8 Best Feng Shui Plants for the Kitchen

The best plants for the kitchen in feng shui are those that help serve the kitchen’s primary symbolic and practical purposes of attracting wealth and supporting good health. Choose plants that represent prosperity, like money trees; plants that can be used in cooking, like herbs; or plants that do both, like fruit and citrus trees. Here, I’ll take you through the essential principles of feng shui in the kitchen, plus discover 8 of the best houseplant options for this space.

About the Kitchen in Feng Shui

As feng shui principles were developed thousands of years ago, people didn’t yet know about bacteria and the way illnesses can spread. However, they did know that using fire to prepare food and keeping the area where food was prepared clean was good for their health.

Thus, the kitchen became associated with the fire element and regarded as one of the most important spaces in the house for cultivating positive energy by applying the principles of feng shui.

In modern feng shui, the kitchen is still one of the most important rooms of the house. It’s the heart of your home and represents health, wealth, abundance, and prosperity. It is the room that literally energizes you through nourishment.

Any problems or imbalances in the energy flowing through the kitchen can affect every aspect of your whole family’s life – and anyone you feed out of your kitchen.

General Rules for Good Kitchen Feng Shui

Commanding Position

In the kitchen, the stove is the natural commanding position since it’s the place where the room’s primary function, cooking, is carried out. If you’re building or renovating your own kitchen, place the stove in a location where you will be able to see the door while you’re standing, facing the stove, and cooking.

If your stove faces the wall, and you can’t renovate your kitchen, you can improve feng shui by adding a mirror in a place that allows you to see the door while you cook.

Use Resources Equally

There’s a joke circulating about how having a favorite burner is a sign of officially entering adulthood. However, favoring one burner over the rest is bad feng shui and can destabilize the energy in your kitchen.

The reasoning behind this is that burners represent opportunities, and favoring one opportunity means you might be ignoring or missing out on others. When you use mindfulness to take full advantage of the symbolic opportunities in your kitchen, your mind will learn to identify new opportunities in other areas of life, as well.

So, try to use all of the resources in your kitchen equally, and this means forgoing your favorite burner and rotating around the stovetop each time you cook, instead.

Double the Burners, Double the Fun

Burners symbolize sources of wealth and opportunities, so having more means drawing in more energy that encourages prosperity. Choose a large stovetop with lots of burners when building a kitchen or position a mirror to reflect your stovetop and instantly double your opportunities for wealth.

Cleanliness and Tidiness

The kitchen not only has elements that represent wealth and opportunity, but it overall represents the literal energy (nutrition) that fuels your life. All surfaces, cupboards, and appliances must be kept clean and tidy so no bad energy – or actual disease – enters your body through the food you eat.

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The Role of Plants and the Kitchen in Feng Shui

According to the principles of the practice of feng shui, plants have the potential to affect energy (qi) indoors in both negative and positive ways, too. 

The kitchen – with all the cooking that occurs inside the room using heat and sometimes actual flames – represents the fire element in feng shui.

As a result, it’s not advisable to fill the room with plants because plants belong to the wood element, and the wood element feeds fire. Putting too many plants in your kitchen could send the fire element through the roof, creating an imbalance in your home’s energy.

However, selected and placed with moderation, plants can help draw energy into your kitchen and actually help to balance the fire element inside your home.

All talk of elemental energies aside, the kitchen is also a room of great purpose and utility. For the best energy, every space in your kitchen should be used for a thoughtful reason. If a plant will be taking up valuable counter space, then it should also serve a purpose in the kitchen.

Edible plants with auspicious energies, such as herbs and plants that bear fruit, are the best choices. Plants that simply take up useful space will be in the way, clutter the area, and block the flow of positive energy.

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The Best Feng Shui Plants for the Kitchen

Here you’ll find 8 of the best houseplants to boost positive energy in the kitchen according to the fundamental principles of feng shui:

1. Fruit & Citrus Trees

Many types of indoor citrus are literally abundant because they bear fruit. In the kitchen, fruit or nut trees do double feng shui duty because they’re both useful, contributing to your family’s nourishment, and also symbolically perfect for placement in the kitchen.

Feng Shui Benefits	Wealth, abundance, prosperity, health, and good luck.
Where to Position	In front of a window with direct sunlight and in a location large enough to accommodate a growing tree.
Care Considerations	Prefers full sun or bright filtered light.

