Random plant event: Aechmea 'Del Mar'

Here's something considerably more cheerful than the last post. About once a year, it seems like, some plant takes it upon itself to bloom when I'm not expecting it. The Hatiora salicornioides in 2009, Eucharis in 2010, Clivia and Epiphyllum in 2012, Phalaenopsis in 2014. In most of those cases, that's also the only time they've ever bloomed for me.¹

The 2016 surprise bloom is Aechmea 'Del Mar,' a plant I have had since 2008. The original plant died, but it offset, and the offset survived years of frankly-not-great conditions and then decided to grow a flower spike.

This year's bloom looks different from 2008's (specifically: the colors seem a bit less intense), which I attribute to the lower light it's been getting here. It was already in bloom in 2008 when I bought it, so that inflorescence had formed in some tropical Floridian shadehouse, under basically ideal conditions; this one had to work with what light it could get from an east window.² And not even the full exposure of an east window: it's so big that the only place I can keep it is up near the ceiling. Basically no overhead light at all.

Also shown: Neoregelia 'Ardie' (left), Philodendron 'Golden Emerald' (lower left), Anthurium 'Pandola' (right).
I'm honestly not sure why I was even keeping 'Del Mar' around. The leaves are plain green and of basically no ornamental value. The leaves are edged with marginal spines that are sharp enough to leave marks on me (which then usually itch for a couple hours³), and more often than not, after I move the plant for any reason, I wind up with a few of those spines broken off somewhere in my hands or arms and have to dig them out with tweezers. It was top-heavy and off-balance (at least partly from the side-lighting), and from time to time when I was putting it back on its shelf, it would fall over and dump water out on me. I had no expectation that a rebloom was possible, especially given how long I'd been waiting. In the final tally, I suppose it was just doing too well to throw out. I could justify discarding a plant that was obviously miserable, but aside from dropping the occasional leaf, which I expect all plants to do from time to time, 'Del Mar' never complained. Never really occurred to me that throwing it out was an option, even as I cursed the marginal spines.

It's almost like it knew that in October, we would all be sick of Anthuriums and desperate for anything else to look at.

Other sites allege that the inflorescence can hang around for 5 to 7 months; this seems about right. The 2008 bloom hung around for what seemed like a really, really long time; it could plausibly have been 5 months.

I don't always have the best luck getting bromeliad offsets to root for me, but I expect I'll try doing it again.

Final note: Aechmea 'Del Mar' is, according to its patent, a hybrid of Aechmea fendleri and Aechmea dichlamydea var. trinitensis. The general shape and coloration seems to be from A. dichlamydea, with A. fendleri contributing a smaller size, though 1) genetics doesn't really work like that exactly, and 2) this is speculation based on less than 10 minutes of online searches, so don't hang your hat on it.

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¹ The sole exception from those examples is the Eucharis, which has bloomed several times since 2009, though it doesn't do so on any kind of predictable schedule.
² I'm not positive that the 2008 bloom received ideal conditions before I bought it; some on-line sites show much darker inflorescences than mine had then, with considerably less white, and a much darker pink. The patent-holder's website shows a 'Del Mar' that looks a lot more like my plant than those, and you'd think the patent holder could keep them straight if anybody could, so it's possible that the other sites have mistaken 'Blue Tango' for 'Del Mar.' Or maybe the cultivar is just that variable.
My plant's inflorescence has developed a heavier pink coloration as it's developed, with the photos from 16 October (last two in this post) showing a much lighter, yellower color than the photos from the 19th. I have no idea what colors it might bear when it fully matures, nor when this might happen. I'm keeping an eye out for the true flowers (the whole colorful show I've photographed so far are just the bracts, the brightly-colored bits meant to attract pollinators to the actual flowers), though I may or may not get pictures of them.
³ Also a problem with plants having similar defenses, like Neoregelia, Yucca, Dyckia, Agave, Pereskia, and Pandanus. I itch a lot on alternate Sundays, which are both Aechmea- and Pandanus-watering days. I've thought about long sleeves, but I think they'd cause more problems than they solve.

Random plant event: Aechmea fasciata

I bought an Aechmea fasciata in November 2006, after it had bloomed, and it produced two offsets, which I separated and potted up. It's a good species. I've never had any pest problems with it, it grows new leaves regularly, and it accepts a spot that a lot of my other plants won't grow in (near the floor in the living room -- there's light, but it's also near a window and a heat/AC vent, which means that the temperature there fluctuates wildly from hour to hour and month to month).

