Houseplants to Drool Over

If you haven't noticed by now, I like plants. Plants give us food, shelter, something nice to look at, and lots of other good stuff (oxygen, anyone?). So it's only natural that I would like to have plants living in my house, when I get a house. Thus, today I am posting about just a few of the indoor plants I would like.

Note: yes, I said I would post about forsythia. I'm a dirty liar. My excuse is that there was torrential rain all day here, and I didn't want to get my camera wet. If it's still blooming tomorrow, I will photograph it.

The first plant on this list is one I recently discovered: purple shamrock (Oxalis regnellii). I saw some of these at work, probably leftover from the campus florist's St. Patrick's Day stock. They're gorgeous plants--the leaves really do look like butterflies--so I had to look them up. As you can see from that picture, the flowers aren't too shabby either! A quick Google search for "purple houseplants" revealed that these were indeed shamrocks. What I'm wondering is if the individuals in the greenhouse could still be purchased...(If I was Twitter literate, I'd currently be saying #overrun by plants.)

Next are a couple of plants I am fortunate enough to have already: the jade plant (Crassula ovate) and the spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum). These are two quintessential houseplants, and mine are faring wonderfully. I will keep them with me as long as I can.

Another discovery I made at work was the wandering jew (Zebrina pendula). This common houseplant also has the color purple going for it, and its foliage seems to shimmer, so I'm a fan.

I grew up with ferns, so it's only natural that I want one. Plus, they do a marvelous job of filtering the air in one's house. But rather than get a finnicky Boston fern that I have to mist, I'd like a birds nest fern (Asplenium nidus). These ferns get nice and big and lush, and they're originally epiphytic, so you can grow them in very shallow containers. Also, upon doing a bit of research, I just learned that these plants are edible! You can cook the young leaves (also known as fiddleheads) like you would any other vegetable. This is apparently common in Taiwan.

The last houseplant on my list (for now) is lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana). Yes, this is corny and cliche, but I like how the things look, and they're easy to care for. So why not?

What are your favorite or most-wanted houseplants?

Next post: either forsythia or a container garden update.