10 Easy Pieces: Grow Lights for Indoor Plants

If you've never seen Seasonal Affective Disorder in action, just look at a houseplant in winter: sad, droopy, straining toward weak sunlight. That's why serious plant parents invest in grow lights—mimicking the sun's rays to deliver extra light hours for growth and blooming in dark months. Grow lights use high-intensity bulbs (incandescent, LED, or fluorescent) to provide the light spectrum plants absorb best.

Here are 10 favorite indoor grow lights:

Cynara Grow Lamp by Italian designer Lorenzo Antonioni: three-spot LED delivering white, red, and blue light to medium houseplants. Gray or red cord; £84 from Really Well Made.

Green Light by Helsinki-based Linda Bergroth for Kekkila: optimal wavelength for houseplants even in darkest places. Includes drainage tray; €159 from Finnish Design Shop.

Quadra Grow Light: varnished white aluminum with mechanical timer and energy-efficient LEDs. Two sizes, €199 or €269 from Bulbo.

Green Farm Cube (Japan): tabletop microgreen grower (~9x9x11 inches) with LED grow light and Japanese outlet plug.

Germination Lamp from Click and Grow: includes US/EU power adapter; €49.95.

Kusamono Grow Light by French studio Florent Coirier: black steel with compact fluorescent bulb. Details at Florent Coirier.

Nelson Taimivalaisin: fluorescent 24-watt bulb for seedlings/cuttings needing bluish light, fits Nelson Garden plant stand. €48 from Pavunvarsi.

Seed Starting Universal Light: tabletop with two 18-inch powder-coated aluminum bars holding T5 full-spectrum bulb. Lightweight, durable, adjustable; $39.95 from Park Seed.

Tabletop SunLite Garden: aluminum frame with two T-5 fluorescent lights; $159 from Gardener's Supply.

Jump Start Grow Light System: two sizes (2ft or 4ft) with high-output T-5 fluorescent bulb. $55.50 or $68 from Greenhouse Megastore.

Starting seeds indoors? See our guides: DIY Newspaper Pots, How to Sprout a Seed, and Tiny Apartment Gardening.