List: The Best Houseplants You're (Probably) Not Growing

This list isn't intended to be taken very seriously. It's subjective, and even where it's not, we're only talking about my personal experience, over a pretty limited amount of time;¹ the plant might be completely different for you. Having said that, these are the plants that:

1) have performed well for me for a long time,
2) aren't already common in stores (at least not the stores I visit),
3) typically do well indoors for other people too, as far as I know, and
4) have that special something that makes me want to recommend them to everybody.

This is slightly self-interested, as a few of these are plants I will have available for trade or sale at some point,² but it's sort of a chicken-and-egg problem. I have them to sell because I like the plant, and in a lot of cases I like the plant because it's easy to reproduce for selling. The main point of the list is not to promote plants because I'll have them for sale, I swear, it's to say nice things about plants that have been making me happy lately. Because there are a lot of plants that don't.³ (Including some of the plants I want to sell or trade away.)

Agave desmettiana. Fairly rapid growth, as indoor Agaves go, interesting color (on the variegated variety), and so far it doesn't seem especially needy or buggy. If you have full sun and can water thoroughly and regularly, you can grow this.

Eucharis grandiflora. Beautifully fragrant (if short-lived) white daffodil-like flowers up to three times a year, large, glossy green leaves the rest of the time, cold-tolerant, and I've never had problems with bugs. Needs some light (filtered sun or bright indirect), and don't overwater. May go dormant if too dry or dark.

Gasteraloe x beguinii. (Aloe aristata x Gasteria batesiana). Nice form and color, tolerates fairly low light for a succulent, resilient as hell, offsets are easy to root, never a bug problem. Probably won't flower indoors, but it's my favorite foliage Aloe/Gasteria/Haworthia, easily. Give it at least some sun indoors, or else bright artificial light, and don't overwater.

Hatiora salicornioides. Only minor bug problems so far (spider mites, surprisingly), and the flowers aren't the glamour bombs that Eucharis's are, but the form is interesting, and it's easy to grow with full sun to bright indirect light. Fertilizer seems to be more important than I expected: some of mine have only started putting out new growth since I started using the Miracle Gro.

Hoya lacunosa. Easily brought into bloom (it basically just takes lots of light + fertilizer), and can be more or less continuously in bloom year-round. Neither the flowers nor the leaves are much to look at, but it's fairly non-demanding, and the scent is nice.

Pachypodium lamerei. Less easy than most of the other plants on the list -- it's obviously a pain to repot, and it's inclined to winter spider mite infestations and/or dormancy, plus they'll rot if you get them cold and wet at the same time. But they're still fairly easy to grow, and they're tough enough that I've never actually seen one rot from being too wet: I've only heard about it.

Selenicereus chrysocardium. You're probably never going to see the large, overwrought flowers, but with stems like these, who needs flowers? It's fast, it's huge, it's easy to grow (you need only regular watering and a sensible amount of light), I've never had pest problems, and it's just so weird.

Synadenium grantii. I praise Synadenium pretty much every chance I get, but it's difficult to articulate why I like it as much as I do. I like the textures, both visual (red-speckled green, or plum with specks of green) and tactile; I like that they grow fast and can be endlessly duplicated. I love that I've never had a pest problem on a Synadenium. Just a good, vigorous plant for someone with bright indirect light or brighter. They will occasionally drop lower leaves, for reasons I've never been able to figure out but suspect is water-related.

Vriesea splendens. I've always loved the way these look, but it took me a long time to decide to buy one, because all the books warn about them being fussy and difficult. They're not. I've had no pest problems, they seem perfectly happy under artificial light, bright indirect light, or filtered sun, and recently one has even decided to rebloom for me. Occasionally I let them get too dry, and then leaves curl and yellow, but that's been about it for problems.

Zingiber malaysianum. The leaves are pleasantly (if lightly) scented, glossy, and beautiful with light shining through them. It insists on being kept warm (above 50F/10C) and moist, more so than almost any other plant I own (I deal with this by watering every time the watering cycle gets around to it, and if I start finding that it's dry by the time I'm ready to water it, I move it up into a larger pot.), and I suspect that it's probably prone to mites, though I haven't experienced this personally. But I am so pleased with it.

