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Easy Care & Clean Air Tropicals

     Adding some tropical greenery into your home and/or office is a great way to (literally) liven up your living spaces, and there are many easy care options for anyone who may not have the greenest of thumbs. By “easy care” we mean that these varieties require the basics to survive and thrive – light, water, warmth, and occasional feeding – without the need to check up on them constantly. So your Spider Plant will easily forgive you if you forget to water it for a day or two.

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Success with Tropicals – General Care & Tips

     Tropical Houseplants, like people, thrive in ideal locations but can also adapt to less than ideal situations, at least to a point. Growing requirements for your plants such as light, water, temperature, soil, nutrients, and humidity must be kept in balance to keep your plant happy and thriving.
Stress is often the #1 issue for Houseplants, and it can be caused by a single issue or a combination of many things. A move to a new location; being repotted; watering too often (kept too wet); drying out too much between watering; watering too little (kept too dry); sitting in water; too much light; not enough light; temperature fluctuations (heating vents, cold windows, close to exterior door); lack of humidity, etc. When plants are under stress, they can drop leaves and become susceptible to insects and diseases.

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Tropical Houseplant Profile: Phalaenopsis Orchids

When you think of the words “exotic”, “graceful”, and “tropical”, what plant comes to mind? Your brain immediately went to an orchid, didn’t it? The Phalaenopsis Orchid, if we’re being specific, right? Looks like great minds think alike! Read More

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Vibrant and Showy Tropicals

Tropical Houseplants give us so much and they ask for so little in return. Their colourful blooms help to brighten our days and caring for their basic needs help to keep us mindful; many varieties even help to clean our air! Belgian’s Tropical greenhouses are filled with amazing Tropical Houseplants in a wide range of sizes, colours, and textures to match any home and style.

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Tropical Plant Profile: Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea, possibly the most spectacular of all flowering Tropical houseplants! Its long, arching and thorny branches have an upright-ish nature, and are tipped with papery flower bracts in some of the most vibrant shades you’ll see on an indoor Tropical! Bright pinks, purples, and even orange could be filling your homes right now!

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Tropical Plant Profile: Peperomia

Looking for a low growing tropical with perfectly rounded, bright green leaves? Or how about a bushy rosette of deeply ribbed foliage with dark veining and burgundy undersides? Or you could go the opposite direction with tall, upright and arching succulent branches with leaves featuring bright red undersides. If any of these have peaked your interest, you may be surprised to know that they all come from the same plant family – Peperomia!

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Tropical Plant Profile: Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema)

Chinese Evergreens are some of our favourite Tropical houseplants for so many reasons! It’s one of the best Clean Air plants out there, it can handle just about any light location, is incredibly low maintenance, and it’s simply gorgeous!

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Tropical Plant Profile: Citrus

Believe it or not, it is possible to grow citrus fruit in southwestern Ontario! Yes, given the right growing conditions and level of care, you can actually make fresh lemonade from your own Lemon tree! Or maybe you prefer freshly squeezed orange juice, or some delicious lime tarts, but before you get too hungry come over to Belgian and see our gorgeous Citrus plants!

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Tropical Houseplants are Wonderful Because …

Why do we love tropical houseplants so much? Is it because they clean the air, boost our mood, give us a much needed screen break, they’re just so pretty, or all of the above? You probably know our answer, so what about yours?

You’ve probably heard that tropical houseplants can help clean the air in your home, but just in case you haven’t: back in the 1980s, NASA sent 12 ‘common’ tropical houseplants (Snake Plant, Pothos, etc.) into space and studied changes to the air quality within a controlled environment, aka the Space Shuttle. They found that tropical houseplants not only remove toxins and chemicals from the air, they also increase humidity and oxygen levels. So thanks to some highly trained astronauts and scientists, we can all breathe easier, literally! But we don’t just love tropicals for their air purifying skills…

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Tropical Houseplant Profile: Pothos

When it comes to easy care and low maintenance houseplants, no one can deny that Pothos should be at the top of the list. These lush, trailing specimens can handle most light situations and even thrive in low levels of sunlight, which means they can go just about anywhere! And they’re incredibly low maintenance; just a deep watering after drying out slightly and an all-purpose fertilizer every 4^th watering is all they need to thrive. It’s this easy going lifestyle that makes Pothos the perfect gift for anyone on your list, especially if you’re not sure of their home lighting or watering habits!