It's never bloomed for me, which is mildly disappointing. They do need a few years to get old enough to bloom, but not seven. I think the problem here is the care it's gotten: it'd probably like better light and more tropical conditions.

In any case, having had it drummed into me for years that bromeliads flower, then offset as the parent rosette dies back, I had kind of been expecting that the A. fasciatas weren't going to produce any offsets until they'd flowered, and they were never going to flower until I gave them a better spot. But on 7 July, I found this in one of the pots:

And by yesterday, it had grown to this:

So clearly it's not screwing around. I don't know whether to be happy or not: does this mean that it's given up on ever blooming and proceeded directly to rosette replacement? Or is it a good sign, that even though it hasn't bloomed yet, it's feeling happy enough about things to go ahead and offset? Please, someone, tell me how I'm supposed to feel.

Walkaway: Aechmea 'Little Harv'

This is one of those plants that I would have been super-excited about if I'd encountered it in, say, 2009, when I still had money and space and was collecting plants faster than I ever had before (or ever would again). But it was a solid 3 or 4 feet (0.9-1.2 m) across and cost $50, so there was no way.

These pictures don't match my memory of the colors very well at all; in my memory, the bracts were more violet and less orange, and the leaves were less green and more gray. Google sides with my camera, though, in both cases, so apparently neem fumes have damaged my brain or something.

There was a pup to the side of the main plant (in the first picture, it's barely visible to the left of and slightly behind the parent), which I thought about asking if they'd sell to me. The size thing would eventually be a problem one way or the other, of course. More sensible impulses eventually prevailed. Maybe someday.

List: Plants Which Someone on the Internet has Said Bring Bad Luck

Someone visited PATSP last week via a Google search for "is euphorbia milii a bad luck plant," or something to that effect. Which is interesting. So I googled it myself, which brought me to this page, in which the author had received a question from someone wanting to know if her mother's recurrent, advanced cancer was related to the E. milii plants she'd grown "multiple varieties" of, and if so, whether she should destroy the plants.

Euphorbia milii.
So far, so heartbreaking, but the post attracted a comment confirming that the plant was terrible, and harbored bad spirits, and would kill entire families given half a chance to do so, as demonstrated by the sad (unconfirmable) case of someone (no name given) in the Middle East (country unspecified) who owned one, whose entire family died (by unspecified means), so then he was going to destroy the plant (because somehow he knew the plant was responsible?), but then another guy (likewise unnamed) saw the plant before it was destroyed and took a piece of it home with him to the Philippines. At which point the anecdote stopped because the comment-writer got distracted or something, but I assume s/he was going to go on to say that that person's whole family died horribly as well: s/he was very clear that E. milii was a bad, terrible, no good, evil, dangerous plant which should be eradicated from the face of the earth.¹

Which is of course makes the situation that much worse, because now not only did the original questioner's mother have recurrent, advanced cancer, but I'm guessing her daughter also probably collected and destroyed her Euphorbia milii collection, which for all we know had been the woman's pride and joy for years.²

As if the plants were going to give her cancer again.

I did leave a comment, but I was about two years too late.

*sigh*

So that got me thinking about the concept of "bad luck" plants in general. I'd never heard of Euphorbia milii being bad luck before, much less harboring evil spirits, so I figured there were probably lots of other so-called "bad luck" plants I'd just not heard of before. So I googled. And boy, are there.

But first, let me just say -- the below is mostly pharmaceutical-grade bullshit. Plants don't contain or attract evil spirits; you're not going to change your life by buying, rearranging, or discarding them; they don't bring good or bad luck. Good stuff happens. Bad stuff happens. Because the good and bad stuff happens randomly, some people get more of it than others, but that doesn't have anything to do with what plants people grow. I mean, if having lucky bamboo nearby were actually lucky, then the people of Cameroon, where D. sanderiana is native, would be the wealthiest, happiest, longest-lived people in the world, yes? And yet.³

As has always been the case, the way to live a life of minimal unpleasantness is to be rich and powerful or related to someone who is. The plants you grow or don't grow are really not factors. (And anyway, if you're going to avoid everything on this list, you may as well just give up trying to grow plants, period.)

