I've actually come to appreciate the plants that make grand gestures when unhappy, but bounce back. It's like training wheels, I love it! Compared to two of my newly acquired lipstick plants, that just seem to randomly drop leaves with no prior notice, I'd take a dozen fainting Fittonias. In fact, seeing as I'm an over-waterer by nature, I think this might be a match made in plant heaven. Thanks for the tip!
I bought my first Rex begonia a few months ago and it died in less than 7 days. That told me I need to do way more research to see IF it would be happy in my home. Also, I've learned with my current setup/ home layout which plants seem to thrive, which ones suffer & which plants I cannot buy anymore even if I like them. I love the look of crotons but they are too finicky like a ficus and just don't like my home. Meanwhile, I have gotten into Aglaonemas this year and they are so happy. This is why even if a plant is labeled as "easy" doesn't mean it is for you.
Everybody has echeveria here in spain, you can find them growing wild everywhere. I think it is the best plant for beginners if you can put them outside in full sun. Resists overwatering and underwatering like the best, cold resistant, it flowers constantly, no pests, and it is even easier to propagate than a pothos...you can literraly get q full lush pot of echeveria in just 1 year from 1 single tiny plant.
Totally agree they super easy if you give them want they want mine grows wonderfully in the in UK. I know lots of people growing them nicely even northern England .
Crotons also known as san francisco here in the philippines is grown outdoors and placed as hedges in the gardens. They love full burning sun. They grow very lush and fast especially in the rainy season. However, they truly are a pest magnet- lots of aphids, spidermites etc.
Two of my first plants were a croton and a stromanthe Triostar. Your predictions are accurate 😂 Croton was naked within days of coming home. Stromanthe however did really good, grew into a beast of nearly 1.5 m wide (!!!). Yes she got spider mites, but only once. I had to chop her in the end, outgrew my dining table but 3 years later she lives on in a smaller form on my work desk 😊
I don't know why, but I, being a very new plant person, somehow managed to get myself into the weirdest plant-related circumstances really quickly. So, we got a new place, it came with windows and outside spaces (still not sure what to do with the ironically shady south-western part, which is basically surrounded by huge trees - maybe I'll plant all the crazy finnicky tropical ones there, see how they do, since it's a Mediterranean climate, I might be able to get away with it) and some leftover plants from the previous owners (huge out of control ferns!). Anyway, my mom said she'd get me a pothos to start me out easy, and then ended up bringing over a lovely philodendron scandens instead, which one of our cats objected to strongly, so it ended up being torn up a bit, but I moved it and rearranged its remains and it seems to appreciate the new location and no longer being mauled. I figured I should get a pothos anyway, since it's the beginner plant after all, got a couple cuttings off Facebook, and turned out one of those was basically nothing but stem except for three tiny leaves, and since it was an n'joy (and I find them pretty) I didn't want to just throw it away, so I ended up trying out a wet stick improvised prop box thing (in perlite, didn't have any moss), so that wasn't the easy layup I was looking for either (though it did work eventually, to the extent that I now have a lot of tiny leaves). Meanwhile I got a couple of dried up rootless Aloe Vera bits (mom again - I suspect she's just trying to force me to learn planty stuff), and I used the only one that got green and pretty relatively quickly as a trade for the disappointing pothos cuttings, thinking I could get the others to that stage easy, except they actually required way more attempts to get mostly right. At least they're green now, so fingers crossed. Also, since I like living dangerously, I got myself a couple of maranta. I don't think they like me very much, as they insist on randomly turning leaves yellow in a variety of inconsistent ways, but on the other hand, they're now both giving me new leaves constantly, so a bit of mixed messages going on there, but at this point I'm just glad they're not dead yet. So that's a sampling of the beginning of my plant journey. I choose to view it all as experiments, which makes it easier for me, but I think that with those, and the three varieties of lipstick plants, and the peperomia & syngonium the lipstick plant woman gave me as a bonus (the former promptly half died and is half growing, the latter has done very little other than unfurl a single leaf), and the herb garden, and the geraniums, and the tradescantia I just learned was hiding in my garden, and the Ficus tree that managed to sent its roots through its pot and into the ground (right next to the house and the water main) and the various other plants I've somehow gathered here, I think I should probably focus on unpacking and organizing the place so I'll have somewhere to put all the survivors. Except my mom's already notified me that I'm getting a hoya soon. Oh, well.
