A houseplant lover’s guide to the Philadelphia Flower Show

Navigating the Philadelphia Flower Show’s wondrous displays and many vendors can be fun, if a little overwhelming. If you’re more of a houseplant person, where do you start? Here are a dozen booths selling succulents, air plants, orchids, bonsai, and so much more. (To find exactly where these booths are in the marketplace area, here’s the Flower Show map.)

Based in Northern Liberties, City Planter has a tall and overflowing booth of plants to take home. They specialize in unique displays, including mounted plants — roots and moss stuck onto wooden planks that can decorate your wall — and kokodama, which are hanging planters made of mud and moss. You can opt for a collection of mini plants or go for the popular Instagram-worthy varieties of Pink Princess or White Princess Philodendrons.

Tropical plants take center stage in this lush booth from Rhode Island. Peruse some 100 types of air plants and see larger varieties like a Duratii that founder Jordan Ford has nursed for a decade. He also offers harder-to-find items like stunning Thai Monstera Constellations with white markings on the green leaves that resemble stars.

Wedgewood Gardens, based in Glen Mills, Pa., has two booths at the Flower Show. The first table offers large planters with citrus trees, monsteras, philodendrons, and pothos plants, among other items like daffodil and tulip bulbs for outdoor gardening. The second focuses on miniatures like tiny cactuses, succulents, and herbs. Plus, they have a collection of “fairy flowers” like Dutch Clover or Brazilian Red Hot Alternanthera for people interested in designing fairy gardens.

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From Edison Plants & Flowers in New Jersey, Sunshine Nursery has a wide selection available. They have tiny jewel orchids as well as air plants placed in colorful seashells. Look out for an assortment of small carnivorous flora including Venus flytraps, Sundews, and Sarracenia, also called pitcher plants.

One of the most exquisite booths comes from Long Island, NY. Bonsai Art Gallery holds a range of bonsai trees alongside bamboo and figurine accessories. Given the intensive time and care it takes to nurture bonsai, these plants are pricier: A 72-year-old Chinese Elm, for example, costs $3,000. Don’t stress, care sheets are included.

Cofounder Barbara Melera’s Harvesting History booth from North Carolina carries dozens of flower seeds, easy-to-plant veggies like onions, shallots, and garlic, and plants ready to take home. She says Calla lilies are underrated indoor plants that can potentially bloom at different times to give you vibrant color all year round. For a rare and surprising option, she sells a variegated pink lemon tree that naturally features green stripes on its lemon peels with grapefruit-color pink pulp inside.

Out of Linwood, NJ, this booth is a one stop shop for everything orchids. Manager William Robinson says Waldor is one of the oldest exhibitors at the Flower Show; his great grandfather-in-law designed displays for the show in the 1940s. (See their 2023 landscape display in the main show area.) As for flowers on sale, they have dozens of orchid varieties — Venus slippers, moth orchids, dancing ladies, and boat orchids — with an ever-changing inventory. There is also the rarer vanilla orchid, which can eventually grow vanilla beans.

Fishtown’s own Proper Goods has a fun booth draped in geometric hanging decorations that hold small air plants. The table, too, is covered in different air plants. The booth features a framed sign defining “himmeli,” a Finnish tradition of hanging holiday decor meant to bring prosperity.

This small booth from Franklinville, NJ, has both indoor and outdoor plant options. Look out for the pretty leaves of pink panther plants or the striking deep green of their alocasias.

» READ MORE: Five things not to miss and one to skip at the Philadelphia Flower Show

Cofounded by brothers Brian and Joe Vitale, who both graduated from Drexel University, ArizonaEast is a wholesaler based in Minotola, NJ. Small succulents and cactii get special spotlight, with grab-and-go cactus trios in plastic containers and succulent assortments in log planters. There are also colorfully patterned pots with various succulents and other small plants.

This Kansas City, Mo.-based booth specializes in air plants that you can purchase by the basketful. They come in various sizes, including ones with blossomed flowers and the once-endangered Tillandsia Xerographica that’s about the size of a cantaloupe.

Amabel Chan’s Weston, Conn. garden shop sells plants, and garden accessories like sculptures of metal cactii and flower-shaped rainwater catchers. Chan says her mostly tropical live plants are ideal for apartment living because they thrive on dappled sunlight.