I've linked the sources for the various claims of bad luck, and either quoted or summarized the relevant parts. All quotations are [sic]. Sometimes I've added my own comments to the end.

Chlorophytum comosum.
(link)"Am I the only who has herd this one before? If you own a spider plant you will be cursed with bad luck. So anyone herd this old tale or know someone who owned the plant and had bad luck until getting rid of it? Odd I can't seem to find anything online about the topic but I herd it from someone so I wondered what you all thought." (-PillsburyDoughboy)
My comment: the general consensus from the people who replied was that either 1) they're not bad luck, or 2) that they might be, but everybody really hoped they weren't.⁴


Hedera helix
(link)Summary: ivy is bad luck inside but good outside. It's particularly bad to give it to someone who is ill.

(link⁵)My recollection is that this also said basically that ivy was bad luck inside the home.

(link)Summary: unlucky as a gift, "a person who grows ivy will always be poor," only permissible indoors as Christmas decoration.
My comment: you may as well go ahead and take this as true, because Hedera are often lousy houseplants. It's not that they're unlucky, just that they're unsuited to indoor cultivation unless you have a cool, bright, moist home, which few of us do.


Aloe vera
(link)"Some say that its bad luck to grow aloe vera plant at home, is it true?" (-ahelas_123)
My comment: the few people who replied said no, not bad luck.


Any and all thorny/spiky plants, especially cacti (probably also includes Pachypodium, Agaves, most Euphorbias, Pandanus veitchii, and pretty much anything else that could be worth growing). Shown: unidentified cactus.
(link)Summary: thorny plants shouldn't go inside the home or close to one's front door, but you can plant as many as you like outside the house.

(link)Summary: Friends of the author's suffered terrible catastrophes (unspecified) after putting cactus plants on their windowsills, because cacti send out "little slivers of bad energy" which accumulate like dust bunnies until something bad happens.⁶ Then the friends took the cacti away and the bad things stopped happening.

(link)"many people say that cactuses are bad luck especially if you place it inside your home, but i don't believe in that stupid idea, whoever said that, well i'm so sorry but i really don't believe you... I really love plants, i have my collection of cactuses at home, i just love them, they're very nice to look at..." (-Cosepqueenie)
My comment: replies amounted to one person saying "well, you don't have to believe it, sweetie" and two bits of spam.

(link)Summary: cacti are specifically believed to be bad luck in Hungary, apparently.


Bonsai specimens (Juniperus, Acer, etc.). Shown: Juniperus sp.
(link)Summary: bonsai represent stunted growth and thereby make for bad symbolism. Or something.


"Overgrown" plants (?). Shown: Pilea depressa.
(link)Summary: they give off bad vibes.⁷


Murraya paniculata.
(link)"The Murraya is a silent, slow killer. Those flu symptoms that you have been experiencing are thanks to the innocent looking orange jasmine. Get rid of it NOW or face a lifetime of illness." (Anonymous PATSP commenter, whose family is apparently allergic to the plant, which is a very different thing from the plant being a "silent, slow killer."⁸)


Cordyline fruticosa, red cvv.
(link)"Some people believe red ti plant invites bad luck."
My comment: the page also says that "Hawaiians think this plant is a charm against evil," which means that whether good things or bad things happen to you after buying a red ti plant, the page predicted that it would happen.

(link)Summary: Cordyline is a low-maintenance and colorful plant which is often grown in Singaporean cemeteries, because it's low-maintenance and colorful. Consequently, people believe it to be bad luck, because if it isn't bad luck then what's it doing in all those cemeteries, with the dead people?




Codiaeum variegatum (croton).
(link)Summary: Same as for Cordyline fruticosa: it's bad because it's grown in cemeteries; it's grown in cemeteries because it doesn't need a lot of tending.


Epipremnum aureum (pothos).
(link)Summary: [every bad thing that's happened to five (?) different families over a period of several years] (-tablariddim)
The original questioner hasn't considered the possibility that bad things often happen in close proximity to pothos because everyfuckingbody has a pothos.