I live in northeast, US and am able to grow rex begonias outside in the shade. They burn in the sun here. Inside I have to put them in a terrarium or they crisp. They are so pretty!
I agree on the succulents. I haven’t killed any but it’s very hard to keep them as compact as they should be. There’s something I don’t get about Rex begonias: they’re really popular (in my country) with old ladies and I don’t see them doing anything special with them. They grow them in ambient conditions, don’t fertilise and even the soil they use doesn’t seem to be amended in any way, just straight potting soil from the corner store! How do they do it?
It's interesting how the pov changes depending on the area! For me, living in Spain, succulents are the easiest plants I have and can grow a lot without much care. I have at least 8, and none have died or had any pests since I've had them! Altho I must say that it must be hard to have plants that need as many direct bright light as succulents if your country isn't sunny. I struggle personally with tropical plants who need a lot of humidity because my area is sunny and dry, so yeah, I guess we all struggle with different things 😂❤. I had a P. Brasil that didn't make it this summer because of it, while our normal pothos are enjoying themselves outdoors. Spain I guess 😅
Yep, to all the ones mentioned, I also want to add two more. Wondering Jew and Bridal Vail. They’re beautiful plants, but they grow so fast that you have to keep changing pots if not some Leaves will die and then plant looks weird and uneven.
I have the unvariegated Stromanthe and its easy going, it just wants constant wet soil so using something well draining is good. Crotons grow great in high humidity and full sun, they are a Florida grandma plant.
Thank you for sharing your experiences! It is so interesting how it is different for everyone I’ve grown some of these plants that you mention since I started getting into houseplants (Caletheas/Stromanthe/Ctenanthe, rex/cane Begonias, Philo Pink Princess) they werent problematic for me, some I gave away and some I still have now, years later My hardest to grow (well/pretty) plants are Pilea, Aglanonema and Alocasia (though Alocasia grow well for me this year ever since I popped them into pure tree fern, hoping it will last)
💯 So spot on!! I always say my nerve plant puts the fit in fittonia 😂 I finally had some success after adding a watering bulb, but she's still a drama queen.
My mother had a begonia Rex in the darkest corner, then it losts all the leafs last winter. After i gave the rex attention, it came back very easy, and if plants do this, i love them. So i would they rex are easy If you don’t give up them. 💚
Nerve plants and Rex begonias are really beautiful but a pain in the butt, also two of my first plants. I feel like even though it’s normal for them to faint, it’s prob not great for the integrity of the plant to let that happen over and over again.
My Stromanthe Triostar has been one of my easiest plants. She’s in a self watering pot in PON. Now the Stromanthe Charlie, while stunning, has no desire to live. 100% agree on the PPP. Her pot broke the other day and I just chucked her in the bin. So much $$$ wasted.
You aren’t kidding about Crotons, mine was growing beautifully until I made the mistake of repotting it and it threw a fit and died lol. Haven’t had luck with them since lol! When I got a triostar stromanthe, the tag said “challenging plant” on it lol. I really lucked out with mine tho because the place that I put it in my home, it really loves and has done so well there that I know that I can never move it from that spot lol. What’s funny is that I have a medallion calathea right by it and that thing throws temper tantrums all the time! Since medallions are so common in stores near me and I never see triostars, I expected the medallion to be so much easier, but it wasn’t.
I have had plants in varying numbers my whole life. When I started really getting back into having a larger collection, I got many on your list. I currently have none of them. I would add to your comments that Phil Pink Princess also really needs to grow up a moss pole or be staked. I'm not sure I'd send a new plant parent in that direction either. I wanted to love that plant, but totally didn't. I may have set a record for how fast I killed a Croton. It was just a baby, but still. That one had zero will to live. I steer completely away from anything in the stromanthe, calathea, maranta family. I had a Calathea Ornata a few years back. It was doing great, it was going great, it was doing great, it was completely riddled with spider mites, it was dead. I just pass them all by now.
