Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Sorry, I Have Plants for the Weekend. 😉🌵🌸
61
items They'll grow on you (figuratively, anyway). This is a brief diary of the succulents (including cactus) and everything else that I've grown (and found varying degrees of success in nurturing!) I have green thumbs for most of them. 😂 Note: This list m...
Sections
5
Live Plants (Indoor)
Live Plants (Outdoor)
Live Plants (Indoor/Outdoor)
Plant Care
Poking Fun at (and with) Plants
Live Plants (Indoor)
Plants can brighten up your garden, mood, and home – either by their stunning blooms/leaves, or their ability to do good for us by eliminating toxins. I think of them as my little green children. Here are some of my favorites, which I keep as housepl...
I have recently acquired an African spear (formerly sansevieria cylindrica but is now called and classified as dracaena angolensis). This low-maintenance, drought-tolerant succulent likes bright, indirect light, but can tolerate low light conditions,...
African Spear Plant (dracaena angolensis / sansevieria cylindrica)
Burro's tail is a spiller succulent! It's fun to grow, but even the gentlest knocking will cause the leaves to fall! :)
Burro's Tail (sedum morganianum)
1
Also known as Pussy Ears (because the leaves are as soft as a cat's ears – just don't expect this plant to purr). A wonderful addition to any houseplant collection! They'll grow on me (but not literally – after all, they're not epiphytic! 😉)
Chocolate Soldier Plant (kalanchoe tomentosa)
1
They don't just produce amazing clusters of red, orange, or pink flowers during Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. Under the right conditions, these false (tropical) cactuses will do so a few times a year—and sometimes, when you least expect them to...
Christmas Cactus (schlumbergera truncata)
Also known as the bottle cactus, spice cactus, and drunkard's dream, this is one fun succulent to look at!
Dancing Bones Cactus (hatiora salicornioides)
A beautiful succulent whose leaves resemble a single gorgeous dark green rose! It does not clump, but keeps growing taller and taller like a living tower! Makes a wonderful indoor houseplant (note: it is *not* easy to propagate!)
Echeveria Dionysos
This beautiful perennial houseplant produces amazingly long-lasting clusters of brightly-colored flowers, in shades ranging from orange to yellow to pink!
Flaming Katy (kalanchoe blossfeldiana)
A real stunner that does well with bright indirect sunlight (inside a home or outside in a slightly shaded area). It can be quite prolific when it comes to producing pups. The flowers and flower stalks are amazing, too!
Lace Aloe (aristaloe aristata)
I am a proud owner of 2-year-old lithopses. They ask for so little, in exchange for a little time on the windowsill. They rewarded me last year by producing flowers for the first time. :)
Lithops aka "Living Stones"
4
An amazing low-maintenance and low-light houseplant that produces fantastic orange clusters of blooms!
Natal Lily (clivia miniata)
A delightfully rotund ball of cuteness with dainty hot pink or yellow clusters of flowers.
Powderpuff Cactus (mammillaria bocasana)
These are a remarkable looking variety of jade plants that will draw a second glance for their unusual spatulate leaves. Jade plants oxygenate your livings on a 24/7 basis (unlike other plants, which pack it in when the sun goes down!)
Shrek Ears aka Gollum Jade aka E.T.'s Fingers (crassula ovata)
Thanks to its flat, arachnoid-like spikes, it's easy to see how and why the popular Spider Cactus got its name. This is a low-maintenance plant that does well on a windowsill. It loves lots of bright light, and it will reward you with lots of growth ...
Spider Cactus (gymnocalycium horstii)
2
Spider plants are reputed to have the ability to cleanse toxins from the air (note: the bigger your living spaces, the more you will need to have). They look great in hanging planters!
Spider Plants (chlorophytum comosum)
Live Plants (Outdoor)
These plants are best kept outdoors. All that produce flowers do die off after summer's end (with the exception of sempervivum and stonecrops--which also flower--and can survive exceedingly cold winters in North America and make great year-round grou...
This striking needle-like stonecrop is a wonderful cold-hardy replacement for your lawn!
Angelina Stonecrop (sedum rupestre)
Gaillardia will deliver amazing pops of color to your summer garden! Available in tall and low-growing varieties, they need very little care … just make sure they get lots of bright direct sun; they don't even need much water! Their self-seeding natu...
Arizona Blanketflowers (gaillardia)
One of my favorite fall flowers – that periwinkle shade of blue grows in tight bunches and stands out so well from autumn's revered reds, yellows, and oranges!
Aster Woods Blue (syphyotrichum cordifolum 'Wood's Blue')
Watch bumblebees, honeybees, and hoverflies turn your California Lilac into a giant purple beehive of activity!