Night-blooming / night-fragrant plants, especially those with white flowers and/or heavy fragrance, e.g. Cereus peruvianus, Epiphyllum cvv., Cestrum nocturnum, Hoyas, Sansevieria trifasciata?, Peniocereus greggii. Shown: Hoya lacunosa.
(link)Summary: Night-blooming plants are unlucky because in some cultures, suddenly detecting a flower's scent indicates the presence of spirits nearby. (See Musa and Ensete spp. below.) Also white is the color of death and mourning in these cultures too, so the fact that many night-opening flowers are also white just makes them that much scarier.
My comment: night-blooming flowers do tend to be fragrant or white or both, because both qualities make it easier for nocturnal pollinators to locate the flower.


Musa and Ensete spp. (bananas), Plumeria spp. (frangipani). Shown: Musa NOID.
(link)Summary: Banana trees are believed to contain spirits called "Pontianaks" who are the ghosts of women who died in childbirth. Pontianaks appear in the form of beautiful women, "dig into the . . . stomach with long sharp fingernails," and eat "it" (presumably the stomach?). They also attack pregnant women, and announce their presence by the smell of jasmine or Plumeria, followed by a horrible stench. A pontianak can be controlled by tying a red thread around a banana tree and tying the other end to the foot of one's bed; it then has to do the bidding of whoever tied the thread or whoever sleeps in the bed or something like that. (Site wasn't specific.)


Chrysanthemum cvv. Shown: Chrysanthemum NOID.
(link)Summary: Thought to attract the ghost of Okiku, who cries a lot, for reasons which vary according to the version of the story being told.

(link)Summary: bad luck because of its association with funerals.


Bamboo varieties. Shown: Pogonantherum paniceum.
(link)Summary: Contain evil spirits and/or ghosts.


Plumeria cvv. (frangipani)
(link)Summary: the Thai word for Plumeria means sadness, so obviously it's bad luck. It's believed to house the ghosts of evil people. Plus there's the whole thing about smelling the fragrance when a pontianak is nearby.


Tradescantia zebrina cvv. (wandering jew)
(link)Summary: the unluckiness of wandering jew is apparently a long-standing superstition in the U.S., though I'd never heard of it.⁹


Drosera spp.
(link)Summary: Not a lot of information to go on, but is apparently unlucky for sheep in particular?


Any plant that blooms out of season. Shown: Aechmea fasciata.
(link)Summary: plants blooming out of season were thought to be "touched by the devil."
I assume this would apply to plants that were chemically induced to bloom, so most store-bought Spathiphyllums, Schlumbergeras and bromeliads, would probably qualify. Also Euphorbia pulcherrima are usually induced to bloom a bit earlier than they normally would, in order to sell at Christmas, so they'd at least sort of count. (And we all know that poinsettias are touched by the devil regardless.) Probably lots of other things too.

No doubt I've missed some: it's difficult subject matter for a Google search, because one also runs into a lot of pages where people say they have bad luck with this plant or that plant, which is obviously different from having bad luck due to the plant. So let me know if you run into other examples.

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¹ The full comment, copied from the site:

shayne Says:
January 18th, 2010 at 10:58 am

yeah.. its true.. the plant euphorbia is “MALAS”.. it has a bad spirit.. that causes many sickness.. and can cuase death for the whole family who lives in the house with euphorbia plants.. it is proven.. ive searched about this plant.. that is from the middle east.. one man there that owns that plant .. his family was died becauseof that plant.. after of wat happened to his famiy he decided to destroy it. but before he destroy it a seaman saw it and get one of it.. and that seaman brought it in the phillipines.. it is proven that if you have that plant in your house your family will always get sick.. that sometimes causes death for the whole family.. because that plant grows even you dont watered him.. it is beautiful to see.. but it brings badluck to your life.. so if you dont want bad luck happens to you and to your family.. destroy that plant.. and its better to tell it to your other friends about it.. to prevent the growing numbers of that plant.. im juz a concerned citizen.. thats why im telling you this. its all up to you if your going to beleive it..