😂 I started with succulents (echeveria at first, later added some others) and crotons))) Nerve plant was also one of my first 10 plants. Well, I agree, they are not the easiest ones to begin with. But I should say I was quite successful with crotons and nerve plants. The only problem I had with crotons - I couldn’t get them to branch out for me. Well, and spider mites to be completely honest))
Succulents are soooo easy never had any stretching on my windowsills or outside in coldframes my issues with them are burning with heatwaves there than not enough sun . Guys don’t be discouraged of succulents they are such an awesome plants
I actually was very discouraged, when I bought a few succulents, that I thought were the colour, they showed in the On-line plant buying places in Canada. Not so. Those plants have been very sun stressed, to get that colour. So if I'm buying a succulent now, I buy it because I like the looks of it, not the colour. I feel that on-line plant sale nurseries are kind of deceiving the public by showing those colourful plants. I live in Alberta, Canada, and Cannot put them outside to colour up, the weather is too weird here. We can get rain, then it turns into a Thunderstorm, then can Hail. If they were left out in that they would all be dead. So I don't have a lot of succulents anymore, what I do have I keep in my Ikea grow Cabinets.
I have been keeping house plants for decades and I do okay with some Calathea, by can't keep a S. Triostar alive to save my life. I have never had the slightest interest in obtaining a P. Pink Princess or any Croton.
I've actually come to appreciate the plants that make grand gestures when unhappy, but bounce back. It's like training wheels, I love it!
Compared to two of my newly acquired lipstick plants, that just seem to randomly drop leaves with no prior notice, I'd take a dozen fainting Fittonias. In fact, seeing as I'm an over-waterer by nature, I think this might be a match made in plant heaven. Thanks for the tip!
I bought my first Rex begonia a few months ago and it died in less than 7 days. That told me I need to do way more research to see IF it would be happy in my home. Also, I've learned with my current setup/ home layout which plants seem to thrive, which ones suffer & which plants I cannot buy anymore even if I like them. I love the look of crotons but they are too finicky like a ficus and just don't like my home. Meanwhile, I have gotten into Aglaonemas this year and they are so happy. This is why even if a plant is labeled as "easy" doesn't mean it is for you.
Everybody has echeveria here in spain, you can find them growing wild everywhere. I think it is the best plant for beginners if you can put them outside in full sun. Resists overwatering and underwatering like the best, cold resistant, it flowers constantly, no pests, and it is even easier to propagate than a pothos...you can literraly get q full lush pot of echeveria in just 1 year from 1 single tiny plant.
Totally agree they super easy if you give them want they want mine grows wonderfully in the in UK. I know lots of people growing them nicely even northern England .
Omg i got a nerve plant for my first plant and it made me luvv plant care cos i could tell so easily when it needed a drink !!
Crotons also known as san francisco here in the philippines is grown outdoors and placed as hedges in the gardens. They love full burning sun. They grow very lush and fast especially in the rainy season. However, they truly are a pest magnet- lots of aphids, spidermites etc.
San Francisco.. interesting. 😀🌄
I found a small ugly pink princess last autumn in my lokal plant shop for €2,50 and now it’s 1m tall with big pink leaves and so pretty 😍
Two of my first plants were a croton and a stromanthe Triostar. Your predictions are accurate 😂 Croton was naked within days of coming home. Stromanthe however did really good, grew into a beast of nearly 1.5 m wide (!!!). Yes she got spider mites, but only once. I had to chop her in the end, outgrew my dining table but 3 years later she lives on in a smaller form on my work desk 😊
I don't know why, but I, being a very new plant person, somehow managed to get myself into the weirdest plant-related circumstances really quickly. So, we got a new place, it came with windows and outside spaces (still not sure what to do with the ironically shady south-western part, which is basically surrounded by huge trees - maybe I'll plant all the crazy finnicky tropical ones there, see how they do, since it's a Mediterranean climate, I might be able to get away with it) and some leftover plants from the previous owners (huge out of control ferns!).
Anyway, my mom said she'd get me a pothos to start me out easy, and then ended up bringing over a lovely philodendron scandens instead, which one of our cats objected to strongly, so it ended up being torn up a bit, but I moved it and rearranged its remains and it seems to appreciate the new location and no longer being mauled.
