You all know that, in addition to my fairly extensive outdoor gardens… I have a rather ridiculous indoor garden with all my houseplants. Last count, which was a couple months ago, I had 153. I have plants in every room, in the house with the exception of the downstairs bathroom, the laundry room, Dave’s studio, and Dave’s workout room.

And with that many plants, you’d think I’d be content… but nooooooo I’ve brought several more home on our various adventures since then.

Walmart is a particularly tricky place – as they almost always adorable inexpensive plants. I already have a conical snake plant (like the one on the right) but not one that’s braided like that! And those two little cacti…. well height difference between the two reminded me of the height difference between me and Dave. They had to come home too!

I also already have a Swiss Cheese plant…. but not one in a cat pot!!!!

So Thanks Walmart – that one came home too.

I can’t remember exactly where this moon cactus came from…

I’ve killed several moon cacti over the years… but I’m a slow learned so I’m going to keep trying.

The pickle plant is another plant I killed (last summer in fact!)

But it’s not a plant I’ve seen for sale often, so when I found it at my fave nursery, I snapped it up. Those little pickles look sharp and pokey… but they are actually soft and fuzzy. That said, it still likes to be treated like a cactus (I killed mine with over watering.

My pink Arrowhead plant also died last year… but it wasn’t my fault. I had a pretty bad infestation of mealy bugs and I did a pretty big purge on the plants to get rid of it. The Arrowhead was one that sadly got purged.

But now I happily have a replacement. Arrowheads are one of my fave houseplants. They grow so well with minimal care. And of course, I adore plants that have pink in them.

Which brings me to this next exciting find. Back at the start of the Pandemic, the world got crazy into house plants. And some “rare” plants were going for CRAZY prices (think like $100-$500 a plant!). Well naturally growers took notice, and many of those “rare” plants can be found all over the place now and have really come down in price. One such is “Pink Princess” Philodendron.

She’s fairly small, but I pick this one up for $20. A far cry from what the prices were. $20 is also about the top of the range I’ll pay for a house plant… and only for special, unique things, like my Lifesaver Cactus, or my Bat Flower. Oh – and my orchids.

Another cool plant is the ZZ plant.

I do have a “regular” mid-green ZZ plant. But this one is a dark cultivar (there are several – this one is “Obscura” – but they all look more or less the same). The leaves are a deep dark green – almost black. If you like house plants, but have trouble keeping them alive – the ZZ is a great plant to try. They will take a lot of neglect, including low light.

Now.. on the unique front… I picked up this little Aeonium…

Now this may look like a Sempervivum (Hens and Chick Family)… but it’s not! instead of staying tight to the ground, it grows up like a tree. I learned about them from Gardener’s World… they come mostly from the Canary Islands, and are apparently a pretty common house plant in Britain. Here though… well honestly this is the first time I’ve ever seen them in the nurseries. It will be fun to see if I can keep this one going.

Same with this next one…

It’s called a China Doll plant… and I had no idea what it was until I brought it home. It was only $4 and I didn’t have one… so that’s why I bought it (cheap and not already in my collection is a reason I’ve bought a lot of plants!). Apparently its a bit of a fussy one…. so we’ll just have to wait and see how I do with it. As many plants as I have… I don’t really have any special knowledge or talent – I’m just keeping them alive on the fly! And I’ve murdered more than my fair share over the years!

And last…. this one doesn’t really count as a houseplant on a couple fronts…

1. It was completely dried out and clearly unloved so I had to rescue it (it was at Home Depot).
2. It’s going to go in the garden as soon as it’s warm enough.

It’s a Dianthan – just a tiny version different to the ones I have in the garden. It looks like Home Depot got them in for Valentine’s day. I’m not 100% that it’s hardy (the tag on the pot was useless) but it’s worth a try. It was going to die if I didn’t bring it home anyway!