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bedtime_gw

What are your best growing indoor plants?

bedtime
11 years ago

I'm not asking for your favorite. I'm asking for the ones that grow best in your house. Like the plants that seem to grow all year round for you and never go dorment. And the plants that are in great condition with little or no brown tips, rips, and scars of unknown origin.

I love my ficus elastica, and its in great condition but it goes dorment for about 5 months or more of the year, so this is definitively not my best growing plant for my conditions.

Here's my list:

Heartleaf philodendron - not a brown tip yet. 20-30% humidity and this just grows and grows

Schefflera Amate Solie - just keeps pumping out new leaves without rest. i call it 'monster'

monstera deliciosa - grows leaves all year round. even after i put it in a horrible compacted super slow draining (took 2hrs + to drain) soil it still thrived. no root rot. it just loved it.

So thats my list. I'd be interested in seeing others lists.

Comments (18)

  • Leafhead
    11 years ago

    My favorite is Aglaonema, which tolerates low light and dryer conditions. Water when the soil gets dry to the touch and they just keep growing...
    Any number of Dracaenas, esp Janet Craig, which takes similar conditions.
    Then there's the ZZ plant, which is very slow growing and thrives on neglect.
    And finally, Golden Pothos, which grows anywhere in the house.

  • ozarkia
    11 years ago

    Hmm. Tradescantia zebrina might be the winner for me, except it basically just overwinters as a stock plant, and then gets chopped up for hanging baskets in the spring. But I completely neglect it all winter and it certainly doesn't go dormant, but it looks like crap.

    If that doesn't count, I'd say Hoya carnosa. :D Or Epipremnum aureum, but the Hoya wins for personality.

  • elkay_gw
    11 years ago

    I'd have to vote for aglaonema, also. Spiders grow well for me, but I can't claim I don't have some brown tips here and there. Dracaena warneckii grow well, also. Pothos is pretty fool proof.

  • marguerite_gw Zone 9a
    11 years ago

    An interesting question, because It seems to me that the houseplants that grow best for me are my favourites, and I ask myself if they are my favourites because of that, or if they sense how much I like them and for that reason grow well. Anyway, the one that grows the very best is Ledebouria socialis, also a variegated Hoya bella, a dwarf Ficus benjamina, and Ctenanthe lubbersiana. I do love my marantas but they seem to struggle here, which does seem to answer the question I raised at the beginning of my reply. Echeverias and jade plants do very well here for me also.

  • roseyd
    11 years ago

    My favorite is usually what's fragrant and blooming.

    Be it Jasmines or gardenia - nothing better than to walk into a room and get the waft of an exotic scent ... it seduces you to the window to check which plant is in bloom... nose to flower to appreciate even more closely the intoxicating scent.

    Don't get me wrong - other plants are charming, and pretty - they have a presence - the catch the eye - but when you have a plant that touches a different sense, as well - then that is doubly valued.

    (But then, on the down months when the plants aren't in bloom - well, it gets rather depressing.) There's an addictive quality to these flowers that we try to keep alive and well, through non-tropical winters indoors.

    As I become more and more immersed in chasing unusual scents - I may discover that I'll soon be as attached to fragrant orchids, as I am to my gardenias.

  • birdsnblooms
    11 years ago

    Like Marguerite...most that do well year-round happen to be my favorites.

    Semi Tropicals: Citrus

    Tropicals: Variegated Scheff, 'one in particular,' Anthurium watermaliense, Rhoeos, Dracaenas

    Succulents: Jades, Euphorbias, 'Crown of Thorns.' Haworthias, and Gasterias.

    I'm not saying my plants that do well year round are in perfect condition. Especially tropicals/semi tropicals.

  • snappyguy
    11 years ago

    My best 3 are:

    -Kalanchoe tubiflora

    -Aeschynanthus "Thai Pink" - grows like a weed with little care

    -Columnea purpureovittata - a slow but steady grower, and I have it wick watered so I rarely ever have to think about it

  • Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)
    11 years ago

    I'd have to say Arabian Jasmine. I haven't had it long, so I can't say if this will apply year-round, though.
    My Ficus elastica never *appears* to go dormant, so my actual vote would be for that.
    Aphelandra squarrosa would probably top the list at "most prolific growth" but I often cut off leaves if the tips brown due to lack of humidity. But the thing just grows and grows -- and it's most definitely not my favorite plant, even if it is the loudest in the house.

