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Collection · 74 species

Outdoor plants

These species can live outdoors, at least in the warm season. Hardiness varies widely: some take hard frosts, others must come in as soon as nights turn cool. Each sheet gives the minimum temperature.

Selection: species our sources describe as suitable outdoors, year-round or seasonally depending on climate.

Aloe vera rosette in a glasshouse: long, fleshy gray-green leaves with pale flecks and small teeth along the edges.

Aloe vera

Aloe vera

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large vivid pink, green-edged leaves of Caladium bicolor ‘Florida Red Ruffles’, photographed at Chanticleer Garden.

Angel wings

Caladium bicolor

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Frequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Pale green young leaves and glossy, wavy, dark green mature leaves on an Arabica coffee plant grown in a greenhouse.

Arabica coffee

Coffea arabica

Light: Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Potted Syngonium podophyllum with dense green arrow-shaped foliage at the Skopje botanical garden.

Arrowhead plant

Syngonium podophyllum

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Low, spreading clump of Asparagus setaceus in a botanic garden greenhouse: feathery light green sprays held in flat horizontal tiers, a few thin upright stems, and a plant label on the left.

Asparagus fern

Asparagus setaceus

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense mass of Peperomia obtusifolia with rounded, thick, glossy leaves, reddish stems and slender upright cream flower spikes.

Baby rubber plant

Peperomia obtusifolia

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Basil plant in a terracotta pot on a sunny lawn: upright stems bearing large, glossy, bright green oval leaves that are slightly puckered.

Basil

Ocimum basilicum

Light: Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Laurus nobilis branch with dark green, wavy-edged leaves and clusters of small pale flowers in the leaf axils.

Bay laurel

Laurus nobilis

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Large pale blue mophead flower cluster of bigleaf hydrangea among broad, toothed green leaves, next to buds that are still green.

Bigleaf hydrangea

Hydrangea macrophylla

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Frequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Strelitzia reginae flower with orange sepals and blue petals emerging from a beak-shaped spathe, in front of large gray-green leaves.

Bird of paradise

Strelitzia reginae

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Boston fern ‘Bostoniensis’ in a hanging basket under trees: long, light green fronds divided into many leaflets, arching and cascading, with thin trailing runners.

Boston fern

Nephrolepis exaltata

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Frequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Lesser bougainvillea trained as a standard in a large terracotta pot, covered in magenta-purple bracts, with a Bougainvillea glabra label.

Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea glabra

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Buddhist pine shoots with long, narrow dark green leaves bearing bluish-green seeds set on fleshy red receptacles.

Buddhist pine

Podocarpus macrophyllus

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Cascade of trailing burro's tail stems densely covered with small, plump blue-green leaves, with a few faded dark red flowers, below its botanical label in front of a brick wall.

Burro's tail

Sedum morganianum

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense cluster of orange Clivia miniata flowers surrounded by broad dark green leaves at Tallinn Botanic Garden.

Bush lily

Clivia miniata

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense clump of Aspidistra elatior in a shady botanic garden bed: large, glossy, dark green lance-shaped leaves standing upright then arching, with a label at its base.

Cast iron plant

Aspidistra elatior

Light: Low light – Medium light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Ficus microcarpa branch with small, glossy oval leaves and small round figs.

Chinese banyan

Ficus microcarpa

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Trunk of a Chinese elm in Mizumoto Park, Tokyo: the bark flakes off in irregular plates that form a gray, cream and orange mosaic.

Chinese elm

Ulmus parvifolia

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

A bed of Pilea peperomioides at the Dresden Botanical Garden: round, dark green leaves attached at their center to long stalks, next to a botanical label.

Chinese money plant

Pilea peperomioides

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Common boxwood clipped into rounded balls on several trunks in an arboretum: dense foliage of small bright green leaves in front of a purple Japanese maple in autumn.

Common boxwood

Buxus sempervirens

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Whole Dracaena fragrans with two ringed canes and rosettes of long green leaves in a botanical garden.

Corn plant

Dracaena fragrans

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Croton branch tipped with a rosette of large, leathery dark green leaves veined and mottled with yellow, orange and red, against a dark background.

Croton

Codiaeum variegatum

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Pale green Adiantum raddianum fronds arching on slender black stalks at Kula Botanical Garden.

