Unusual Plants for Gifts, Landscaping
Black Plants
Many gardeners and landscapers go to great lengths to find black plants to use in their yards. Some feel that these unusual plants with dark flowers or foliage express elegance. Others, with a sense for the macabre, aren't satisfied with just decorating for Halloween; they want Gothic landscaping year-round.
"That Twisted Little Bush," Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
This unusual plant twists every which way. It looks like the type of tree that the Addams family would grow in their yard! But it can serve an important function in your design: because of its unique branching pattern, it gives you something interesting to view in the yard during winter, after many plants have become rather drab-looking.
Unusual Plants for the Holidays: Mistletoe
If nothing else, mistletoe qualifies as an unusual plant because it's parasitical. But mistletoe has also earned the nickname "kissing plant," a fact that sort of removes it from the normal order of things, don't you think? It's mistletoe's power to compel kissing that makes it a popular holiday gift or decoration.
Bamboo
In many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the globe, the bamboos are hardly "unusual plants" ("ubiquitous" would be more like it!). But they are something of a novelty in cooler climes. Nonetheless, more and more Northerners are becoming interested in cold-hardy bamboos as an alternative, especially for screening.
Weeping Trees
While weeping trees are wildly popular (and not at all unusual in the sense of being rare), it is precisely their status as "unusual plants" (in the sense of how they look) that has made sales skyrocket. Some can be rather creepy-looking when their leaves have dropped. I consider a number of these weepers in this article.
Mosses: Unusual Plants as an Alternative to Lawns
We all know the mosses -- they're not "unusual plants" in the sense of being unfamiliar. But this piece focuses on using moss in an unusual way: namely, as an alternative to lawn grass (and/or as a shade ground cover). Establishing grass in such areas can be very problematic, yet moss seems to grow naturally there. So many rational souls end...
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Jack-in-the-pulpit does not bear a pretty bloom and, frankly, is rather strange-looking. So why do some folks grow this unusual plant, a specimen not typically found in landscaping? It's primarily the spathe people are drawn to. The spathe is a hood-like structure, such as is exhibited on peace lilies. This Arisaema may eventually bear red berries for you, too.
Castor Beans
Castor beans are unusual plants (in the North) that can make for striking specimens in a landscape design. The ones with dark leaves are particularly striking. But the seeds or "beans" are quite poisonous and not something you want lurking in your landscaping if you have kids.
Tips on Care for Unusual Plants From RareFlora.com
Once you obtain your unusual plants, how should you care for them? Besides selling specimens, this site offers care tips, learned by trial and error. Among the specimens they sell are the voodoo lilies, genus Amorphophallus. With a name like Amorphophallus, I do not have to tell you what these look like, do I?
Beautiful Carnivorous Specimens
Grow the ultimate unusual plants: carnivores! On this website you can buy indoor and outdoor carnivores: Venus flytraps, pitchers, sundews and more. Some of the delicate-looking specimens (for example, several of the sundews) are so bizarre in appearance that they remind me of those curious sea creatures you see on TV that live only in the deepest depths of the ocean!