Demanding Miniature Rose
Miniature roses require 6 hours of sunlight for healthy growth, but they can be finicky and require a greenhouse for optimal light, making it difficult to maintain their foliage after blooms drop.
Balky Boston Fern
Boston fern is easy to grow but difficult to maintain due to lighting sensitivities. Its fronds can shrivel, rootball dry out, and once removed, it becomes a sad sack plant.
Challenging Calathea
Pin-stripe calathea, a beautiful foliage plant, thrives in warm, humid environments with bright indirect light, but requires evenly moist soil and regular fertilizer for optimal growth.
Tropical Banana PlantThe banana plant thrives in warm, humid greenhouses, requiring full sunlight and 50% humidity for optimal growth, unlike the arid indoor air in winter.
Outdoorsy Basil
Basil is a versatile herb suitable for cooking, requiring at least 6 hours of direct sunlight for efficient growth. It can be picked from the garden or sheltered from frost in fall, but winter is more successful.
Flowering Maple
Flowering maple, or abutilon, is a tender shrub hardy in Zones 9-10, attractive outdoors with maple-like leaves and mallow-like flowers. It's hard to keep indoors and can be attacked by whiteflies, spider mites, mealybugs, and scale.
Better-Outside Begonias
Rex begonias are known for their attractive foliage, which can appear tattered indoors and brown in winter, and prefer cool temperatures around 60 degrees.
Fussy Streptocarpus
Streptocarpus, a popular houseplant known for its textured leaves and bright blooms, is often overwatered, under-drained, or suffers from leaf die-back and mealybug attacks.
Prickly Plants
Plants that are sharp, pointy, or prickly are unsafe for toddlers and older kids, so it's best to keep them in separate rooms.