Houseplant as housewarming gift ideas?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Easy houseplants:

Coleus. Beautiful and don’t need a whole lot of light. Also, they just look pathetic if they don’t get water. Only a heartless person would let that happen.

Spider plants. Really, they have to be the EASIEST plants in all the world. Don’t need a lot of water, and a moderate amount of sunlight will do. Plus, they just look cool. If she’s got any maternal genes in her, she’ll love the little “babies” that grow.

Ficus plants are easy enough. I have a little ficus that I’ve let go with out watering for maybe a couple of weeks or even longer, and it’s still thriving. But light is key.

Phyllodendrons. Love them. And they too are forgiving if you don’t water them frequently. I have three of them hanging in my living room, and another one perched on a west-facing window sill with its “tendrils” spread across the wall. All of them are over three years old and I’ve gone through periods where I have totally neglected them.

Crotons are beautiful but need lots of water and light. I don’t think they are that hard to care for; but you can’t be forgetful about them either.

Ah, yes, SUCCULENTS! Jade plants, crassulas, and pencil plants are my favorites. They need almost no water and though they like light, they won’t shrivel up and die if they don’t get the brightest sunshine either.

Boston ferns are good too. But you’ve got to water those babies. They brown up real good if you don’t.

It’s a bit of a weirdo, but google Tillandia bulbosa. I bought one from a craft fair this May and everyone kept stopping me to ask me if it was a sculpture. It’s a beautiful epiphyte; no soil needed. You just spray it with DI water twice or three times a week.

Don’t forget Eucalyptus! Perched on the right window sill, they do quite well and they are so graceful. Plus, it will fill the home with its fragrance.

All the plants I named above co-exist with my cats, who do like to nibble on plants. I have found tricks to keep them away from my most beloved ones.

I’m a plant lover, but I’m also a flower pot enthusiast. My belief is that it’s the container that really makes someone fall in love with a gifted plant. Don’t just go to the nursery and pick out a plant. Put it in a nice colorful pot too. 'Cause maybe the plant will die, but at least she’ll still have the pot. She can use it for another plant or just use it for decoration. Two gifts in one!

22

I am terrible at keeping plants alive, and I have a lucky bamboo that’s been going for two years now.

23

I’ve managed to kill bamboo. Twice.

The phyllodendron is still going, though, as is (sort of) some other larger potted plant someone gave me.

24

I just gave friends a peace lily. It’s one of the best houseplants for removing impurities from the air, and it is very easy to care for. It will droop when it needs water.

25

Yup - they mostly live in shared houses.

It would be really, really weird to ask someone why they don’t have plants, but if the person were so utterly terrified at the idea of watering a plant once a month that a gift of such a plant would make them freak olut, then this is the sort of thing that would have come up in conversation.

Seriously - ‘don’t give a gift that most people would love or be at worst indifferent to because there’s a tiny chance that the person has psychological issues with easy-care plants.’ Only on the Dope! :smiley:

26

The point is, a plant is easily something that could translate into being a burden rather than a gift. It’s one thing to have Grandma Nancy give you some hideous ceramic cherub that you can chuck in a box for 11 months and 25 days out of the year and then haul out and throw up on the mantle when she visits. It’s quite another when she gives you a plant that you have to maintain on a daily or weekly basis or otherwise explain what happened to it.

Let’s be honest: When we give gifts, part of what we get back is the enjoyment of seeing the recipient enjoying it. If we give a gift and the recipient *doesn’t *enjoy it, that can make us feel bad. So there’s often a pressure on the recipient, to a greater or lesser degree, to at least pretend enthusiasm for the gift. So I hope you can see that it’s not a ridiculous stretch for a plant to be a potential source of stress for someone who has no desire nor aptitude to care for one but would feel obligated to care for it simply because it was a gift. If that makes any sense. :smiley:

27

Most plant lovers, I think, will understand, “Oh that plant you gave me? I loved it dearly but I think I watered it too much.” Or, “I don’t think it had the right amount light.” Or, “For some reason, it just died. Which made me sad because I loved it a lot!” I had to give that last excuse to a guy who gave me a plant during one of those workplace Christmas gift exchanges. I liked it and cared for it tenderly, but for some reason it just died. One day he asked about it and I told him the truth. His feelings didn’t seem hurt at all.

I’ve got close to 50 plants growing in my house right now (shuddup, not those kinds of plants). Sometimes they just die, just like everything else.

That’s why I recommend giving a cool flower pot to go with it. And I know someone who makes really cool ones (and would be happy to tell you how to make your own).

28

An aunt gave us a philodendron as a house warming gift. My mom has a brown thumb, nearly killed it and such, finally threw it out. I literally rescued it from the garbage can. I’ve made cuttings and such. FtGkid2 now has several.

That was 51 years ago.

Sometimes they do last.

29

I love all the people trying to argue logically with a mindset that isn’t necessarily logical, with someone who doesn’t even subscribe to it. I’m telling you that this i**s a thing that happens and you should *consider *taking it into account when gifting a plant. Whether you think it’s silly or not, it’s how some people think.

Yeah, philodendrons are notoriously hard to kill. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve brought mine back from the brink of death. If you’re going to get anything for a non-planty person, I’d definitely suggest starting with this.

