favrit house plant

Mine is Swedish Ivy. Long dangling plant, good for ceiling-height ledges, where the leaves trail to the ground. 3" round leaves.
Very common in Minnesota nurseries, and hard to find elsewhere.

Pothos, easy to care for, a great hanging plant, easy to propagate. Jade Plant, I have a huge one, almost like a tree. The leaves are messy when they fall off, but a great plant. Snake Plant (sansevieria, or mother-in-laws tongue), very easy to grow, can take low light and lots of abuse. I also like Dracaenas, but my cats like chewing them too, so I don’t keep them anymore
That’s a few of my faves.

Speaking as someone who is fortunate enough to have dozens of different houseplants (just brought home a baby Ficus lyrata yesterday :slight_smile: ) it’s hard to pick any single favorite. It’s almost like asking “Which child do you love more?”

I definitely like Jades. I have two different kinds: One that has red-edged leaves and a variegated “Tricolor” (white, pink, and green). They’re great plants. I love the firm, juicy feeling of the stems when I pinch off cuttings. They’re not quite the fastest-growing plants ever, but they make up for it by being very long-lived. I’ve heard they are capable of lasting centuries. I like plants that are capable of being “Heirlooms” to the next generation. :slight_smile: That is also why like my baby PonyTail Palms.

The plant that IS very fast-growing for me is a baby Banana Plant. It’s almost always pumping out a new whorl of leaves
I doubt it will ever flower/fruit indoors (and it’s too cold to let it go outside), but I really like the shape of banana leaves anyway (I like big, broad tropical leaves).

Not surprisingly, I am also quite fond of Spathiphyllums (Peace Lily). In particular, I like the variegated variety “Domino”. The leaf texture is unique (rougher than other Spaths) and due to the white streaks it is very pretty even without blooms.

At this time of year, I particularly like my Christmas Cactus…noticed a few tiny pink buds forming on it yesterday. It is not as picky as the orchids I have can be, but almost as pretty when it’s in bloom.

I also love the unique coloration of my “Red Gold” Chinese Evergreen even though CEs seem prone to mealybugs (two of the three CEs I have, including “Red Gold” came home from the store with mealies). :frowning:

I like the Ficus genus as a whole…I have a Weeping Fig, two kinds of Rubber trees (a burgundy and a variegated–both exceptionally pretty IMO even though they’re quite common), and the aforementioned F. lyrata - Fiddle Leaf Fig (like I said, I enjoy big leaves). Some people have horrible problems with Ficus due to excessive leaf drop or scale insects, but, thankfully, I have not had that kind of trouble. I think the secret of my success is that I usually buy my plants small (2" or 4" pots), when I think they are more adaptable to change (less leaf drop) and less likely to have encountered bugs.

And, yes, Dracaenas are quite nice too…the textured canes give them character, and I like the fact that most of them can get quite tall. I have a tricolor D. marginata (“Dragon Tree”), D. sanderiana (“Lucky Bamboo”) and the ever-popular Corn Plant. I find them all very attractive, and the Corn Plant is holding up well in low light that most of my other plants would not tolerate.

I better stop there for now. :slight_smile: As you can see, I am quite enthusiastic about houseplants.

Gotta be the Madagascar Palm. I have three of them. Now if only I could get them to bloom.

Mildew. It’s about the only thing I can get to grow.

I’m a Swedish Ivy fan, too. One of the things I like about it is that it’s nearly impossible to drown. I have a couple of pretty planters with no holes at the bottom that are also weird shapes, so I can’t just stick a regular pot in them. I put in the Swedish Ivy and I water indiscrimitately, and I don’t have to worry about drowning the roots.

Come to think of it, I’ve never seen it in a store here in NJ. All of mine comes from cuttings that I got off my aunt. Hmmm… Well, I guess you Minnesotans sure like things Scandinavian, doncha know?

I also have some jade plants, some sanseverias, a wandering Jew, and a nice collection of small cacti. (one flowered this year!!)

I also have a 7-foot tall dracaena marginata aka dragon tree.

Mainly, I like plants that are hard to kill.

Actually the correct species for the Dragon Tree is Dracaena draco, which was tapped for “Dragon’s Blood” (the sap is a deep red color, and was thought medicinal).

My absolute favorite houseplant is my Schefflera actinophylla (Queensland Umbrella Tree). Although i’m a bit suspicious it might actually be Tupidanthus calyptratus (the two are VERY close in foliage form). It has large deep green leaves that are divided into 6 - 7 leaflets, the leaflets can get to be 1 foot long! It grows to tree size, and i’ve seen an absolutely fabulous specimen in the koi pond at the local hospital (Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula). They actually cut it back because it had gotten too big, but it’s still fabulous.

I had been kind of anti-schefflera for a while because all i had seen were poorly cared for S. arboricola (has much smaller leaves). But when i saw a well cared for S. actinophylla i KNEW i had to get it.

I love this plant so much i moved my Chamaedorea seifrizii (bamboo palm) from its pot outdoors (it should survive outside here), just so the schefflera could have the pot (i’m thinking of buying a much nicer ceramic pot, maybe a chinese style one for it in the future). I couldnt just throw away the Chamaedorea, so i gave it a home outside.

I have an Unkillable Aloe Vera which I adore. Not only is it easy to take care of, you can always catch it before it runs out of water, and the cat won’t eat it.

Ever seen a two-year-old try something they don’t like and make “yuck face”? Now imagine a cat chowing down on an aloe…taking one bite…and doing the five-dimensional animated version of “yuck face” for about three minutes, trying to put his tongue as FAR away from his face as he can get it.

Hours of amusement, because he bites the plant about every other week.

Corr

I used to have a favorite houseplant growing in my closet. :wink:

I had a terrific mini-palm tree with three shoots that I used to leave on top a 3’ pillar I had in my living room…then the kitten decided he liked to climb and suddenly I had a one-shoot plant. It’s hanging tough, though, and I’ve had it for years.

My favorite, since the palm is just a shadow of it’s former self, is my ficcus rubber plant. It’s just a cool plant.