Thread: What's your favourite houseplant?

Can you even choose a favourite?

What’s your favourite houseplant? Which one has a story that makes it special, a unique way of growing, or unusual leaves? Which plant hung on in spite of everything?

Of course, asking you whether you have a favourite houseplant made me think whether I have a favourite.

At first I thought I’d be able to make up my mind quickly. It has to be the Argyraeus scindapsus pictus (which I also raved about in this post). Those leaves! That pattern combined with the matte finish! It’s a fairly quick grower, cascades effortlessly and is easy to propagate too. What’s not to love?

One of 3 Argyraeus scindapsus pictus that live in my home

Then, of course, I started to doubt. Yes, I love the Argyraeus scindapsus pictus. But there are other plants I also love. Ones that I get maybe a little bit more joy out of than some of the others (shh, don’t tell them…).

Over the summer I started a small collections of Hoyas (also known as wax plants). I love their thick, glossy leaves and their unusual patterning. And then there are plants with a story, and plants that I love because they’re so unusual.

A plant with a story

Back in the 1970s, my grandfather had a large Euphorbia leuconeura (Madagascar jewel) in his office at work. I suppose that when he retired in the early 1980s, he took it home with him. It was tall and straggly and would shoot seeds out across the room. My grandfather died in 1988. The Euphorbia leuconeura somehow ended up 300+ kilometres away in my mother’s care.

There it survived, shooting seeds, and growing taller and stragglier, for the next thirty years or so.

Until it died.

My mother is kind enough to say that it was her fault that it died, but it happened shortly after I watered it as a beginning plant-lover (and thereby managed to flood half the living room floor), so I wonder whether it’s not really my fault.

So that was the end of that plant.

Three years ago or so, I came across a tiny Euphorbia leuconeura seedling in a local plant store. I took it home and soon got attached to it: some of that specialness of the other plant, combined with my memories of my grandfather, got superimposed on the plant.

It didn’t do well at first. The first winter in our home it lost all but one of its leaves. I needed to prop its stem up with a toothpick. Somehow it survived. And now, it’s glorious.

The Euphorbia leuconeura

I’m still especially protective of this plant. Its stem seems ridiculously thin and shaky for such a large head of leaves. I thought about repotting it this summer but didn’t dare to—maybe next year.

Plants with unusual leaves

The Euphorbia leuconeura has quite special leaves: they’re matte green with a fine pattern.

But the queen of peculiar leaves is no doubt the Philodendron verrucosum. It is just so dramatic and weird with its hairy stems and large, velvety green leaves that are red on the bottom.

Philodendron verrucosum on my dining table

In general, I try not to get too attached to my plants. In the past I’ve been genuinely saddened when a plant died, and I know that sometimes plants die for reasons outside of my control.

But these plants, though, have a special place in my heart. So I might not have one favourite, but a shortlist of favourites.

What about you? What’s your favourite houseplant? Do you have a good houseplant story that makes a plant special to you?