Honorable mentions:

• Aechmea fasciata -- in the trade for a long time, but I rarely see any for sale that aren't already in bloom, and I don't know why. They're perfectly nice foliage plants, and if you buy one already in bloom then it's just going to die on you. (Granted, that can take more than two years, as it did with mine.)
  
• Araucaria bidwillii -- I know why this isn't sold more in the trade. They're kinda ugly, and even the fuller-looking larger specimens are sharp. I love mine anyway.
• Epiphyllum oxypetalum -- The flowers are pretty, but I'm not sure they're actually worth growing the plant for, since they only last for an evening. I like the plant enough that I'm willing to grow it for the unusual, awkward stems, though.
• Euphorbia trigona -- One of my oldest and best-behaved plants, not counting a minor pest problem when I first got it,⁴ plus I like the shape.
• Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia -- I started out liking other Haworthias more, but this one's grown on me. The color (metallic gray or gray-green, depending on culture) is neat, the texture is pleasant, and it may be the only Haworthia species I've had that's never given me trouble.
• Pandanus veitchii -- Of course. Minor pest problems (caterpillars or crickets or something, when I had mine outside last summer), painful to move around, and the tips burn if the plant is in the path of a heat vent, but mostly a piece of cake to grow.
• Polyscias scutellaria -- Polyscias in general have been nice to me, though they do have their moods. P. scutellaria is my favorite of the genus because it's been the most responsive to my care so far (bigger leaves, more leaves), but I also like the look of it.
• Senecio rowleyanus -- We went through some rough times at first, mostly because I wasn't watering enough, but we've reached an agreement since then, and it's grown a lot in the last year. Haven't seen flowers yet on my personal plant, but I look forward to the day: they smell like Big Red chewing gum.

What plant(s) you don't see for sale very often would you add to the list?

-

¹ The plants on the list have all been in my care for at least 22 months; the most recent addition (Zingiber malaysianum) was purchased in June 2009, and the oldest (Gasteraloe x beguinii) is from November 2006.
² (I've been having trouble getting suitable photos of the plants in question, among other things. Too bright, too dark, always desaturated: it's frustrating. There's also the issue that some of the plants I had hoped to sell are not looking as good now as I had hoped they would, and it's probably too late to whip them into shape, which is demotivating. I spent the bulk of Wednesday taking pictures, and that set is the set I'm going to use, whether they're good or not. I'm currently planning the official unveiling for April 18, but that may be optimistic, given the number of photos I have to sort through.)
³ [shaking fist at sky:] RADERMACHERA!!!!!!!!!! (Actually, I got rid of the Radermachera a couple weeks ago. I'm still angry, though.)
⁴ It was either whitefly or scale; it happened long enough ago that I don't have any pictures, and don't remember that well. I assumed they were whiteflies, because they flew, but my memory tells me they looked more like immature scale. They went away, whatever they were.

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XXXVIII

There's probably a name for the condition of having writer's block, but having it with everything you try to do, not just writing. I don't know what the term would be, but I lived the experience all day yesterday (Monday). Couldn't bring myself to water, couldn't get anywhere writing the blog, mildly depressed (the AdSense decision factored into this, but I don't think it was the main cause), couldn't even manage to take a nap. In the end, I wound up on the couch, watching Beavis and Butthead Do America, which is my emergency self-treatment of choice for depression. It worked, in that it cheered me up (it always does; that's why it's the treatment of last resort. It'd be the treatment of first resort, but I'm afraid overuse would decrease the potency, so Beavis and Butthead only get brought out in extreme situations, maybe once or twice a year), but it didn't make me any more able to get anything done.

Which is why we have transmitted light photos again. Although I traditionally try to come up with a comment about each photo individually, I'm going to stop doing that unless I can think of something worthwhile to say: not only does this save me time writing, it also saves me the agony of trying to come up with something clever (or interesting (or even remotely connected)).