[sic, obviously]
² (I mean, maybe not, but the plants must have been around for a while: if they were new, it wouldn't make any sense to blame them for the cancer. Not that it makes sense to blame them for the cancer anyway, but you know what I'm saying.)
³ One could make a fairly strong argument that Japanese knotweed -- native to prosperous East Asian countries like Japan, China, and South Korea, widespread and invasive in Europe, the U.S., and Canada -- is one of the most potent good-luck plants in the world, based on the economic situations of the countries where it's found. I mean, it would be extremely irresponsible to make that argument, but some people would find it convincing.
⁴ Tip: if you have to hope that it's not bad luck, because you've had a bunch of them for several years, then it's not. You would obviously notice it, if the bad luck were real. As would everybody else who's grown one.
⁵ This site was down when I was trying to write the post, but it worked when I was searching initially, so I don't know whether you'll be able to get to it or not. My recollection is that it said basically the same thing as snopes.com.)
⁶ I don't believe anyone has ever shown any physical evidence for the existence or accumulation of "energy shards," nor measured the rate at which they accumulate, nor defined the quantity necessary to cause "bad luck," nor explained how removing the source makes them go away. (When you remove a shedding dog from a house, does the accumulated hair disappear from the carpet? No? Then why would removing a plant make the accumulated energy shards disappear?)
Not that one would necessarily expect this to be the sort of detail you'd go into in the sort of breezy, informal book I've linked to, but -- well, that's sort of the problem: the feng shui community doesn't seem to publish anything that isn't breezy and informal.
⁷ (No, really, that's pretty much all it says.)
⁸ Among the differences: if you're allergic to plant X, it does not necessarily follow that all human beings are allergic to plant X. Also -- we've had the plant almost five years now: if it's going to kill us, it's taking its time about it.
⁹ (I suspect that most of these aren't actually believed by very many people, even in their country/region of origin.)

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 2.17-2.20

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Results for matches 2.1 to 2.4:

Not as many votes for this set as there were for most of the round one matches; I'm not sure if this means y'all are finding it harder to choose or getting bored with it or what.

In match 2.1, Clivia miniata cvv. take out small hybrid Vriesea cvv. 59 to 36.
Cryptanthus cvv. shut down Tradescantia pallida in match 2.2, 56-34.

Clivia miniata cvv. faces Cryptanthus cvv. in match 3.1, which will be on 15 October.

Saintpaulia cvv. destroyed Echinopsis spp. in round 2.3 by a better than 75%/25% margin (actual score 71 to 21), which makes two in a row. Saintpaulia cvv. is definitely one to keep an eye on as we head to the later rounds.
Round 2.4 had Epipremnum aureum cvv. barely edging out Crassula ovata / argentea / arborescens, 51 to 42.

Match 3.2 is going to be very interesting (and maybe a little nerve-racking) to watch, I think: Saintpaulia cvv. vs. Epipremnum aureum cvv. Voting will open 15 October.

I predict most of you will find today's votes a bit easier to cast than a lot of the previous round two matches have been.

Match 2.17
Dionaea muscipula (venus flytrap) vs. Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant, goldfish plant)

(Both Dionaea muscipula.)

Clockwise from top: Aeschynanthus lobbianus or A. radicans, A. longicaulis, A. speciosus.





Match 2.18
Aechmea fasciata (silver vase plant) vs. Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily)

Top left: Aechmea fasciata emerging inflorescence. Others: non-blooming plants.

Center and left top: Spathiphyllum NOID, possibly 'Golden Glow.' Bottom left: NOID, possibly 'Domino.' Top right: NOID, possibly 'Sensation' or 'Mauna Loa.' Bottom right: NOID.





Match 2.19
Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk' vs. Chlorophytum comosum cvv. (spider plant)

(Both Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk.')

Clockwise from left: Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum,' C. comosum 'Vittatum,' NOID.





Match 2.20
Kalanchoe luciae / thyrsiflora (flapjack plant) vs. Echeveria cvv. and related plants (Sedeveria, Graptoveria, Pachyveria, etc.)

Left: Kalanchoe thyrsiflora flowers. Right top and bottom: probably K. luciae.

Top row, L-R: Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg,' E. 'Topsy Turvy,' E. setosa.
Middle row, L-R: Graptosedum 'Alpenglow - Vera Higgins,' Echeveria coccinea flowers, Echeveria 'The Rose.'
Bottom row, L-R: Echeveria nodulosa, Pachyveria x glauca, Echeveria x shaviana 'Pinky.'





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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.33-1.36

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Results for matches 1.17 to 1.20:

In match 1.17, Senecio rowleyanus and S. radicans got off to a strong start, but were soon overtaken by Phalaenopsis/Doritaenopsis cvv., ultimately losing by a score of 46 to 67.
Match 1.18, on the other hand, was about as unambiguous as it's possible for a match to be, with Monstera deliciosa clobbering Musa/Ensete cvv. 88 to 19. I'm a little puzzled about this, but hey, I voted for Monstera too, so.

