10 Rare Houseplants You HAVE TO GROW!!

1. Swiss Cheese Monstera
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Somewhat rare (becoming more common) plant has small leaves compared to the famous Monstera delisiosa, and is a small plant that vines. Leaves look like Siwss Cheese with holes in them adding texture to your home or office! Low light, and low water needs. Basically the new Pothos!

2. Spike (Cordyline)
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Commonly sold as centerpieces for flower pots and sold as annuals with flowers, this plant actually makes a perfect houseplant tolerating low light and low water. Variegated forms also exist adding color to your home or office!

3. Algerian Ivy
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While becoming more common, still not available in every garden center. This beauty is mostly sold in variegated form. Huge leaves larger than English Ivy splotted with white adds color to your home or office! Tolerates low light to partial sun. Allow water to dry thoroughly in-between waterings.

4. 'Raven' ZZ
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Brand new cultivar on the market, and may only be found on special orders or online. It is the same as the regular ZZ plant, but it's leaves are so dark they are almost black! This is a plant for everyone's home adding a darker vibe to your pale green home! 

5. Little Fiddle Fiddle Leaf Fig 'Bambino'
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New to the market, though has been available for sometime, it is is just now becoming more widely available. Same as the regular Fiddle, but is a dwarf form with much smaller compacted foliage. Perfect for smaller spaces and not have to worry of it getting to big for your space.

6. Austral Gem Birds Nest Fern
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Somewhat rare cultivar, and isn't available in most garden centers. Leaves feel like plastic and is much more tolerant to drier periods than the regular Birds Nest Fern. Perfect for your terrariums, or displays in your home or office!

7. Dancing Bones Cactus
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Rare Catus is one of the only Cacti that thrives in low light! It's skeleton like growth is where the name comes from. Spooky!

8. Fish Bone Cactus
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Rare vining Cactus that is one of the only Cacti that thrives in low light

9. Song of India Dracaena
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Rare Dracaena is perhaps the most colorful Dracaena there is! Deep vibrant yellow variegated green foliage adds color and art to your home or office! Tends to suffer and drop leaves in low light, partial sun to bright indirect light is best. Low water needs.

10. Kentia Palm
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This extremely rare and usually expensive Palm hails from Australia. It's extremely slow growth, few trees to collect seeds from, and a very high demand makes these trees very pricey, and the price to skyrocket especially for anything taller than 2'. It is totally worth it if you can get your hands on one! Like Parlour Palm, and Lady Palm, the Kentia Palm is one of the few Palms to thrive in indoor environments. Thrives in low light, low water, and low humidity. In the wild it can grow over 40', while indoors you likely won't live long enough to see it when it become too large.

NatureMan's Indiana USDA Zone Map

This map is based on my own experience living in Indiana, and to make it easier for your landscaping decisions. The real map by the USDA has a bunch of averages bunched together. In many places it can be hard to tell which zone you are in. You may be on the border of 2 different zones and be very difficult to tell. I made my map more simplified so you can clearly tell which zone you are in. Remember, these are based on average coldest temperatures. You very well can get colder than these, but very rarely. So if you are in a zone 6a then on average your coldest temperature is between -5°F to -10°F. In a very rare cold spell you can still dip to -15°F or -20°F, but would likely be record cold and only happening once every several decades, or maybe not at all. The winters of 1985, and 1994 comes to mind. Indiana saw zone 3 and 4 winters in a solid zone 6. Only got that cold in these two winters (colder than -20°F) in nearly 150 years of weather recording.

Trees and Shrubs to Grow in USDA Zone 2

Very few areas are in a zone 2, the only state in the US to be in zones 1 and 2 is Alaska. South Central Alaska in Anchorage is a Zone 4 because they are closer to the ocean. South East Alaska Juneau (capital) is a zone 7/8 because it is right on the ocean and is a maritime climate. Fairbanks is the only major city in the US that is a Zone 2. The city itself has over 30,000 people, but it's metro with several other towns and small cities has over 100,000. That is very large for Alaska since there is literally nothing else for hundreds of miles. There are however many other places around the world in a USDA Zone 2. Many areas in northern Europe, and Asia (northern Russia/Siberia) are in a Zone 2. Summers must be warm enough though for plants to grow sufficiently. In some places right near or in the Arctic that are usually a zone 1 but sometimes a zone 2 it doesn't get much above freezing in the Summer so even trees won't grow in these regions. In locations like Fairbanks You have several months that are frost free, and highs make it into the 60s-70s for several months. That is warm enough and long enough to grow trees as winters are cold to place it in a zone 2 (-50°F).

Trees 

(There are many cultivars for most of these trees, which includes dwarf shrub forms which are not listed under shrubs below)

 

 1. Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)

2. Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii)

3. White Spruce (Picea glauca)

4. Black Spruce (Picea mariana)

5. Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana)

6. Scotch Pine (Pinus sylvestris)

7. Boxelder Maple (Acer negundo)

8. Amur Maple (Acer ginnala)

9. Chockcherry (Prunus virginiana)
Most popular variety is the Canada Red.

10. European White Birch (Betula pendula)

11. Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera)

12. Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)

13. Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera)

14. White Willow (Salix alba)

15. Tamarack (larix laricina)

Shrubs

1. Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea)

2. Mugo Pine (Pinus Mugo)

3. Ninebark (physocarpus opulifolius)

4. Common Juniper (Juniperus communis)

5. Bog Rosemary (Andromeda polifolia)