I remember the first time I saw an orchid floating in a bucket ... "Hey, what did that orchid ever do to you?!" I thought. Wisely, though, I kept my mouth shut--the person who put the orchid there knew so much more than I did that I figured I'd end up looking silly if I accused her of plant murder.

And whew. Turns out that there are very good reasons to sometimes drown your orchids, including rehabilitating very parched plants. Once I found out this was basically safe, I adapted the technique to indoor cultivation, because watering indoor epiphytes can be a real problem. Water runs everywhere. Instead, providing the plants are allowed to completely dry, you can simply give them a good soak--even adding a tiny bit of fertilizer to the mix for good measure!

I like to think I'm in a unique position to understand why people grow indoor plants--or at least I'm in a good position to understand what people are looking for in their indoor plants. After all, it is a fair question ... now that we're in the heart of the northern hemisphere gardening season, why bother growing anything indoors at all? You can just go outside and do pretty much whatever you want. Accordingly, it's not surprising that the number one quality people seem to look for in their houseplants is durability. They want a bit of green inside, but they don't want to have to work too hard at it. Truly, even though I grow a lot of things, I can relate. I like to make sure that I own my plants, not that my plants own me, if you catch my drift. But what about you? What are you looking for in your indoor plants?

I think I'd build a greenhouse off the back of my house and grow only giant-leaved jungle plants. I'd have a huge Alocasia Microrhiza Lutea and a bunch of the climbing philodendron. I'd have a whole stand of black colocasia, plus one of the rare C. Gigantea (whose leaves grow so big you can almost park underneath them). I'd have lycopods in there too, and then, on bark throughout the place, there would be orchids. In short ... plant paradise. What about you? What does your plant paradise look like?

In response to a comment left on the Coolest Houseplants post, I totally agree! For some reason, I feel like it's a little victory when I get plants to flower indoors. Outdoors, it doesn't seem like such a big deal--I mean, plants are supposed to flower outdoors, right? But indoors, it means you're doing something right. So, in honor of our flowering houseplants, here's a list of great ones.