For this particular batch, with one pink exception, we have a green-or-orange thing going on. Hope you like.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Homalomena 'Perma Press.' It's turned out to be a less-terrible houseplant than I was expecting, from my experiences with H. 'Emerald Gem.' The main problem is that it wants to be really, really big, so all the petioles are bent and twisted because I don't have a spot where they can extend themselves the full two feet that they want.

Neoregelia NOID. It's really, you know. Pink.


Anthurium andraeanum cv. I don't know what happened to cause the water-soaked patches here: I didn't do anything to the leaf as far as I know, and although it's happened before, it's pretty rare. But it makes for a more interesting Anthurium photo than usual.

Ficus benjamina 'Midnight.'

Hemerocallis NOID, flower petal.

Syngonium wendlandii. Bad photo, but it's a good plant. I'm happier with my S. wendlandii than I have been with any of the S. podophyllums, amazingly enough.

Codiaeum variegatum NOID (most likely 'Petra.').

Zingiber malaysianum.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Splish Splash.' Tied for my favorite picture from this batch.

Canna 'Tropicanna.' The other picture that's tied for favorite. Less dramatic than the previous Canna photo, but arguably that works in its favor. The other one was pretty intense.

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XXXIV

Five green pictures, five orange pictures.

As I write this, I have no idea how yesterday's election went, but the odds are that I was pleasantly surprised by something and unpleasantly surprised by something else. Since bad news always hits me harder than good, this means I'm probably in a bad mood today. I mean, I saw a "vote no on retention of activist judges" sign¹ yesterday in someone's yard while walking Sheba, and it ruined a good chunk of my late morning / early afternoon. And that was just one guy. So today is probably not a good day for me. Be gentle.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Persea americana. We started a couple avocado trees from seed during the winter, less because I had a burning desire to grow avocados than because the husband likes to eat them. One is doing pretty well; I'm having trouble communicating with the other. I pinch it, it grows back one replacement growing tip. I pinch that tip, and it grows one replacement. The first plant understood that it was supposed to branch; I'm not sure why the second one is having such a hard time with the idea.

Unknown Cirsium sp. I was more certain about IDing this as a Cirsium then than I am now.

Salvia elegans, dead(ish) leaf. Arguably closer to pink than to orange, but whatever. When I first put the Salvia elegans outside last spring, some of the leaves turned weird colors from the cold. This is one of those. Not really pretty, exactly, but it's something I didn't know this plant could do.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Rustic Orange.' Not especially pretty, but I think the irregular red spots on the underside of the leaf were odd enough to call your attention to.

Populus deltoides. Fairly similar to yesterday's Liriodendron tulipifera photo.

Ambrosia trifida. Probably the prettiest ragweed-related photo you're going to see all month. Lucky you!

Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana.' Pretty much what you'd expect it to look like, I suppose. The main motivation for taking the picture was that this is a plant we cut back, and the newly-sprouting leaves, once they reached full-size again, looked very pretty.

Malus sp. My favorite from this batch. For some reason, I even kind of dig the blurry bits on the sides.

Zingiber malaysianum. The range of colors I get out of this plant continues to please me. I wish there were some way to do them all at once.

Heuchera 'Venus.' I prefer this to yesterday's Heuchera photo, though not by a lot. There are some very nice Heuchera varieties that are really plain by transmitted light; this isn't one of them.

-

¹ (Translation for non-Iowans: "How dare the Iowa Supreme Court try to tell me f*gg*ts are people!")

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XXIX

This batch is maybe a little heavy on the aroids, but what can I say? A lot of them have broad, thin leaves, which makes them very tempting subjects.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Philodendron 'Golden Emerald.' A much more interesting plant than the photo makes it appear.

Spathiphyllum 'Golden Glow,' flower spathe. Didn't work as well as I'd hoped, but I get so few chances at white photos that I figured I'd run with it anyway.

Monstera deliciosa. My Monstera has been pretty badly abused: I don't give it a lot of light, or warmth, or humidity. Not that I wouldn't, if I could, but it's big and awkward and I don't have a lot of spots where such a plant could go. So I get thin, pale, unsplit leaves like this one. Good for the transmitted light photos, bad for basically everything else. The especially confusing thing about this is that I took cuttings from this plant, and potted them up together, and they're also growing thin, pale, small, unsplit leaves even though they're getting very good artificial light and in a much warmer location. So maybe there's more going on here than I recognize.

Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckei.' Seems like it's been a long time since I tried a transmitted light picture for this plant. My sense of time, when it comes to these, is kinda screwy, though. I have photographs taken for Part XLIX already.

Philodendron gloriosum. I did finally reach the point with my plant where I had to cut it back. It needed to be repotted, and the thick, woody stems had crawled to the edge of the pot and made a right angle downward. No way to move the plant to a bigger pot without cutting at least some of these stems back, so I did. There's some indication that the cut-off parts might be rooting in water, which would be great news if true, but even if they do root, I'm not sure what I can do with the pieces. At least the plant survived the repotting, though. I'd known that I needed to do this for a long time, and had been scared that the plant would die if I did.

Dieffenbachia 'Starbright.' Looks like an Aglaonema to me.

Aglaonema 'Gold Dust.' Looks like a Dieffenbachia to me.

Zingiber malaysianum. I'm impressed with the range of colors I've been able to get out of this plant, with transmitted light pictures. As far as it goes, I'm still quite happy with it as a houseplant in general, too. So long as I don't neglect to water, it'll grow just fine for me.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Glennis.' I've taken a lot of 'Glennis' photos in the hopes of getting one that resembles the way the plant looks when viewed by reflected light. I've realized that that was never going to happen. This is nice too, though.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Kong Rose' sport. The weird orange color isn't natural to the leaf, but has to do with the light I was using. It doesn't really look like this, but I liked the effect so well that I kept it.

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XXVIII

Well, so the basement carpet was pulled up on Saturday, almost entirely by the husband, who was having back problems to begin with and now has worse ones. (I did try to help, but I hit the heat-exhaustion wall very early, and also had my own stuff to deal with -- the plants don't stop needing water just because the basement floods, after all.) Nothing besides the carpet appears to have been permanently ruined so far, though we don't necessarily know the full extent of things yet, either. Could be worse, and we may yet find out that it is worse, but for right now it feels like we've dodged a bullet, at least compared to other people in town. So there may not wind up being a disruption in posting schedule, like I implied on Saturday.

As for the photos, we have some interesting variations in texture here: muddy, firey, streaky. They're not all gems -- they never are -- but I'm quite pleased with a few of these, and unlike some of these groupings, I think these work nicely together as a group, too.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Zamia sp. One hell of a slow-growing plant indoors (and it's my understanding that they're not speedy outdoors either), but so far I'm not complaining about mine. This picture gives me sort of a Starship-Enterprise-traveling-through-space-at-Warp-9-through-the-Lime-Jell-O-Nebula feeling.

Abutilon 'Bella Pink.' Pretty sure I could come up with something better, for Abutilon leaves. Some of the angles here are weird, but the venation doesn't show as well as it could. I'll try again.

Tradescantia spathacea. Okay, this one just didn't work. Move on, move on, nothing to see here. In fairness, it takes a lot of light to get something photographable through the leaves of T. spathacea, and I feel I should get points for trying.

Salvia elegans. Worked out nicely, I'd say. I have some plants growing outside (I did wind up planting a few in the soil outside, as I'd hoped to) that could probably give better vein than this, but they weren't around yet when I got these photos together.

Philodendron 'Moonlight.' Lovely plant, kinda meh picture.

Ficus lyrata. Always a good picture of veins, though they're also kind of always the exact same picture. (This one is new: it just looks like all the others.)

Abutilon 'Bella Pink,' petals and sepals. Another picture that, to me, evokes movement. Plus it's pink.

Scindapsus pictus. The leaves are really kind of too thick for the veins to show properly, but I think this may be the best shot of the variegation I've gotten yet.

Zingiber malaysianum. Because you've always got to have a picture of Zingiber malaysianum.

Vriesea ospinae var. gruberi. This one sort of has to be my favorite from the set, even though several of the others are also nice. The color! The pattern! Etc.