Pothos have long, trailing tendrils that are covered with lush heart-shaped foliage that is a bit wider than a Philodendron. The most famous variety is the Golden Pothos which features bright green and golden yellow marbled leaves; other varieties come in solid green, bright chartreuse, or green marbled with creamy white. Their trailing habit makes them perfect for hanging baskets, or they can be trained to grow up a trellis and other vertical support (but you’ll have to encourage it to deny the laws of gravity).

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Tropical Houseplant Profile: Tropical Fern Family

If you’ve been looking for a tropical houseplant that has incredible foliage in a wide range of shapes and textures, look no further than the tropical Fern family. This family is HUGE and spans a wide range of environments and habitats; for this blog we’ll focus solely on the indoor varieties and leave the perennial outdoor garden types for another time. But even when we limit ourselves to tropical ferns, there are still way too many varieties to count so let’s get to it!

Some of our Favourite Tropical Fern Varieties:

Asparagus Fern: Technically not a fern! But it’s perfect for adding texture to any space, with its arching fronds of delicate green foliage. Plumosa Fern is even more delicate and airy!

Bird’s Nest Fern: Striking foliage! The wide leaves unfold from its centre like a green rosette! A close relative is the Crispy Wave Fern, which has a little extra ruffle to its fronds.

Boston Fern: This one’s dominated the Top Houseplants lists for decades! The arching, deep green fronds offer a full and lush appearance for that instant “indoor jungle” look. Kimberly Queen looks similar but with a more upright habit, and Fluffy Ruffle is exactly that – fluffy!

Button or Lemon Button Fern: So cute! Their arching fronds are covered with tiny, rounded leaves to add great texture to your collection. Lemon Button foliage has a slight citrusy fragrance.

Blue Star Fern: Delicate and long foliage with a gorgeous blue-green hue! This one’s perfect for adding a bit of colour interest to your fern collection.

Heart Fern: Low growing but still intriguing! The heart-shaped foliage also goes by the name “tongue fern”.

Kangaroo Fern: Perfect for hanging baskets, the name comes from the arching fronds that look like green kangaroo paws!

Maidenhair Fern: So soft! Delicate and airy only begins to describe these arching fronds of rounded, lush green foliage.

Rabbit’s Foot Fern: These get their name not from their fronds but from their roots! The hairy rhizomes pop up and over the pot’s edge for a soft and tactile treat!

Ribbon Fern: These often have a two-toned effect, offering long fingers of silvery leaves edged with deep green for a beautiful contrast.

Staghorn Fern: Not your typical fern! The giant toothy fronds do indeed look like antlers, so the name makes sense. They can have lower brown fronds that cover the bottom of the pot, which are actually the fern’s “feet” and are used to attach themselves to trees!

Please note: not all varieties will be available at all times as our selection changes constantly and quickly.

Caring for Your Indoor Ferns

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Tropical Houseplant Profile: Ficus Family

Did you know that there are over 800 varieties within in the Ficus family, but only about a dozen or so are available as Tropical Houseplants in North America? And the characteristics within this one plant family are incredibly diverse; if you put a Ficus Benjamina next to a Rubber Plant, chances are you’d never guess that they’re so closely related!

Members of the Ficus family can be found in tropical and sub-tropical areas around the world, primarily Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia; some varieties even grow on mountains! They start out their lives as ephiphytes, using other nearby trees as a type of support as they grow upwards through the forest’s canopy. They have air roots to collect moisture and nutrients from the air, and will often overtake their “host” tree as they get taller and stronger. So those weird shoots you see dangling from your Benjamina are actually air roots that will suck up moisture from the atmosphere!

