Tropical House Plants - Care and Propagation

A few years ago I bought a greenhouse to keep my tropical plants in during the cold months here in NJ. I began to play around with cuttings, seeds, etc. of tropical plants and it has grown into the most satisfying and fun hobby/business you can imagine. With the help of Dave's Market Place and Plant Scout I am able to make room for more plants by selling them on these two sites. In fact, I am proud to say I have sold plants to people in almost every state in the USA. What fun it is meeting and sharing our tropical interests.

During this time, I have had so many questions about propagating and care of the tropical house plants. It takes hours to search and research for information , yet I know there are many other people out there with the same problems. I thought if we had enough interest here at DG on a forum for those who want information and guidance on the tropical house plants it would be a tremendous asset for everyone. For example, there are so many different Holiday Cactus, do you know how to tell them apart? Do you know how to start a new Jasmine Plant? Have you ever started a gardenia from a seed? Do you know how to take cuttings from plants to grow starter plants? Just so many things to learn and with a forum we could learn and grow together.

There are many tropical plants but not all of them can be grown as houseplants. The lucky people who live in the warmer climates have many of the same plants as those of us who need to grow in containers, but very few of them have experience of how to keep the tropicals alive in containers indoors year round.

This is why I would like to start a discussion on this topic and see if there is enough interest to warrant a forum. As it is, a tropical house plant grower need to belong to several groups outside of DG, they have to search for information on three or four other forums and just hope someone has the answer and the time spent there could be utilized doing something else more productive.

I am hoping there are more people out there that feel as I do. Dave's Garden is the place to go for all your gardening needs and information. I would like to keep it that way by starting a Tropical House Plant Forum .

There's already a forum for that: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/houseplants/all/ Maybe it could be renamed?

Of all the time I have been here I never looked or even saw that listing. I do apologize.
I guess I overlooked it because of the title or just never thought about it as not including tropical plants. I do not want to change anything someone else suggested, although, changing the name may eliminate some of the confusion.

It is funny no one I talked to lead me to that forum. Wow, I can not believe I missed it completely. I will put it on my list of watch from now on. It is up to you if you want to talk to the other people and see if changing the name would hurt anyone's feelings. If it is an old forum that was carried over from Dave then I doubt the person is still here and it would be o.k. to change the name. Thank you for the information. JB

In addition to the Indoor Gardening & Houseplants forum, we also have Tropical Plants: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tropicals/all/ Tropical Fruits: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tropicalfruit/all/ and Tropical Zone Gardening (a regional forum for those who actually live in tropical climates): http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tropics/all/

I would probably keep calling the houseplant forum houseplants--although the vast majority of plants that people grow as houseplants are indeed tropicals, most people (especially newer gardeners) don't necessarily think of them that way, they just think of them as houseplants. Or if a change is needed, maybe call it Houseplants & Indoor Tropical Plants?

I guess I am just one of these people who feel it is easier to find things if they are more specific.

Yes, Terry, I am aware of those Forums. Tropical Plants cover a wide range of beautiful plants, many of which are raised in the South and Tropical climates and not too many of those would survive in a container in the rest of the USA.

Tropical Plants covers a multitude of plants and the people usually are Master Gardners who are growing those beauties in their tropical wonderlands. LOL. Those of us who are snow birds have to weed out the ones we can grow in containers and that in itself is a whole new ballgame. It takes a lot of skill to grow Mandevilla, Bird of Paradise, Mitriostigna, Burbidgea and many more in containers. The people doing the container growing are the people I can relate to and want to talk to. That is why I guess I need to find a forum that is more specific.

You people in TX and California forget we are up here struggling to keep plants that you all take for granted will be growing outside your doors. Lucky you.
Thanks for the information.

Ecrane:

I realize you were making a general statement but I do think you are not being correct in your observation of what the "new" gardners call houseplants. The ones I deal with daily certainly know the difference between a tropical houseplant and a regular houseplant. No big deal. Certainly not worth getting into a tizzy about. Just wanted to clarify. Have a nice day. Stay cool.

Sorry if I offended--I actually meant to type "many" rather than "most". I've run across plenty of posts from newer gardeners (and some not so new) who think that houseplants are a special unique category of plants that are meant to live indoors and they don't think about the fact that they are actually tropical plants.

No problem, I am not offended. I think it has a lot to do with where we live and the kind of plants we have in our gardens. For example, I look at a begonia and I see a regular plant that can be planted outside as an annual or inside as a houseplant. Then there are some begonias that are tropical plants in our area because there is no way they would survive our winters. The same with Primroses. There are some primroses what will not survive but others that are annuals, therefore, those we take inside are houseplants.

There are also tender perennials that people take inside as houseplants which are not tropical plants. So we could go on and on and still not come to terms depending on where we live. Frankly, I could care less, I just like to keep it simple. LOL

Keep on gardening, no matter what you plant, just enjoy it and keep it simple.