    Rosey, I can't believe you said gardenia. I'd settle for gardenias not dying, never mind growing! :-D I have one outside doing great and one small plant inside doing OK -- and two outside doing the typical "you never know when I will drop dead on you" dance.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Another vote for heart-leaf Philodendron! Can tolerate a huge range of light conditions, not sensitive to tap water, as seems to also be the case for these other plants...

    Aglaonema modestum, unless I'm abusing it, has looked great for about 30 years. If part of it gets ugly, cut it off for pretty new growth.

    Sansevieria trifasciata always looks great (unless I let it get frost bite.)

    Jade plant is similar to Sans, leaves don't brown or wilt.

    Got to mention parlor palm, Chamaedorea elegans, for its' ability to live for decades in different amounts of light, being moved to many different houses, although palms in general are always in the process of losing the oldest leaf.

  • auron22
    11 years ago

    Hoya carnosa 'Krimson queen'
    Scheffera arboricola (just green)
    My schefflera does not seem to go completely dormant, leaves gradually get bigger and puts out flowers if the winter allows it.
    The Hoya goes completely dormant by nov-dec and puts out new growth by feb-march, but during summer when i put it outside there will be over a foot of new growth all over by late summer.

  • aviolet6
    11 years ago

    African violets because I spend a ton of time on them and have finally got their growing conditions just right : )

  • marricgardens
    11 years ago

    My favorite3 houseplants are the ones that are still alive. Right now my favorite 3 that are doing well are the 2 antirriums and the croton. The antirriums are flowering non-stop and I think the croton is going to flower.
    I tried to upload pictures but PB isn't working for me this morning. Marg

  • faerybutterflye
    11 years ago

    Bedtime, I'd have to say my favorites out of my collection of houseplants are my dieffenbachia & my monstera deliciosa & my syngonium podophyllum (arrowhead plant). Those 3 have always thrived for me in the house, year-round. Always popping new leaves & generally treating me well, with little trouble. (Well, until I moved to my new place a few months ago & monstera got upset with me while I tried to figure the best place for her here)

    I also have a dracaena fragrans (corn plant) & a pachira (money tree), but they sulk in the winter being in the house. Neither of them appreciate the heated dry air inside. Another of my favorites for inside the house is African violets. My grandmother has a collection that I care for (because she's 91 & forgets about them more often than not) & they consistently thrive in the house. One of them is over 60 years old, believe it or not, & has made cross-country journeys with my grandmother since she was a young woman!

  • teengardener1888
    11 years ago

    Very difficult queston. I would have to say my spider plants. Anthurium and my inky fingers coleus

  • petrushka (7b)
    11 years ago

    maranta prateada - I had to google it. just gorgeous!
    is it easy to grow? I think I like marantas...it's an aroid, right? saw tubers. aroids are super showy. I have African mask polly that I adore, but it does not qualify for this thread ... with dormansy and all the mites...
    I have many fave plants, but they don't grow easy usually. and what grows easy and dependable - still does not grow year round for me (it would if I were to live in florida for example..)
    with that said, the easiest dependable plants for me in z7b are ficuses of all sorts, sansevieria and 'golden pothos'. oh, and jades.
    all of them grow slowly and don't grow much in winter.
    BUT! they are the only plants that survived over the course of 20 years and grew quite BIG. that's smth to think about! what grows fast - needs to be constantly replanted and divided. lots of work! when you are keeping plants for decades, you are really not into monsteras... or scheffleras...unless you have a huge house, that is.
    I know bedtime is in the apt and so am i.

  • kaktuskris
    11 years ago

    Jades tend to do well for me...

    Christopher

  • terrilou
    11 years ago

    Hands down, its the Crown of Thorns; this plant blooms 365 days of the year, indoors or out, & I've had it at least five years.

    Terri