Ficus are a fascinating species of tropical plant, and here are just some of our favourites:

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Tropical Houseplant Profile: Philodendron  

     No doubt about it, you just got to admire a plant that can handle anything from dark corners to bright sunrooms no matter its size or growth habit. And the fact that it’s one of the best tropical houseplants for cleaning the air makes it that much more desirable for the home and office. Whenever customers come into the greenhouse looking for an easy care/low maintenance houseplant and they’re not really sure what kind of sunlight it would get, one of our first suggestions is the Philodendron.

Of course, you don’t really need to take our word for how amazing this plant family is; just look on social media! There are thousands of plant enthusiasts and new home gardeners snapping photos of their giant Split Leaf/Monstera specimens, and showing off the green curtain they’ve achieved with a wall of trailing Philodendron varieties. And speaking of trailing varieties, you won’t believe the colour combinations out there! Not just solid green but tones of yellow, chartreuse, even orange and purple!

Whether you go for a small pot or hanging basket of trailing Philodendron or larger pots of Selloum, most varieties can handle any light location from low indirect light to high light, though they do best in medium light and prefer to have protection from long periods of direct sunlight. They all like to dry out slightly between deep waterings, and would appreciate getting a dose of all-purpose fertilizer every 4^th watering. Along with the occasional foliage cleaning, that’s really all the care they require to be happy and healthy. When it comes to easy care houseplants, Philodendrons are some of the easiest available.

Still wondering which Philodendron is right for your space? Here are some of our favourites:

Low Growing / Trailing Varieties: Baby Hope, Birkin, Brasil, Lemon, Micans, Rhapidophora Tetrasperma, Silver Satin, Swiss Cheese.

Upright Varieties: Split Leaf/Monstera, Selloum, Moonlight, Rojo Congo.

Please note: not all varieties will be available at all times as our selection changes constantly and quickly.

Fun Facts about Philodendron!

• They can be found in tropical forests of Central America and the West Indies.
• Philodendrons are believed to have been discovered by European botanists and naturalists since 1644, but the name Philodendron wouldn’t be used as a means to classify this family until 1829 by Austrian botanist, Heinrich Wilhelm Schott.
• There are nearly 500 species of Philodendron, which are then broken into nearly a dozen subspecies including Monstera and Rhapidophora Tetrasperma.
• Some Philodendron species happily share their living space with ants. Up in the tropical canopies, the ants use the plants’ roots to help hold their nests together, while the plant absorbs nutrients from the nests and uses the ants as security against other insects.
• Many trailing varieties are super easy to grow from cuttings! After trimming the tendrils, which also helps keep the plant full and bushy, take any cuttings that have at least 2 leaf nodes (where new leaves emerge from the stem) and place them cut-side down in potting soil. Water your cuttings lightly (they don’t have roots yet to suck up the moisture) and keep them evenly moist until they’ve rooted and are ready for transplanting.

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Help Your Home (and Your Health) with Houseplants!

Whether it’s winter and you’ve got your heating on 24/7, or you need the A/C running to get through the latest summer heat wave, it seems that dry air is just a fact of life. Unfortunately, dry air can bring about or aggravate a lot of health concerns. Yes, many of us will turn on a humidifier when we get sick, but if we can maintain those moisture levels over longer periods it would ease many health issues, including: dry skin, nosebleeds, and even reduce the effects of dust, allergies, and infections. And one of the easiest ways to increase your home’s air quality is with, you guessed it, plants!

Tropical houseplants, to be a bit more specific, since they’re the ones that sit (indoors) loyally by our sides as the seasons change. True, all plants will release moisture into the air through evaporation and transpiration (aka drinking and breathing/sweating – yes plants sweat just like we do) but varieties that originate from tropical zones will add more humidity to a room than those found in deserts. Tropical houseplants also tend to have more surface area, and the higher number of pores on their foliage means more points of escape for water molecules. All of this means improved air quality and better health benefits for you and your family!