I figured I should get a pothos anyway, since it's the beginner plant after all, got a couple cuttings off Facebook, and turned out one of those was basically nothing but stem except for three tiny leaves, and since it was an n'joy (and I find them pretty) I didn't want to just throw it away, so I ended up trying out a wet stick improvised prop box thing (in perlite, didn't have any moss), so that wasn't the easy layup I was looking for either (though it did work eventually, to the extent that I now have a lot of tiny leaves).
Meanwhile I got a couple of dried up rootless Aloe Vera bits (mom again - I suspect she's just trying to force me to learn planty stuff), and I used the only one that got green and pretty relatively quickly as a trade for the disappointing pothos cuttings, thinking I could get the others to that stage easy, except they actually required way more attempts to get mostly right. At least they're green now, so fingers crossed.
Also, since I like living dangerously, I got myself a couple of maranta. I don't think they like me very much, as they insist on randomly turning leaves yellow in a variety of inconsistent ways, but on the other hand, they're now both giving me new leaves constantly, so a bit of mixed messages going on there, but at this point I'm just glad they're not dead yet.
So that's a sampling of the beginning of my plant journey. I choose to view it all as experiments, which makes it easier for me, but I think that with those, and the three varieties of lipstick plants, and the peperomia & syngonium the lipstick plant woman gave me as a bonus (the former promptly half died and is half growing, the latter has done very little other than unfurl a single leaf), and the herb garden, and the geraniums, and the tradescantia I just learned was hiding in my garden, and the Ficus tree that managed to sent its roots through its pot and into the ground (right next to the house and the water main) and the various other plants I've somehow gathered here, I think I should probably focus on unpacking and organizing the place so I'll have somewhere to put all the survivors.
Except my mom's already notified me that I'm getting a hoya soon. Oh, well.
I live in northeast, US and am able to grow rex begonias outside in the shade. They burn in the sun here. Inside I have to put them in a terrarium or they crisp. They are so pretty!
I agree on the succulents. I haven’t killed any but it’s very hard to keep them as compact as they should be. There’s something I don’t get about Rex begonias: they’re really popular (in my country) with old ladies and I don’t see them doing anything special with them. They grow them in ambient conditions, don’t fertilise and even the soil they use doesn’t seem to be amended in any way, just straight potting soil from the corner store! How do they do it?
My rex begonias are thriving in one of my colder room and I'm watering them twice a week. Mostly dischidias doesn't want to live under my care.
It's interesting how the pov changes depending on the area! For me, living in Spain, succulents are the easiest plants I have and can grow a lot without much care. I have at least 8, and none have died or had any pests since I've had them! Altho I must say that it must be hard to have plants that need as many direct bright light as succulents if your country isn't sunny. I struggle personally with tropical plants who need a lot of humidity because my area is sunny and dry, so yeah, I guess we all struggle with different things 😂❤. I had a P. Brasil that didn't make it this summer because of it, while our normal pothos are enjoying themselves outdoors. Spain I guess 😅
Yep, to all the ones mentioned, I also want to add two more.
Wondering Jew and Bridal Vail.
They’re beautiful plants, but they grow so fast that you have to keep changing pots if not some
Leaves will die and then plant looks weird and uneven.
I have the unvariegated Stromanthe and its easy going, it just wants constant wet soil so using something well draining is good. Crotons grow great in high humidity and full sun, they are a Florida grandma plant.
Thank you for sharing your experiences!
It is so interesting how it is different for everyone
I’ve grown some of these plants that you mention since I started getting into houseplants (Caletheas/Stromanthe/Ctenanthe, rex/cane Begonias, Philo Pink Princess) they werent problematic for me, some I gave away and some I still have now, years later
My hardest to grow (well/pretty) plants are Pilea, Aglanonema and Alocasia (though Alocasia grow well for me this year ever since I popped them into pure tree fern, hoping it will last)
The only way I can grow begonia Rex is in my cabinet where they are thriving but melted one first
💯 So spot on!! I always say my nerve plant puts the fit in fittonia 😂 I finally had some success after adding a watering bulb, but she's still a drama queen.
The nerve plant is a messy plant who lives for drama along with the purple waffle plant. Just doing the most for no reason.
