BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Houseplants Exotic Houseplants

Has anyone found any really interesting, exotic houseplants lately? I just recently found a gorgeous plant, Philodendron "Pink Princess". It has slightly different shape to it than a typical philodendron and it has (almost) black and hot pink variegated leaves! Supposedly, they are rare. I've never seen one before, that's for sure!

Also, what is the most exotic houseplant you have ever grown? I am going to buy one of these plants, and I think that would be my most exotic. lol!

I'm beginning to think I need to write some reviews on exotic plants! I'm surprised that not one person has thought of an interesting and unique houseplant...that they wanted to tell me about, anyway.

Fine then, I will!

Many many moons ago, (must have been something like 10-12 years ago) I bought my mom some plumeria cuttings at the NC Fair. We had gone to Hawai'i a few times when I was a teenager, and I remembered my mom loving the way the plumeria leis smelled.

After nothing but growing for a number of years, the plumeria trees are about 5 ft tall, and flower every year. I'm sure there's something we could be doing better, but hey, we haven't managed to kill them yet. They move inside and outside with the seasons, and they seem to enjoy the Southern humidity.

Hey, that's a good one! I never hear about anyone growing these....except in Hawaii, of course. I've seen the cuttings for sale online and thought about trying some. I don't think they'd like it here in Michigan very much. The summers would be great, but winters are so dry here.

For the past year I've been growing a nice bromeliad that I picked up on sale ($1!) because it had finished blooming. Broms are neat plants that frequently grow in trees in their native habitat, which is hot and humid jungles. They can be grown on a slab of bark anging on hte wall and watered thru' daily misting of water with a weak fertilizer in it.

I knew it would die back after blooming, but there was a small offset growing from the base. I figured for a dollar and a year or two of watering and feeding, I would have the 'pup' bloom. The mother plant is still with me, and pup is now 75% full-sized...plus a second pup has started. Basically they look like a green spiderplant with extra wide leaves right now.

I recently picked up cuttings of other epiphytes (plants that grow on trees but are not parasites)....RicRac cactus and Dragonfruit cactus and orchid cactus. As with my brom, I'll still grow them in soil and water every couple of weeks, because the humidity here (even with daily misting) isn't nearly high enough for them.

Plus I just got a rabbit foot fern. It often grows as an epiphyte, or even as a lithophyte (a plant that grows on a rock). It has fuzzy rhisomes that creep along the ground sending out a few roots from which shiny green fronds grow. These eventually will grow over the edge of the pot and completely engulf it in the fuzzy rhizomes. Some folks grow them on the outside of a pot by turning a clay pot upside down and settling the plant on top, watering by setting the pot in a saucer of water till it soaks up the water.

CountryKitty, you're my kind of plant enthusiast! Bravery can often bring some interesting specimens into your home. My husband really wants a bromeliad, but we haven't picked one up, yet. Maybe I should find one!

Thanks. Usually I hold back, but when it comes to a bargain I DO tend to plunge right in. And I rarely have regrets.

Walmart is carrying bromeliads right now--in fact, the one up the road has discounted the smaller ones whose blooms are fading. The larger ones are a species called Guzmania, same as mine. The smaller ones are half as big and are (I think) vriesias. Lowe's carries them too, tho' WM has them a bit cheaper right now.