California Lilac (ceanothus)
Heather will draw in scores of bumblebees and honeybees! Available in purple and white, there are both summer and winter varieties to enchant gardeners and plant lovers all year long!
Heather (calluna)
Sempervivum and houseleek are its other aliases. Hens & chicks dazzle in a stunning variety of colors (from green to wine red to gold) and patterns. The extremely prolific nature of these succulents makes them a great choice for flowers and groun...
Hens + Chicks (aka liveforever)
I have both orange and pink honeysuckle vines in the backyard for color variety. That they come back year and year is an added bonus.
Honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum)
This hardy, low-growing Siberian succulent resembles small green rosettes that like to grow together in large colonies. Works well in partial shade to full sun. Perfect as an all-year-round groundcover/grass replacement!
John Creech Stonecrop (sedum spurium)
You know that my favorite color extends to plants, right? Lavender doesn't just make up potpourri sachets – the flower buds can also be used in cooking!
Lavender (lavandula)
A feast for the eyes that's available in many colors (and even two-tone ones)! If you want pollinators like bees and hummingbirds beating a path to your garden, this hardy, eye-catching perennial will do the trick.
Lupine (lupinus)
2
Meadow sage is another beautiful pollinator-friendly flower. I've opted for the perennial purple variety. :)
Salvia (salvia)
I have the scarlet one, but the yellow one is just as spectacular. Comes back year after year and the lovely profusion of blooms is beautiful to behold!
Scarlet Trumpetvine (campsis radicans)
The first encounter I had with any outdoor succulents was the low-growing Sedum Album 'Coral Carpet'. These resemble shiny green grains of rice (in the spring and summer), darken to a nice shade of wine red (in the fall and winter), and grow quickly ...
Sedum Album Stonecrop (low maintenance flowerbed replacement )
One of my favorite flowers! These bloomed for 3 years straight in my backyard garden, and I always anticipated their opening! They have a lovely fragrance and gorgeous colors.
Stargazer Oriental Hybrid Lilies (lilium stargazer)
These colorful and showy blooms come in many dazzling color combinations! Even the non-pollinators (like chickadees love the nectar that drips from these flowers!
Torch Lily / Poker Plant (kniphofia)
Available in a bright assortment of colors. Yarrow flowers should be deadheaded regularly when the blooms are spent, to make way for more flowers!
Yarrow (achillea)
Live Plants (Indoor/Outdoor)
These plants can be kept outdoors (during the growing season) and indoors (during fall and winter).
Also known as wax plants, Anthurium may look artificial– but they're the real deal! In addition to their aesthetic value, anthuriums absorb and filter toxins from indoor living spaces. I prefer the fire engine red flowers over the pink ones.
Anthurium (wax plant)
I am the proud owner of these mini cactuses – which all have since gone through puberty growth spurts and become significant colonies in their own right. Arizona Snowcap has a scientific name that is far more daunting than itself. This delightfully c...
Arizona Snowcap Cactus (mammillaria gracilis fragilis monstrose)
Easy to grow, the Citronella Geranium (which, despite its alternate moniker of Mosquito Plant, does not actually repeal mosquitoes) gives off a wonderful citrusy scent when the leaves are rubbed between your fingers. Produces small pink flowers. Grea...
Citronella Geranium (pelargonium citrosum)
That scientific name is a mouthful! Coleus is one of those plants (poinsettias being another) whose leaves outshine the flowers! You can actually have it grow as a perennial if you take it into your home before the temperatures drop in the late fall.
Coleus (plectranthus scutellarioides)
The cactus that got me started with all other cactuses. Easter Lily Cactuses are prolific at producing offsets (pups) as well as stunning white or pink flowers through the growing season.
Easter Lily Cactus (echinopsis oxygona)
Plant Care
Even low-maintenance plants need more than light and water to stay healthy. Regular TLC is required to help them oxygenate and beautify our homes, and these low-cost solutions do the trick!
I'm not always going to be there for my plants on a 24/7 basis (and a plant sitter isn't always possible), so these watering globes are a necessity!
5-Star Super Deals Glass Plant Watering Bulbs (4-Pack)
Add greenspace and a touch of the rustic to your home or office quickly with this popular, easy-to-assemble, and sturdy wooden display stand.
Costway 6-Tier 11 Pots Wooden Plant Flower Display Stand Wood Shelf Storage Rack Garden
Add cuteness and quaintness to the greenhouse or outdoors with this flower cart style display stand!
Costway Heavy-Duty Metal Plant Display Stand Flower Cart
If you want your houseplants make a statement for you, you have got to get this multi-level display stand, which sports stunning aesthetics, grow lights, and wheels!
