and it has a similar symbolic meaning. Bamboo grows steadily and is a strong yet flexible plant, which is a beautiful metaphor for love. You can put two stalks in a vase to symbolize a supportive romantic partnership, new or existing, and these stalks can grow together in one space, as two separate plants with entwined roots. Metaphorically, this is also a representation of your roots being connected to another person while continuing to thrive as individual people. Lucky bamboo is also quite easy to grow and care for!

Start with a plant cutting

Another way to work with plants to invite love into your life is to get a plant cutting from a couple you’re friends with who embody the type of relationship you’d like to invite or cultivate in your life. You can tell them that you’re doing a feng shui adjustment and that you really respect their relationship, and ask if they would be willing to share a cutting of a plant that they have. In feng shui, we recognize that all things absorb and resonate with the qi that surrounds them. Your friends’ plant will embody their qi, and you can cultivate this positive relationship qi in your life by nurturing and growing this plant cutting — almost like a little sourdough starter for your love life!

What about artificial plants?

We always recommend real plants if possible. In addition to the wood element of the plant, the soil represents earth element, and when you water it you are adding the water element. It’s quite powerful to have this representation of three different elements. If you have to use artificial plants for whatever reason, make sure they’re as realistic-looking as possible.

What about flowers?

Fresh flowers might also come to mind when you think of plants for love. If you choose to add flowers in your space, just know that they’ve been cut and are no longer growing, unlike a potted plant. Make sure your flowers are fresh and vibrant-looking, and compost them once they’ve wilted. Roses are an especially popular choice when it comes to love, and they offer us a powerful lesson — the combination of a stunning bloom and a thorny stem reminds us that relationships can be both beautiful and challenging, and the presence of some thorns doesn’t mean there’s something wrong. If you’d like to incorporate this symbolism into your space with a live plant, you can also get a little potted rose plant.

How to choose a container for your feng shui plant

When you’re bringing in plants for love, you can also layer in more meaning by choosing a planter or container in a specific color that matches your intention. For example:

Purple invites wealth and prosperity
Blue and green promote growth and healing
Gold and yellow support stability and self-care
Red and fiery orange bring in luck, inspiration, and visibility
Pink and peach encourages new partnerships and receptivity

We hope these tips inspire you to work with plants in your space or think about plants in a new way!