What plants do you grow besides orchids?

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The Orchid Boy

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What other plants does everyone grow besides orchids? We have every sort of fruit tree, fruit bush, and fruit plant outside and have 2-3 big gardens every year. We also have lots of big flower beds with native and ornamental perrenials and all sorts of spring bulbs. Inside I have a few houseplants, Christmas cactus, a pot of cactus and succulents, mango tree, African violets, 2 hoya, lots of 'Big Mouth' vft's, Drosera spatulata 'Frasier Island', and 2 Nepenthes sanguinea
 
I have a small cactus garden alongside my driveway. My orchids share the greenhouse with several Hoyas and a few Bromeliads. That's about it.

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lots of weeds..but i have two apple trees in the back yard with a pile of some type of mint that is very prolific and a cherry tree in the front yard that produces three cherries (but a good bloomer of the blossoms)

i have a jade plant, some kind of euphorb and a creosite looking plant in the lviing room that do welll only because they dont require much water
 
I kill any other type of houseplant. :eek: Two spider plants, numerous ferns, African violets, Christmas cactus....name it, I've killed it.

We do have hardy cacti in our front garden. I planted those because our dearest neighbour children kept picking my flowers. They only messed with the cacti once....:rollhappy:....their mommy dearest wasn't too happy with me but she finally got the message to keep her rugrats on her own property.
 
Lots of ferns volunteer in the GH, and my wife pots them up and grows them as indoor house plants.

I have a handful of bromiliads in the GH too.
 
I have a real love for the Proteacea family (Protea's, Banksia's, Grevillea's, Waratah's etc.). I think this family contains some of the most spectacular horticultural plants on the planet. I'm currently trying to graft some of the spectacular Western Australia Banksia's. These contain some incredible species but their roots are very prone to soil Pathogens so they are hard to grow outside of their natural habitat where the soils are very sandy and well drained. There hasn't been a lot of grafting done with this genus, not even in the nursery trade. The success rate isn't high enough to make it economical. You have to do dicotyledon grafts so it is very delicate and difficult. I have had some success with a few species. I like the whole idea of grafting. There is something cool about creating a plant based on two species. It enables you to grow plants that would otherwise be impossible.
 
I used to grow all kinds of houseplants, but then the orchids took over. I still have a few Sanseveria, a few Hoyas, a few succulents, a large Elephant Foot (???) that I've had for over 40 years, and a couple other unnamed plants. But outside is another story -- lots of trees, bushes and perennials, and all but the trees have been planted by me and my husband since we moved here in 1999.
 
Indoors, my main interest after orchids are cacti and succulents. I was a cactus grower before I grew orchids. My youngest son developed an interest in succulents a few years ago, and spurred me on to resume that part of my collecting. Of course, being my son, he can't take an interest in my interests...so I love cacti...he hates cacti, except for Opuntia's, Pereskia's, and Pereskiopsis...the ones I hate because of those awful glochids. (He should repot them sometime...) But he did impress me with the Aluaudia's and some of the Euphorbia's. Orchids, of course, he thoroughly disdains. Except he wants a Phrag. lindenii. The slipper orchid without the slipper. It figures...............
Outdoors, I love Rhododendrons and deciduous azaleas, and Hemerocallis. And my veggies of course....(OK guys....I have found sources for Trinidad Moruga...the current world's record hot pepper! Next summer....prepare to cry!)
 
I have several types of Hoyas, Christmas Cactii, a Passion Flower Vine that I started this fall from a cutting and a couple of Amaryllis that I started from bulbs. I'm overwintering some stuff under lights in the basement: a pelagorum Geranium that was my mother-in-laws, a Baby Tut Grass (Cyperus) and a Mandevilla vine.

Outside: a yard stuffed with trees, shrubs and perennials too numerous to list here...
 
Outside, like many others, we have many common perrenials.
But our favorite plants over the years have been-
Ricinus communis
Aristolochia
Equisetum
Sarracenia
Canna Tropicanna (Phasion)
and,
Antirrhinum. The taller variety. They are bright yellow, and the hummers have hit them till mid November.
On the darkest nights, these look like some sort of low voltage lighting.
 
I have a huge Dieffenbachia that is well over 30 years old. A ficus, a spider plant, a Schefflera, a couple of pothos, and a few ferns.
 
I used to grow lots of different kinds of houseplants...over a hundred of them at one time...i realized i needed to downsize to focus on the orchids so i found them all good homes and now i just have a few.

i miss the african violets, jade plants, etc. i had an enormous Philodendron monstera from my advisor that was probably 5'x5'x8'...he originally grew them from seed probably 20 years ago...loved that plant!
 
Lots of different houseplants, but one of my favorite (when blooming) is Taca integrifolia (bat plant). Also like the begonias-rex varieties.

Outdoors (with the cyps), I have some trillium (including a double white; anyone know where I can find double pinks?), and Anemonella thalictroides 'Cameo' which I really like as it blooms for 2+ months.
Where there's more sun, I've got bletillas.
In the bog/pond where there's more sun, I have Sarrencia, dwarf waterlilllies (helvola is very floriforous), dwarf lotus, and some orchids (Calopogon, Dactylorhizas; may try a plantathera or habenaria in the future).
 
at the moment there is the coffee tree, the rosemary tree and some papyrus. the pots outdoors with veggies are mostly gone though there is still some parsley, lemon thyme and chives in a big pot in the entryway. there is a pot outdoors that I have to collect the few quinoa seeds that were produced and two more with some skinny purple kohlrabi
 
at the moment there is the coffee tree, the rosemary tree and some papyrus. the pots outdoors with veggies are mostly gone though there is still some parsley, lemon thyme and chives in a big pot in the entryway. there is a pot outdoors that I have to collect the few quinoa seeds that were produced and two more with some skinny purple kohlrabi

Do you roast your own coffee Charles?
 
Outside my Orchids I have a section in the garden were I have planted a number of different Hostas, each year I enjoy it a lot when they send their new shooths out of the ground.
 
Outside my Orchids I have a section in the garden were I have planted a number of different Hostas, each year I enjoy it a lot when they send their new shooths out of the ground.
I love Hostas, also. It's fun to watch them unfurl out of the ground. But I have to spray them with deer-away (not the name) or the deer eat them to nubbings.
 
I have a coffee tree that came from hawaii as a small seedling that's maybe a foot and a half tall now, so it hasn't produced any flowers or anything yet. Though I love the smell of coffee and love coffee flavored ice cream and sometimes chocolate-covered coffee beans, I don't really drink coffee. I would like to find some green seeds of jamaican blue mountain coffee to sprout and grow, if anyone is ever near any
 
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