Phalaenopsis and Monstera will face one another in match 2.9, on October 9.

By contrast with 1.18, match 1.19 has been a seesaw since it began, with Sansevieria cylindrica taking an early lead over Mammillaria spp., then falling behind, then regaining. In the end, Sansevieria managed a mere three-vote victory, 55 to 52, the closest margin so far.
Araucaria heterophylla's victory over Chamaedorea elegans in match 1.20 was never in doubt, though. Its votes have outnumbered Chamaedorea's by about a 2-to-1 margin since the poll opened, and it's won with more or less the same proportions, 69 to 40.

Sansevieria cylindrica and Araucaria heterophylla will also square off on October 9, in match 2.10.

And now the new matches for the day.

Match 1.33
Dionaea muscipula (venus flytrap) vs. Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley'

(Both Dionaea muscipula.)

(Both Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley.')





Match 1.34
Ardisia crenata (coral berry) vs. Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant, goldfish plant)

(All are Ardisia crenata.)

Clockwise from top: Aeschynanthus lobbianus or A. radicans, A. longicaulis, A. speciosus.





Match 1.35
Aechmea fasciata (silver vase plant) vs. Rhapis excelsa (lady palm)

Top left: Aechmea fasciata emerging inflorescence. Others: non-blooming plants.

(Both Rhapis excelsa.)





Match 1.36
Coffea arabica (coffee plant) vs. Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily)

Coffea arabica, same plant when about 1-2 years old (L) and 4-5 years old (R).

Center and left top: Spathiphyllum NOID, possibly 'Golden Glow.' Bottom left: NOID, possibly 'Domino.' Top right: NOID, possibly 'Sensation' or 'Mauna Loa.' Bottom right: NOID.





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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?

List: Houseplants Which Have Pink Flowers

"Pink" is a tougher color to define than most, because it shades into a lot of other colors. Differentiating between "pink" and "lavender," "coral," or "red" can be tough sometimes. And then there are the problems with whether "fuchsia" is pink or purple or its own color entirely, and so on. You get the picture. Didn't have these sorts of problems with the yellow-flowers list or the orange-flowers list.¹

As with previous lists like this, I'm looking at the plants from an interior-decorating perspective, not botany. So yes, I know that bracts aren't flowers, but I'm assuming that most people who find this page by Google search or whatever are looking for stuff that works visually, not scientifically.

Adenium obesum cvv. (only some varieties; most fall somewhere on the white-pink-red continuum, though)

Aechmea fasciata (the pink parts are the bracts; the actual flowers are blue-violet)

Cyclamen persicum cvv. (only some cvv.; white, red, lavender, striped, and two-tone flowers are also available)

Dracaena fragrans (seems to vary with culture; I've seen some photos that looked pink and others that looked white or cream-colored)

Euphorbia milii cvv. (The true flowers are yellow-green; the colored parts are bracts. Bracts may be white, yellow, red, or two-toned, though red and pink seem to be the most common)

Episcia cvv. (only some; red seems to be most common, but orange, coral, and yellow are also available)

Gymnocalycium baldianum and other spp. (most are white or very pale pink, though baldianum seems to be the exception)

Mandevilla cvv. (some; most are somewhere along the white-pink-red spectrum, with red being most common as far as I've seen)

Rhododendron cvv. (only some cvv.; most are in the neighborhood of white-pink-red, but lavender also happens. Plants sold for outdoor planting cover a much broader color range than those sold as tabletop plants, in my experience.)

Tradescantia sillamontana. (Always pink as far as I know.)

For recommends and anti-recommends, I've had positive experiences with five of the above (Aechmea, Cyclamen, Dracaena, Euphorbia, Episcia), bad personal experiences with two (Adenium, Tradescantia), bad professional experiences with two (Mandevilla, Rhododendron), and not much experience at all with one (Gymnocalycium).

Assuming that getting flowers out of the plant is important, my top recommendation would be Euphorbia milii: it does require a lot of light and regular fertilizer, but it's otherwise easy to bring into bloom, and a durable, forgiving plant.

Second recommendation would be Episcias. Since they don't all have pink flowers, it's important to be sure you know what you're getting, but once you have one, it should be fairly easy to keep going. (One does have to restart them regularly, but they produce plantlets on runners all the time, so restarting is mainly a matter of cutting off a plantlet and sticking it in a pot.)