Delta maidenhair fern

Adiantum raddianum

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Frequent watering
Difficulty: Demanding

Clump of Dieffenbachia seguine in a botanical garden, with large oval pale cream leaves edged in green, beside its botanical label.

Dumb cane

Dieffenbachia seguine

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Cluster of green bananas beneath the broad leaves of a Musa acuminata at Else Kientzler Botanical Garden.

Dwarf banana

Musa acuminata

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Frequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Heptapleurum arboricola branch with glossy dark green leaflets arranged like umbrella spokes and clusters of cream flower buds.

Dwarf umbrella tree

Heptapleurum arboricola

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

English ivy climbing a tree trunk: dark green juvenile leaves with three to five lobes and pale veins, on thin stems clinging to the bark.

English ivy

Hedera helix

Light: Low light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Rounded clump of English lavender in full bloom, covered in purple flower spikes, on a sloping garden with more lavender behind.

English lavender

Lavandula angustifolia

Light: Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

European hornbeam twig with light green oval leaves, finely double-toothed and marked by prominent parallel veins.

European hornbeam

Carpinus betulus

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large Ficus lyrata at Parque Botánico de Maspalomas, with a branching trunk and a dense crown of fiddle-shaped leaves.

Fiddle-leaf fig

Ficus lyrata

Light: Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Two Anthurium andraeanum flower heads with white spathes and pink and yellow spadices above glossy heart-shaped leaves.

Flamingo flower

Anthurium andraeanum

Light: Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Large double white gardenia flower with a pale yellow center among glossy dark green leaves, with a faded cream flower at upper left.

Gardenia

Gardenia jasminoides

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Demanding

Golden pothos climbing a tree trunk, with green heart-shaped leaves marbled with yellow, growing larger toward the top.

Golden pothos

Epipremnum aureum

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Curtain of trailing heartleaf philodendron stems covered in green heart-shaped leaves, in a conservatory.

Heartleaf philodendron

Philodendron hederaceum

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Drooping cluster of red Nandina domestica berries surrounded by lance-shaped green leaflets, some turning red.

Heavenly bamboo

Nandina domestica

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Mature Crassula ovata shrub with thick, branching trunks, fleshy oval leaves and clusters of small white flowers.

Jade plant

Crassula ovata

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Labeled Fatsia japonica at Koishikawa Botanical Gardens, with an upright trunk, large green palmate leaves and a pale flower cluster.

Japanese aralia

Fatsia japonica

Light: Low light – Medium light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Bright pink Camellia japonica flower with yellow stamens, surrounded by glossy dark green leaves and a red bud.

Japanese camellia

Camellia japonica

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Mat of creeping juniper 'Nana' between rocks, with its plant label, in an arboretum.

Japanese garden juniper

Juniperus procumbens

Light: Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Japanese maple with pale yellow-green palmate foliage in spring, in an English garden.

Japanese maple

Acer palmatum

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Demanding

Japanese white pine branches bearing a cluster of brown cones with open scales, surrounded by fine blue-green needles against a blue sky.

Japanese white pine

Pinus parviflora

Light: Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Large Japanese zelkova standing alone on an arboretum lawn, with a broad, dense canopy of young light green leaves and low branches reaching almost to the ground.

Japanese zelkova

Zelkova serrata

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large kentia palm with long arching, drooping fronds, cultivated at La Concepción Botanical Garden in Málaga.

Kentia palm

Howea forsteriana

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Clump of Rhapis excelsa with glossy green fan-shaped leaves divided into narrow segments.

Lady palm

Rhapis excelsa

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted money tree in a botanical garden: trunk swollen at the base, slender green stems and palmate leaves with five leaflets.

Money tree

Pachira aquatica

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large split, perforated leaves of Monstera deliciosa in the Exotic Garden of Monaco, in front of columnar cacti.

Monstera

Monstera deliciosa

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Close view of dark green oval Fittonia albivenis leaves crossed by a dense network of white veins.

Nerve plant

Fittonia albivenis

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Tall Norfolk Island pine on Norfolk Island, with a straight trunk and branches in horizontal tiers, against the ocean and a blue sky.

Norfolk Island pine

Araucaria heterophylla

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Rounded oleander shrub covered in pink flowers on dry, stony ground, with mountains in the background in Turkey.

