In the digital age, virtual reality technology has emerged as a pivotal tool in landscape design, attributed to its unparalleled immersion and interactivity, which offers novel possibilities and approaches for rural plant landscape design and teaching. The work aims to explore how to optimize the digital design process of rural plant landscape through virtual reality technology, enhancing the teaching experience, and ultimately promoting rural revitalization. Based on virtual reality technology and digital methods and according to the teaching practice, facing the realistic needs of rural revitalization and taking the digital creation as the core, an interactive design system of rural plant landscape was constructed to meet the teaching needs in the digital age. Meanwhile, case studies and survey questionnaires were adopted to compare the specific application effects of traditional and virtual reality teaching modes in the practical teaching of interactive design of rural plant landscapes. Based on drone oblique photography, model rendering technology and virtual reality technology, an interactive design system of rural plant landscape oriented to virtual reality teaching was constructed, from the generation of current three-dimensional real-scene model, the intelligent design of the scheme to the interactive experience of immersion. Through comparative analysis, it was shown that the virtual reality teaching mode had more advantages in teaching performance, teaching experience, learning effectiveness, and perceptual experience than the traditional teaching mode. With the aid of digital technology, the innovative utilization of virtual reality technology in the interactive design and teaching of rural plant landscapes has been significantly bolstered. This not only opens new avenues for research in rural plant landscapes in the digital age, but also propels the progress of landscape design and teaching in the context of rural revitalization strategies.