Both the Aechmea and Dracaena are wonderful plants, but they don't bloom often, so I'll have to go with Tradescantia sillamontana as the third recommend, even though I've had bad luck with it personally. Again, it needs bright light to flower, and the individual flowers don't last long, but they're normally rugged plants (my experience notwithstanding), and in bright enough light the foliage will also turn pinkish.

For the anti-recommend, I'll go with Rhododendron. No doubt there's someone somewhere who keeps them going indoors for long periods, but the plants that are usually available for sale have been pushed hard to bloom, and consequently provide a very intense but brief show. At work, we mostly had trouble keeping them cool and wet enough. They'll defoliate dramatically if they get too dry, which is really easy to do in a container, and new growth is slow to come back on. They're pretty, but don't get attached.

Not pictured:
(If you know of other plants that would belong in this list, or believe that one of the ones I've included is here by mistake, leave me a comment.)

• Abutilon cvv. (some)
• Acalypha reptans (more of a pinkish-red than a true pink)
• Aeschynanthus 'Thai Pink'
• Aloinopsis sp. (some spp.? Very light pink or white)
• Anacampseros rufescens (pinkish-purple)
• Anthurium cvv. (some)
• Ardisia elliptica (flowers infrequent indoors, and very pale pink)
• Argyroderma spp. (some spp.; pinkish-purple)
• Begonia cvv. (many, esp. cane-types and rhizomatous types, though not all bloom pink, and some are reluctant to bloom at all)
• Bougainvillea cvv. (some; pinkish-purple)
• Brugmansia cvv. (some)
• Bryophyllum tubiflorum (coral-pk? I haven't seen the flowers in person, and Google image search was only somewhat helpful)
• Calliandra emarginata (not sure it really counts as a houseplant, though)
• orchids in the Cattleya alliance (some; they also have a tendency toward pinkish-purple, rather than true pink)
• Ceropegia woodii (both pink and purple)
• Chirita cvv./spp. including C. linearis (most Chiritas tend to be blue or purple, though)
• Cleistocactus spp. (some? pinkish-orange)
• Clerodendrum x speciosum. (the actual flowers are red, but the bracts are pinkish-red)
• Codiaeum variegatum (rarely: usually flowers are white, but sometimes they're light pink. The flowers aren't particularly ornamental either way.)
• Cordyline fruticosa (also not hugely ornamental, but the flowers are pink)
• Crassula alpestris (very light pink)
• Crassula 'Buddha's Temple'
• Crassula coccinea
• Crassula ovata (barely; mostly white, with only a hint of pink)
• Crassula rupestris (sometimes?)
• Crassula sarcocaulis
• Cymbidium cvv. (some cvv.)
• Dendrobium cvv. (some; usually more lavender or pink-purple than straight pink)
• Echeveria cvv. (some; flowers are often pink or pink-orange with a yellow "mouth")
• Echinocereus cvv. (some; those that are pinkish tend to lean to the purple/lavender side)
• Echinopsis cvv. (some; usually either white or very light pink)
• Epiphyllum cvv. (few; most of what's available appear to be white, but there are red and red-pink varieties out there)
• Euphorbia pulcherrima (some; bracts; true flowers are yellowish-green)
• Ferocactus spp. (few; pinkish-purple or pinkish-red)
• Fuchsia cvv. (most; reddish-pink)
• Gasteria cvv. (few; pinkish-orange)
• Gerbera cvv. (some, though I wouldn't necessarily call it suitable as a houseplant)
• Guzmania cvv. (a few varieties have hot pink or pinkish-purple bracts)
• Hatiora cvv. (the ones called "Easter Cactus," and not all of them. These were formerly called Rhipsalis or Rhipsalidopsis.)
• Heliconia cvv. (bracts on a few varieties are pink; usually bracts are red and/or yellow)
• Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (only some varieties)
• Hippeastrum cvv. (some varieties)
• Hoya archboldiana (pink and white)
• Hoya bella (most of the flower is white, but some is pink)
• Hoya carnosa (usually pink and red but variable)
• Hoya compacta
• Hoya darwinii (light pink)
• Hoya davidcummingii (pink and yellow)
• Hoya globulifera
• Hoya megalaster (dark pink)
• Hoya obovata (dark pink and light pink)