30

But we’re talking about plants that can’t be killed - not by accident, anyway, though I wonder if the particular unwatered succulent of mine would even survive being doused in acid, it’s so hardy. They wouldn’t be obligated to care for it because there’s no care involved; would anyone really consider ‘pour dregs of glass of water over soil instead of down sink’ to be ‘caring for a plant?’ How lazy would you have to be for that to count as effort?

Really, if someone is stressed out at the thought of doing that, then they should seek psychiatric help.

31

It’s not about the effort–it’s about remembering to do it. Because you’re someone who enjoys caring for plants, it’s not something you think about. People who don’t care will just forget… and forget… and forget… because it’s not something they think about. I’ve managed to kill bamboo that’s *sitting on the counter *in my kitchen, right by the sink. And not because I’m lazy, thanks, but because I just kept forgetting to look up at the damned plant.

And as I’ve explained, the stress isn’t from caring for the plant. The stress is from the fact that if you fail to care for the plant, it will ruin the gift someone gave you and possibly disappoint them or otherwise hurt their feelings by being taken as a sign of disregard.

I’m not saying not to give plants as gifts. I’m just saying consider your audience. The idea of a gift, after all, is not to give something that you would enjoy, but something that the recipient would enjoy. And I’m telling you that there are people who would not enjoy the gift of a plant. It’s not some affront to your tastes, simply an explanation of theirs.

32

Did you miss the bit where I forgot that I had a plant and didn’t water it for months (possibly as much as a year)? Some succulents are unkillable.

If I thought someone wouldn’t like a plant, then I wouldn’t give one, but you’re saying that people would be freaked out by it, not just dislike it. The vast majority of people would like a plant as long as it was very easy-care.

33

In addition to putting the plant in a nice pot, you could also include something like an Aqua Globe, which should keep the plant watered for two weeks at a stretch. This might help ease the stress of maintaining the plant. Plus, they’re pretty.

34

I really don’t see the big deal here. People give gifts to others ALL THE TIME that the giftee doesn’t particularly care for or eventually ruin, lose, or regift. That’s just the nature of gift-receiving. A gift-giver should know this. A giftee should know it too.

Stress is when your house is burning down or your toilet is overflowing. Not taking care of a single houseplant!

A beautiful plant helps make a place a home, so it’s a perfect housewarming gift. Even if it doesn’t make it past a week, at least for that week it will have made a positive impression. If it dies, so be it. I’m sure the OP will understand.

There are tricks people use to make it easier to take care of high-maintenance plants, and they’re found all over the web. One thing that’s worked for me is that instead of watering plants from the top, I set the pot in a shallow container and fill that up with water. The water will trickle up through the pot (if it has drain holes) and keep the soil moist. Depending on the humidity of the room and the thirstiness of the plant, you might not have to refill it but once a week. Fertilize maybe once or every other month, or just use those slow-release plant food thingies that I use (they look like pieces of chalk). It IS possible to just “set it and forget it” for some plants.

If the OP’s sister can’t handle those kind of responsibilities, then there’s always aromatic candles. Do you remember the first aromatic candle you ever got? I sure don’t.

35

And the fact that you hold this opinion to be a universal truth is why you will never understand why some people would hate to be gifted with a plant.

36

This ^^^

Even nicer if it’s homemade or artisan bread and all wrapped up in a nice basket or something. :wink: Maybe with some preserves or cheese or something, heh.

37

And some people hate to be gifted anything, but others never seem to get the hint and still shower them with presents. How very rude of them. Some people just do not understand the burden of gifts. When will the madness end, I want to know.

I walk to and from home everyday. Just to keep myself occupied, I’ll look at what people have in their window sills and porches. Off the top of my head, I’d say about 75% of the houses I walk past on my 3.5 mile route have some type of potted plantlife either on their porch, stoop, or visible through a window. And those are just counting the houses that have visible plantlife. I’m sure there are many others who have plants and I just can’t see them.

Just about every office or cubicle in my building has a potted plant in it. Some people have virtual greenhouses going on in their workspaces!

I can’t think of anything else as ubiqutuous as the potted plant.

The OP has a very slim chance of burdening his sister with something she doesn’t like or can’t take care of, IMHO. And if she doesn’t like the gift, it will just go into the pile of other unwanted gifts she will no doubt receive over the course of her life. But chances are she will love the plant and especially the thought behind it.

You are making this out to be some major life decision when it is just a freakin’ plant we’re talking about.

38

You insist on giving people fruitcake every year for Christmas, too, don’t you.

39

From a post I made two years ago the coleus is still not dead, despite my considerable neglect (thanks twickster). And I’ve managed to kill phylodendron.

I’ve also found that those grocery store/Trader Joe/Costco orchids are surprisingly unkillable.

The one thing I would watch out for, make sure she has a place to put whatever you give her - I can’t have hanging plants, there’s no where to hang them from.

40

I personally do not like having houseplants and sadly when I got them as housewarming gifts I tried to keep them alive but they never survived.

When it’s been a housewarming happy after I’ve moved to a new area, honestly, I’ve greatly appreciated small gift cards to places like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, or to a local restaurant so I don’t have to worry about cooking during the unpacking stage. I personally like candles (not every one does) so I love those as well.

I’m gracious when any one gives me a gift for any reason… but I really hope that I don’t get plants (especially now that I have to worry about pets eating them).