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2. Chamomile

Chamomile is another double-duty feng shui plant. Its blossoms represent wealth, drawing energy for prosperity into the heart of your home. The flowers can also be steeped in tea, which will help you draw the same auspicious energy into your body.

Feng Shui Benefits	Money and luck.
Where to Position	Countertop, center of the table, or in the southeast corner of the kitchen.
Care Considerations	Prefers bright filtered sunlight, moderately moist soil, and almost no attention.

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3. Lavender

Lavender is beloved for the beneficial aromatherapy properties of its lovely floral fragrance that help to calm and relax the body and mind. Lavender oil is also useful topically for soothing rashes and sore muscles. Additionally, it’s a useful culinary herb that’s deliciously paired with lemon in a variety of sweet and savory dishes.

Feng Shui Benefits	Fidelity and commitment in relationships, calm emotions, and stronger health.
Where to Position	In the northeast for relationships or in the west for health.
Care Considerations	Provide full sun, water sparingly, and prune after the blossoms are spent.

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4. Chinese Money Plant

The Pilea peperomioides produce round, bright-green, coin-shaped leaves that give the Chinese money tree its lucrative symbolic power in feng shui.

Feng Shui Benefits	Wealth, prosperity, money, and good luck.
Where to Position	Position in the southeast corner of the kitchen or near the stove.
Care Considerations	Prefers medium-light to low light (just be consistent). Pot it in a container that drains easily and be sure to allow the soil to dry between watering cycles.

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5. Italian Mint or Spearmint

Both types of mint are useful in cooking and garnishments. Their bright green, ovate leaves are also powerful for attracting positive energy to the kitchen.

Feng Shui Benefits	Wealth, prosperity, and luck.
Where to Position	Best positioned in the southeast sector of your kitchen.
Care Considerations	Prefers consistent moisture, full sun to part shade, and regular pruning to promote flavorful leaves.

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6. Lucky Bamboo

Lucky bamboo is one of the most auspicious plants in feng shui thanks to its appealing shape, upward growth, and bright green hue. Select an arrangement of 9, the number that corresponds to the kitchen’s fire element. You can also display a different number of lucky bamboo stalks in a number associated with a different area of the bagua map, such as 2 for relationships and marriage or 4 for good luck and wealth. Just be sure to place the arrangement in the corresponding corner of your kitchen.

Feng Shui Benefits	Wealth, money luck, prosperity, and upward moving energy.
Where to Position	In the southeast for financial luck or other corners of the bagua map for luck in those aspects of life.
Care Considerations	Low-maintenance. Prefers bright light but can thrive in low light, too. Change the water regularly.

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7. Basil

Basil is one of the most popular herbs used in cooking – especially in Italian foods – and there’s really nothing like the flavor and scent of fresh basil. It’s a perfect plant to grow in your kitchen because you’ll always wind up using it. Plus, its bright green, soft, rounded leaves are perfect for attracting positive feng shui energy.

Feng Shui Benefits	Career luck, health, and positive energy.
Where to Position	Place in the north for career luck, in the west for health, and any other location for more positive energy.
Care Considerations	Prefers full sun, evenly moist soil, and regular pruning to encourage growth and vibrant flavor.

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8. Golden Pothos

Keeping fruitful, edible plants in the kitchen is excellent for feng shui. Although the golden pothos is not edible, it has a powerful ability to attract positive energy. It’s also resilient and can adapt to just about any conditions, which makes it the perfect solution for neutralizing the stagnate energy in the dark spaces above your cupboards.

Feng Shui Benefits	Attracts positive energy and neutralizes negativity.
Where to Position	Above the cupboards or on top of the refrigerator.
Care Considerations	Bright to low filtered light and water when the soil is almost completely dry.

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Plants to Avoid Putting in the Kitchen for Feng Shui

Avoid placing plants that are associated with negative energy in the kitchen, where it’s imperative to maintain positivity, prosperity, and nourishment. These include cacti, pointy succulents, and any unhealthy plants.

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Now You’re Cooking – With Positive Feng Shui Plants for the Kitchen!

Now that your kitchen’s full of edible herbs and positive energy, you can start spreading your wealth and good vibes. Invite your friends and family over for brunch, lunch, or a dinner party. They’ll love the taste of fresh herbs in your cooking, and you’ll love the compliments. (It looks like the kitchen just might improve your recognition gua, too!)