Oleander

Nerium oleander

Light: Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Old olive tree with a short, gnarled, hollowed trunk and a broad gray-green crown, in a dry orchard below rocky mountains in Crete under a blue sky.

Olive

Olea europaea

Light: Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Clump of Chamaedorea elegans with light green pinnate fronds and slender leaf stalks growing in a greenhouse.

Parlor palm

Chamaedorea elegans

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Flowering Spathiphyllum wallisii at the KIT Botanical Garden, with an upright white spathe surrounding a cream spadix.

Peace lily

Spathiphyllum wallisii

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Clump of Aglaonema commutatum with dark green elliptical leaves patterned in broad silvery gray bands.

Philippine evergreen

Aglaonema commutatum

Light: Low light – Medium light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Close view of oval Hypoestes phyllostachya leaves broadly splashed with pink over dark green.

Polka dot plant

Hypoestes phyllostachya

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Bushy pomegranate with several upright stems, covered in glossy green leaves with reddish new shoots, bearing red buds and one orange-red flower, in a botanical garden bed in front of greenhouses under a cloudy sky.

Pomegranate

Punica granatum

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Potted Beaucarnea recurvata: swollen bottle-shaped base, slender stem and a tuft of long, narrow, drooping leaves.

Ponytail palm

Beaucarnea recurvata

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted clump of Maranta leuconeura with dark green oval leaves, pale veins and a light green central band, and a small white flower on a slender stalk.

Prayer plant

Maranta leuconeura

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Frequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Rounded rosemary shrub covered in small pale blue flowers, growing on stony ground in Portugal.

Rosemary

Salvia rosmarinus

Light: Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Rubber plant growing in a garden on La Palma: dense crown of large glossy leaves with reddish new shoots, and aerial roots at the base.

Rubber plant

Ficus elastica

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Flowering Guzmania lingulata at Frankfurt's Palmengarten, with a green leaf rosette surrounding bright red bracts.

Scarlet star

Guzmania lingulata

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

A bed of variegated serissa with small green leaves edged in cream, next to a botanical label reading “Serissa foetida, Rubiaceae”.

Serissa

Serissa japonica

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Demanding

Trailing stems of Tradescantia zebrina spilling from a terracotta pot, with pointed leaves striped green and silver and edged in purple.

Silver inch plant

Tradescantia zebrina

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted snake plant with upright, sword-shaped leaves banded in dark and light green with yellow edges, against a brick wall.

Snake plant

Dracaena trifasciata

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Variegated spider plant in a hanging basket in a greenhouse: a rosette of green-and-white strap-like leaves and long trailing stems covered with dozens of plantlets.

Spider plant

Chlorophytum comosum

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large Yucca gigantea planted in a botanical garden: several trunks topped with rosettes of sword-shaped leaves above skirts of dry leaves.

Spineless yucca

Yucca gigantea

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense colony of staghorn ferns covered in long, hanging green fronds that fork into antler-like tips.

Staghorn fern

Platycerium bifurcatum

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Long trailing Ceropegia woodii stems bearing silver-marbled heart-shaped leaves with purple undersides.

String of hearts

Ceropegia woodii

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense mat of Curio rowleyanus: thin stems covered in green spherical leaves of various sizes, spreading over the soil.

String of pearls

Curio rowleyanus

Light: Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Potted Schlumbergera truncata in full bloom: flat, segmented stems with toothed edges, bright pink flowers and buds at the stem tips.

Thanksgiving cactus

Schlumbergera truncata

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Cordyline fruticosa ‘Toucan’ in a conservatory, with several rosettes of dark purple lance-shaped leaves edged in vivid red.

Ti plant

Cordyline fruticosa

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

Trident maple shoots with bright green leaves bearing three pointed, forward-facing lobes and small clusters of greenish-yellow flowers.

Trident maple

Acer buergerianum

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Umbel of Hoya carnosa flowers, pinkish-white stars with red centers, among thick glossy leaves and twining stems.

Wax plant

Hoya carnosa

Light: Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Mature Ficus benjamina at Ein Gedi Botanical Gardens, with a broad pale branching trunk and powerful surface roots.

Weeping fig

Ficus benjamina

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Intermediate

ZZ plant in a terracotta pot: upright stems bearing glossy, dark green leaflets.

ZZ plant

Zamioculcas zamiifolia

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

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