I Grew 40 New Plants in 2024: Ranked from Favorites to Flops

Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care

Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness

Education, How To, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Home & Garden, Leisure

4.8 • 883 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I can't believe we're already in 2025, but I am SO excited to spill all the tea about my wild plant experiment from last year. In 2024, I totally went for it and added over 40 new plant species to my collection—and it was quite the adventure! Some of these plants thrived, some flopped, and yes, some didn’t make it. So in this episode, I’m sharing it all—from my favorites to my fails—and what I learned along the way.

In this episode, we learn:

[01:51] Reflecting on 2024
[04:31] What’s your plant parent personality?
[06:38] Why I now consider myself a low maintenance plant parent
[09:08] How I fell in love with Ficus (and fell out of love with Calathea)
[11:52] My success with Anthuriums and Alocasia
[13:37] Why my most repurchased plants are philodendrons (+ pothos)
[15:19] Start 2025 with soothing premium chimes with Wind River!
[17:00] Grow your best garden yet with the AHS Essential Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening!
[19:39] Why there is less light in your house than you believe
[20:50] My top favorite plants in 2024
[33:44] My least favorite plants in 2024
[37:56] Plants that didn’t make it in 2024 :(
[42:53] What's in store for my 2025 houseplant collection?

Mentioned in our conversation:

For a complete list of my 2024 plant collection ranked,

check out the full show notes and blog here!

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

Wind River Chimes

Visit windriverchimes.com and use code GROWINGJOY to receive free engraving on your chosen wind chimes.

Quarto: American Horticultural Society Essential Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening

Grab a copy of the Essential Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening at your favorite local bookstore, bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, quarto.com or amazon.com to start growing organically.

Follow Maria and Growing Joy:

Order my book: Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Party Community Platform & App AKA the plantiest and kindest corner of the internet! Get your FREE 2-week trial here!

Take the Plant Parent Personality Quiz (Get the perfect plants, projects and educational resources for YOUR Lifestyle)

Support Bloom and Grow Radio by becoming a Plant Friend on Patreon!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	2024 was the year of trying new plants. My collection exploded. My curiosity was peaked as I dove in and
0:09.4	grew more than 40 different species of plants. I had never grown before. I had grown the
0:15.0	genera before, but not the species. I really wanted to tap into that curiosity and dive headfirst into the murky waters of all the
0:23.4	plants I was scared to grow, like ferns and anthoriums.
0:26.6	And I learned so much, plant friends, I learned so much in the last 12 months.
0:31.5	And I am so excited to bundle all the lessons that I learned through my trials and many
0:36.1	failures over the last 12 months,
0:38.4	bundle them up and give you some great advice and maybe turn you on to some plants that you
0:42.8	might want to be adding to your collection. Buckle up. We're going over the highs,
0:47.0	the lows, the in-betweens. Get ready.
1:00.8	Welcome to the Growing Joy with Plants podcast, where we not only learn how to care for plants successfully, but how to simply and affordably use our plant babies to cultivate more joy
1:05.8	in our lives by doing so.
1:07.8	I'm Maria, former plant killer turned happy plant lady, author of Growing Joy,
1:12.2	The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness, speaker, podcaster, and most importantly,
1:16.7	your new best plant friend. On Growing Joy with Plants, you'll find conversations about
1:20.8	house plant care, gardening tutorials, and wellness through the lens of plants.
1:25.3	Plant care is self-care on growing joy.
1:34.5	Hello, plant friends.
1:35.6	Happy 2025.
1:37.8	2024 is in the rearview mirror.
1:39.8	I'm so excited to be here.
1:41.2	If you don't know me already, my name is Maria, and I'm the host of this
	...

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