• Hoya pubicalyx (variable; flowers are some combination of pinkish-red, dark pink, pale pink, and white)
• Hoya purpureo-fusca (pink and yellow)
• Hoya rubida (dark pink)
• Hydrangea cvv. (sometimes; I wouldn't call it a houseplant, but some people do.)
• Hypoestes phyllostachya (pinkish-purple)
• Impatiens cvv. (some varieties)
• Jasminum spp.? (occasionally, some of the Jasminums we had at work would produce blooms with a slight pinkish tinge to them, but I don't know if that was cultural or a particular variety or what)
• Justicia carnea (maybe not a great houseplant, but flowers are vivid pinkish-red)
• Justicia scheidweileri (the bracts are hot pink; true flowers are purple)
• Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (some varieties)
• Kalanchoe eriophylla (variable; some white or lavender)
• Kohleria cvv. (some varieties, though usually Kohleria flowers are red, orange, or purple)
• Lampranthus blandus (after trying it myself, I'm not convinced that this should count as a houseplant, but the flowers -- which I've never seen in person -- are pinkish-purple)
• Mammillaria spp./cvv. (some varieties are pinkish-purple or dark pink; others flower white)
• Medinilla cvv. (most are pink; lavender and orange also exist)
• Melocactus spp. (most; hot pink)
• Mimosa pudica (arguably more lavender than pink, but sometimes they photograph as pink)
• Miltoniopsis cvv. (most have some pink somewhere, usually dark pink)
• Musa cvv. (few; bracts)
• Nematanthus cvv. (few; pinkish-orange or pinkish-red)
• Neoregelia cvv. (actual flowers are violet-blue, but in some varieties, the leaves at the center of the plant flush hot pink when flowering begins)
• Nerium oleander (some; maybe not really a houseplant, though)
• orchids in the Oncidium alliance (some, though it's not the most common color)
• Opuntia spp. (few; most are yellow)
• Oxalis triangularis (variable between pink, white, and lavender)
• Pachypodium spp. (few; most flower yellow or white)
• Paphiopedilum cvv. (few I'd call true pink; most are white/purple/yellow/brown, but some have smudgy pink areas between white/violet)
• Parodia cvv.? (most are yellow, orange or red)
• Passiflora cv. 'Banana' (maybe other cvv.?)
• Pelargonium cvv. (some)
• Pereskia grandifolia (flowers pinkish-violet, though other Pereskias don't; may or may not be suitable as houseplant)
• Phalaenopsis cvv. (some; more pink-purple than true pink)
• Phragmipedium cvv. (a few)
• Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley'
• Pilosocereus leucocephalus, P. palmeri (pale pink)
• Pinguicula spp. (a few; most are purple, lavender, or blue-violet)
• Pleiospilos nelii (most Pleiospilos flowers are yellow/orange)
• Plumeria cvv. (a few; arguably not a houseplant)
• Portulacaria afra (I was surprised too.)
• Ruellia makoyana (pinkish-purple; have never seen it grown indoors but I'm told people sometimes do)
• Saintpaulia cvv. (some)
• Saxifraga stolonifera (barely: mostly the flowers are white and yellow)
• Schlumbergera cvv. (few, more pinkish-purple or pink-orange than straight pink)
• Sedum burrito (uncertain; there weren't many photos, but the flowers sure looked like a dark pink-purple)
• Sempervivum cvv. (most/all?)
• Sinningia cvv. (few)
• Spathoglottis cvv. (some)
• Stenocereus thurberi
• Streptocarpus cvv. (few; most seem to be white, lavender, purple, or blue)
• Stromanthe sanguinea (dk pk to red; not especially attractive but they still count)
• Tillandsia cvv. (air plants) (I've seen at least one with pink bracts and lavender flowers)
• Tillandsia cyanea (hot pink bracts, blue-violet true flowers)
• Tolmiea menziesii (not ornamental; small and sort of a weird pink-brown color)
• Tradescantia pallida
• Tradescantia zebrina (usually)
• Vanda cvv. (some, pink or pink-purple)
• Zantedeschia cvv. (some; spathes)
• Zingiber malaysianum (bracts vary in color from yel to pk, though blooming is unlikely indoors)

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¹ The color I will really hate doing is white: I won't have any trouble finding pictures, but the list of houseplants with white flowers is going to be huge.