Didn’t know the second plant was real and there is no way in Hades I’m googling up that plant. I mistype so much, that’s a huge nope!
Ha that could get you into some interesting results.
they are great if you are an over-waterer and never leave your home, lol.
@@Gee-xb7rt Hey, that's me! Now I'm seriously considering getting one.
And I swear that's all walmart and Lowes sells! Lol😂 I go thinking I'm going to find a gem, and I am always disappointed 😅
My mother had a begonia Rex in the darkest corner, then it losts all the leafs last winter. After i gave the rex attention, it came back very easy, and if plants do this, i love them. So i would they rex are easy If you don’t give up them. 💚
Nerve plants and Rex begonias are really beautiful but a pain in the butt, also two of my first plants. I feel like even though it’s normal for them to faint, it’s prob not great for the integrity of the plant to let that happen over and over again.
My Stromanthe Triostar has been one of my easiest plants. She’s in a self watering pot in PON. Now the Stromanthe Charlie, while stunning, has no desire to live.
100% agree on the PPP. Her pot broke the other day and I just chucked her in the bin. So much $$$ wasted.
You aren’t kidding about Crotons, mine was growing beautifully until I made the mistake of repotting it and it threw a fit and died lol. Haven’t had luck with them since lol!
When I got a triostar stromanthe, the tag said “challenging plant” on it lol. I really lucked out with mine tho because the place that I put it in my home, it really loves and has done so well there that I know that I can never move it from that spot lol. What’s funny is that I have a medallion calathea right by it and that thing throws temper tantrums all the time! Since medallions are so common in stores near me and I never see triostars, I expected the medallion to be so much easier, but it wasn’t.
Can only agree with nerve plants and succulent plants. Been there as i startet with plants.
I have had plants in varying numbers my whole life. When I started really getting back into having a larger collection, I got many on your list. I currently have none of them. I would add to your comments that Phil Pink Princess also really needs to grow up a moss pole or be staked. I'm not sure I'd send a new plant parent in that direction either. I wanted to love that plant, but totally didn't. I may have set a record for how fast I killed a Croton. It was just a baby, but still. That one had zero will to live. I steer completely away from anything in the stromanthe, calathea, maranta family. I had a Calathea Ornata a few years back. It was doing great, it was going great, it was doing great, it was completely riddled with spider mites, it was dead. I just pass them all by now.
😂 I started with succulents (echeveria at first, later added some others) and crotons))) Nerve plant was also one of my first 10 plants. Well, I agree, they are not the easiest ones to begin with. But I should say I was quite successful with crotons and nerve plants. The only problem I had with crotons - I couldn’t get them to branch out for me. Well, and spider mites to be completely honest))
Experience with growing food plants at home, or growing from seed, such as avocado pits. I have grown avocado for fun, and even a silly potato. lol
I agree 100% on every plant!
Succulents are soooo easy never had any stretching on my windowsills or outside in coldframes my issues with them are burning with heatwaves there than not enough sun . Guys don’t be discouraged of succulents they are such an awesome plants
I actually was very discouraged, when I bought a few succulents, that I thought were the colour, they showed in the On-line plant buying places in Canada. Not so. Those plants have been very sun stressed, to get that colour. So if I'm buying a succulent now, I buy it because I like the looks of it, not the colour. I feel that on-line plant sale nurseries are kind of deceiving the public by showing those colourful plants. I live in Alberta, Canada, and Cannot put them outside to colour up, the weather is too weird here. We can get rain, then it turns into a Thunderstorm, then can Hail. If they were left out in that they would all be dead. So I don't have a lot of succulents anymore, what I do have I keep in my Ikea grow Cabinets.
Omg… I had pink princess,begonia before,and unfortunately, didn’t last long with me smh 🤦♀️
I have been keeping house plants for decades and I do okay with some Calathea, by can't keep a S. Triostar alive to save my life. I have never had the slightest interest in obtaining a P. Pink Princess or any Croton.
Totally agree with you Emma 👍👍
This is Emma, Clair is on another channel. 😄
@@ErikaA2582 woops senior moment 😂😂 Thank you 🥰
Years if experience 😂😂😂.... Joking