But there’s no need to turn your home into a jungle or rainforest (unless that’s one of your life goals, of course). Even just having a few houseplants in your home will help improve your humidity levels. Go for varieties with large/wide foliage, as well as those that already love high humidity and will appreciate getting misted every day. Keeping bowls of water at the base of your plants, or using a pebble tray for your smaller plants, will also increase humidity. To make a pebble tray, fill a saucer or tray with pebbles, small stones, or clay beads. Set your pot on top and make sure that it sits level and won’t tip over! Fill the tray with water until it barely touches the bottom of the pot, and refill once the water evaporates. Easy extra humidity!

Interested in increasing humidity with houseplants? Here are some of our favourites:

Alocasia, Anthurium, Palm (any variety, except Sago or Cardboard), Fern (any variety), Baby Tears, Club Moss, Dracaena (especially wide leaf varieties), Chinese Evergreen, Dieffenbachia, Fiddle Leaf Fig, Rubber Tree, Peace Lily, Pothos, Philodendron (both trailing and upright varieties), Snake Plant, Spider Plant, Ivy (most varieties), and more!

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Small Tropicals With Big Impact!

     Are you looking for something to fill that tiny bit of space left on your kitchen counter, bedside table, or shelf? You may be surprised that those empty spaces are just perfect for beautiful, colourful tropical houseplants! They can add a rainbow of hues, and they’ll even help clean the air in your home! Here are some of our favourite tropicals that may be small, but still make a big statement:

Golden Pothos – This low grower is great for cleaning the air plus it can handle any light condition, whether you go with the traditional green & yellow “Golden” variety or the creamy green “Marble Queen”. Keep it trimmed for counter and tabletop settings, let it hang freely in a hanging basket, or even train it up a vertical support for some high impact! Let your pots dry slightly between deep waterings, and feed with an all-purpose fertilizer monthly.

Snake Plant – Slow growing and very resilient, another star in the Clean Air category that also thrives in any light condition! The upright, rigid green foliage can be edged with golden yellow or striped with lighter green tones, depending on the variety. You can relax knowing that your Snake Plant will keep its tight footprint, perfect for filling in corners and tight spaces. Loves to dry out well between deep waterings.

Fittonia – Also called Nerve Plant for its brightly coloured veins that stand out from other greenery. Its low mounding habit makes it a perfect addition to flat surfaces and hanging pots, and it’s a favourite for terrarium collections! Easy to trim to keep a bushy shape.

Rex Begonia – If you’re looking to make a statement, this one’s for you! The colours and patterns are incredibly unique, with some boasting 3 or more colours! Loves the humid life, so bright bathrooms and kitchens are perfect for them.

Polka Dot Plant – Simply adorable with its leaves all spotted with pink, red, or white dots. The brighter the light, the more intense their colour! Let them flower or keep trimmed for a nice bushy mound.

Croton – Wide-leafed Crotons show off colourful veined leaves, while a smaller variety features cute yellow spots. Bright tropical colours couldn’t be easier!

Peperomia – Offers a wide range of foliage shapes and colours. The thick, succulent-like leaves make this an excellent choice for easy care in small containers.

English Ivy – A classic choice for baskets! Let these wispy-looking trailing vines grow long or trim them back to keep full and bushy. Prefers a humid location, like a bathroom or kitchen.

This is a list of a few of our favourite varieties (please note that our selection changes constantly and quickly, so the varieties listed may not be available at all times).

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Flowering Tropical Houseplants

When it comes to Tropical Houseplants, we often go for beautiful foliage and texture that can be enjoyed in our homes year round. And then there are those bloomers that just make you stop in your tracks and say “WOW!” and you don’t care if it says “high maintenance” or “extra attention” because you just have to have it in your life! And chances are you can, so long as you can give it that extra bit of attention and care to get those gorgeous blooms to pop. Tip: Most flowering tropicals love the sun, so giving them a bright spot with at least 4 hours of direct sunlight every day will make your job a lot easier. And since our northern climate isn’t Florida or the Carolinas, you can expect your flowering tropicals to take a well-deserved rest through the fall and winter.

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