So, obviously, a beginner wants to start with a hardy plant, and I guess a cheap one, and one suited for the conditions the houseplant will be living in, and one they like the look of. But my intention with this hobby is to become more connected with my environment, not to exploit it in the way most convenient for me. I want to understand: what is a good, or minimally harmful, houseplant? Are the ecological footprints very different between different houseplants? I've been told that if you live above a certain floor on an apartment planting natives isn't important since pollinators don't get up to your level anyway--is that accurate? Do people ever uhhh...just like scoop up plants growing around them and just pot them and grow them at home? Are all plants that would thrive as houseplants commercially available or is what's commercially available mostly influenced by other factors like subjective/cultural aesthetic value & hardiness under transport conditions & stuff like that?

I have a hobby 3d design business where I make things, and I have a lot of planters. When I make a new one the routine is, buy plant, plant it, take pictures, make notes about how well it works or looks.

Sometimes I end up with 3 or 4 iterations of it. I have too many, no WAY to many plants and I can't keep up with the care for them. I'm hoping there are members of this community that would be willing to test stuff for me, take photos and give me feedback. Preferably if you live in the PNW or west coast so shipping doesn't cost a fortune.

For example, right now I'm working on a little shelf that I'm hoping to put smaller, dangly succulents on and I've made two, sent one to a friend and need to test the second one. Message me if you are at all interested.

Hello everyone, kinda new in this, does anyone know what is this and how should I treat it ? It’s like spider web with little bug on it !

I will put more picture in the comment section !

Thx in advance !

Can anyone help identify this type of aloe? I have three cuttings from the original plant that was given to my wife. They tend to grow upwards but cannot support their own weight and will break apart so I’m having trouble keeping them healthy. I feel like they should be growing out not up. If I knew what it was I was hoping I could maintain them better.

Context: my mum got some keikis of this orchid from a neighbour. She managed to grow them into a full plant, it even flowered (as per pic), but she has no idea on which species of orchid it is.

I am not sure if it's a native species here (I'm in the subtropical parts of South America), but it seems to be growing just fine indoors in a Cfb climate.

Disregard the vase saying "phal azul" (blue phal), it used to belong to another orchid; it doesn't seem to be a Phalaenopsis.

If necessary I can provide further pics, but note that it has lost the flowers already.

Any idea?

EDIT: thanks to @jerry@fedia.io's comment, we could find it - it's a Miltoniopsis. Likely from Colombia or Ecuador, not from my area.

Let's see your pothos!

It gets very dry where I live at this time of year. This is not just hard on my skin, but the 17% indoor humidity isn't great for my houseplants. Can anybody recommend a humidifier? My priority is on reliability and although it isn't essential, it should be able to start up when power is cut and restored via a smart plug. I'm looking forward to hearing what /c/houseplants suggests!

Edit: So far, I'm leaning towards options from ConsumerReports since they prioritize reliability. I'm curious if anybody has experience with any of these models: https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/humidifiers/best-humidifiers-of-the-year-a1138350061/

side view (ignore the hog)

We've had this golden pothos for a couple of years at the back of our room which doesn't get much light and some of the vines reverted to the non-variegated form

Since then I've learned that variegated pothos needs higher light but I also wanted to keep the vines without chopping them up into node cuttings. Would it be possible to cut the long vines from the parent and root/repot them whole? I've tried air layering without stripping the outer layer but no roots formed after several months.

I really want to move the variegated portion to a much brighter area as it has had very little growth here but keep the vines in their current location.

My portulacaria afra is getting tons of new leaves but they're all light green and fall off easily. This is nutrient deficiency if I've ever seen it, but fertiliser doesn't help. Any ideas? I don't think it's sunstress, either.

I let them callous over for a few days beforehand.