# Riparium Plants from Home Depot



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Today I found a couple of plants that look like good riparium plants. One looks like a Syngonium, a butterfly syngonium. It is a lime green, with typical looking syngonium leaves, and seems to be small enough to make it in a riparium. The other is a fern, possibly a Microsorium diversifolia variety. It looks a lot like the leather leaf ferns that Hydrophyte uses, and may be it. Maybe this is a good time for other riparium keepers to visit a Home Depot! 

I have the plants soaking right now, but when I get them into planters I will post photos.









This is the Syngonium, if that is what it is.









And, the fern, one of two plantlets I got out of the 4 inch pot.









And, the plants in my 15H, newly setup nursery tank.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey those look like potentially good choices.

I have tried four different _Syngonium_. They were all similar but with variations in leaf color. Two of them did well and are still growing, and the other two varieties failed to root at all in the riparium planters and ended up just starting to rot from the bases up. Non of the ones that I bought were labelled for variety. _Syngonium_ can be real good riparium choices, but you might have to do a little trial-and-error to find varieties that will work.

That looks a lot like leather fern. Was it being sold as a pond plant? I was surprised just last week to see real live leather fern for sale as a pond marginal at a Milwaukee LFS, Aquatics Unlimited. All indications are that that is an excellent riparium plant as a robust centerpiece, until it starts to grow huge.

If that is actual leather fern you will probably have no trouble growing it. If it is some sort of look-alike it is more than likely a terrestrial or epiphyte that may have a difficult time in hydroculture.

Hey Hoppy I haven't forgotten about your care package of riparium goodies. I just waylaid with some traveling and other stuff I hope to get it shipped off soon.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

The 4" pot of fern was labeled "Fern". duh! I thought it looked a lot like your leather fern and it was growing in a pot of dirt with the horizontal stems or rhizomes above the dirt. So, I figured it had a good chance of being a creeping type fern that wouldn't grow really high. And, HD had several pots of the syngonium, if that is what it is, with different leaf colors. I picked this one because it is so light a green. I didn't even notice the reddish veins in the leaves until I got it home. They were labeled "Butterfly". I can't figure out why HD never labels plants with a full name, unless the staff just doesn't know the names.


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## Trail_Mix (May 17, 2011)

The reason is, neither Home Depot, nor Home Depot employees are responsible for labeling plants. They don't actually grow the plants themselves. They get shipment from nurseries, and I guess the nurseries are essentially selling what they can at Home Depot, and getting part of the profit. I hate when I find a plant simply labeled "tropical plant," or something like that lol.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

o..O my trip to HD is overdue.
TY, Hoppy, for the heads up.

v2


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