The Rare, Unusual, and Hard-to-Find Plant Collection
Since 2008 when we opened our flagship nursery in Glen Mills, PA, we’ve been committed to being your go-to garden experts. From sharing our extensive bulb assortment every spring to offering a hand-picked variety of pumpkins each September, our plant team’s passion, knowledge, and resourcefulness is continually evident in the specimens they help bring in both in stores and online. It’s with this continual effort in mind that we’ve debuted our Rare, Unusual, and Hard-to-Find Houseplant Collection right here on our website for the first time.
Our in-store nurseries have always been full of these interesting varieties of houseplants—and as Melissa Lowrie, our senior plant buyer, says “we’re so excited to share these treasures with a wider audience. We’re thrilled to tell the world these stories and hope this encourages folks to visit our nurseries and do some digging on their own."
"The plants we’ve classified as “rare” aren’t necessarily rare on the planet, they’re rare within the existing plant market," Melissa says. "Finding a lot of these plants in propagation is the challenge. For instance, clusia grows wild all over Florida, but it’s not often that you find it at a nursery. We love it as a houseplant but lots of folks just don’t think of certain plants that way. Just because they're rare and unusual, it doesn't mean these houseplants are any harder to care for than your standard fussy maidenhair fern! That's the beauty of this collection."
It’s the same story for our “unusual” beauties. Melissa says “we define ‘unusual’ as a plant that’s being presented in a unique or interesting form. Maybe it’s finished on a totem or trellis, maybe it’s hanging, or maybe it’s the large size that makes it different.”
Melissa explains that many of these varieties are most commonly found as tiny starters; ours are sturdy, established, and much easier to care for because of their size. They’re plants meant to anchor a room and make a statement—true investment pieces to last a lifetime!
Melissa and her team go on grower’s trips four to six times a year, “crawling through greenhouses and looking for the things we find the most interesting. Those are usually plants that aren’t in wide production...maybe there’s three in the back of the greenhouse that we stumble upon. That’s when we get excited!”
She says that she and her team have spent years establishing relationships with growers from Canada to California, Florida to Pennsylvania. “The varieties you’ll find in our Rare, Unusual, and Hard-to-Find shop are often someone’s pet, something we’ve just stumbled across that no one was trying to grow. We’re just trying to offer up the coolest and most fun things we can find!”
We know that there are so many of you who are as passionate about houseplants as we are and we hope to meet many more of you from around the country with this new program. When you arrive at the nursery to pick up your new beauty, our knowledgeable nursery staff will be available to answer any questions you may have and give you tips on how to keep it healthy.
Our selection of rare, unusual, and hard-to-find plants is constantly changing, so be sure to visit our collection page often to see what’s new! And for more of the fine print details, please click here.
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