SEATTLE — Ciscoe says Seattle's Volunteer Park Conservatory is a perfect place for houseplant inspiration, and that many of the plants growing in this greenhouse are easy to grow at home. Like dracaena: "You can't kill those if you try. They take the lowest light you've got in your house!" Sometimes these leafy plants even make fragrant blooms.
Antherium is another easy-to-grow tropical plant. "Sometimes they call it the flamingo flower. How do you beat that? And they do bloom year round. It just looks so great in your house you can't believe it," Ciscoe said.
Then he showed off a plant with large fuzzy looking leaves: "And alocasia - does that look like it's made out of velvet? Oh la la. Just give it high humidity, a little bit of light. You got a great house plant there."
Ciscoe found a giant begonia flowering in the greenhouse: "Oh, I love the living tweedle out of begonias, look at the size of these guys. Not only does it have beautiful leaves, it's got those magnificent flowers, easy as pie to grow these guys!"
And finally, a plant that dominates one room of the greenhouse and is a social media darling currently: "Oh la la. Now here's one of the most popular house plants there is, its called monstera delicata. And look at all of those holes in the leaves, we call it the Swiss cheese plant. These are easy to grow. They don't need that bright light."
Ciscoe went on to explain why monsteras have holey leaves.
"The reason all those holes are in the leaf is that down in the South American and Central American jungles they grow on trees way up to the top of the tree, but they don't want those big leaves to suffocate the trees they are growing on so they have to holes in the leaves that let the air and light go through so that the host plant survives and holds them up."
Monsteras also come by their name for a reason: "They get pretty big. Just make sure you got a big house if you grow one of these, or prune it!" Ciscoe said.
"Thanks for coming to the Volunteer Park Conservatory with me I've only shown you a few of that fantastic plants here, so come on down. Check it out. It's a great place to go in a cold winter weather," Ciscoe said.
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email.