COZONY 9-Tier Plant Stand with Integrated Grow Lights, Metal Display Shelf with Wheels
These stakes are just tall enough to support my indoor houseplants (e.g. jades) that haven't started corking yet and need a “little training”. Having said that, I do have a preference for dense, low-growing plants--and whenever possible, I try to pru...
Cubilan 18" Bamboo Plant Stakes (50-Pack)
Turn your obsession into a conversation piece with this disco ball hanging planter!
Disco Ball Hanging Planter
The best way to showcase plants that are one of a kind (or three of a kind). That these weather-resistant planters are made of rice hulls (as opposed to plastic) is an added benefit.
EcoForms Quadra Trio 3.5" Square Rice Hull Planter Set
This compact multi-level metal plant stand is great for indoor/outdoor use in the smallest of spaces!
EcoSummer 6-Tier Metal Plant Stand
These gloves are a necessity when I'm handling prickly cactuses--even the small ones can deliver quite the “love bite”! Hands down (pun intended), these are the best gardening gloves I've ever used! Very durable, well made, and comfortable. Definitel...
Gardena Latex Gardening Gloves
I love using glass planters to showcase my succulents. They give me an interesting look at the plant below the level of the soil.
Glass Capsule Hanging Planter
Who knew that grass could be so versatile? I've been using bamboo to stake up and “train” growing plants! I so much prefer using bamboo over their plastic counterparts.
Hydrofarm 48" Bamboo Plant Stakes (25-pack)
These mini hand tools aren't just cute to look at, but indispensable for moving houseplant seedlings and tender succulent offsets to their next size pots, adding soil without spilling it onto those young plants – and the pruning scissors are wonderfu...
Nature Spring Gardening Hand Tools Kit (7-Piece Set)
These work like a charm – I caught my first soil gnats within a few minutes of setting up these traps!!
Safer's Houseplant Sticky Stakes, 8-Pack
I use perlite, not just to increase aeration and drainage of my (already well-draining) succulent soil, but to boost plant aesthetics, too!
Sta-Green Organic Perlite, 8 Qt
Sometimes when I'm pressed for time (or I've run out of one or more components of succulent soil), pre-made succulent soil is a must.
Sun Gro Organic Cactus & Succulent Potting Soil Mix, 8 Qt
I like to organize my plants, and there's no better way to deliver a sense of aesthetics inside my home than with these multi-tiered plant stands!
Vecelo 5-Tier Wood Plant Stand, Tall Metal Wood Flower Shelf for Multiple Plants, Round Corner Display Rack for Garden/Balcony
Poking Fun at (and with) Plants
Designs celebrating our green buddies – often in tongue-in-cheek ways; but sometimes, reverently!
This horrible groaner (are there any other kinds?) will get you kicked out of the greenhouse!
AS Warning Sometimes I Wet My Plants Gardening Joke T-Shirt
Hey! That could be my line! But I do like to wax eloquent about succulents, cacti, and unusual flowers … I could hold classes!
O&T Funny Introverted But Willing to Talk About Plants Tote Bag
Another groaner that's guaranteed to get the reader in stitches! I am going to have to think hard to come up with puns this funny!
RA Say Aloe To My Little Friends Gardening Pun T-Shirt
Gift your favorite plant lover with this cute and funny mug, which features two potted plant illustrations and the phrase "crazy plant lady." Personalize with a name.
RVDC Crazy Plant Lady | Funny Personalized Plant Lovers Two-Tone Coffee Mug
You only have to worry if you resemble a fly.
SG Carnivorous Plant Feed You To My Venus Fly Trap T-Shirt
Get ready to dig into fun with this cute widdle invitation, which features a cute happy kawaii pot in watercolor against an off-white background. Perfect for a spring or garden-themed baby shower.
TPG Cute Little Sprout Spring Baby Shower Invitation
Let one and all know that you have a weakness for (even the prickliest) green growing things with this whimsical wallpaper design, which features cute potted baby cactuses rendered in soft pastel tones.
W2A Funny Cacti Everybody's Crazy 'Bout Sharp ... Wallpaper
If you are a plant parent, horticulturist, botanist, or gardener, then this hilarious "Obsessive Compulsive Plant Disorder" throw pillow with various houseplants will let everyone know what medical challenge you "suffer" from! And please ... seek hel...
W2A Funny Obsessive Compulsive Plant Disorder Throw Pillow
Show your support for those carbon-sequestering superheroes with these leggings, which feature a repeating pattern of trees of varying shapes and sizes, grouped together in the shape of Mother Earth.
W2A Green Forests of Trees Leggings
Part brainteaser, part assemble-it-yourself art, this challenging, nature-themed puzzle is great for improving muscle memory. A top-down closeup of several cultivars of sempervivum (also known as live forever, houseleek, and hens and chicks) transpla...
WWN Bird's Eye View of Sempervivum Plants Jigsaw Puzzle