We need a plant.

I called up our local florist and told them we needed a tree.  She corrected me and said we needed a plant. I wanted to argue, but held back.

I sent her some pictures of plants I liked.

A philodendron.  Designer: Kevin Sharkey.

A ficus.  Designer: Thom Filica.

A ficus.  Designer: Thom Filicia.

A fiddle-leaf fig.  Designer: Grant Gibson (is my designer crush in San Fran).

I realize these captions look impressive and I should give full credit to Estela at the plant store, for her plant-identification skills.

I told Estela that we have a history of systematically neglecting our plants, and so they die, and so we needed to factor in easy parenting when choosing our plant.  I was told I had the wrong attitude.

We decided on the philodendron.  She said it would be the most resilient.  I was expecting a plant to be annoying expensive, but it turned out to be far better than expected.  A McMassive, 7+ foot tall philodendron was going to run me about $300.

I asked for the plant to be potted in a nice looking basket, like the one above.  She didn't have what I wanted, so I ordered the Basay Basket from Crate & Barrel.

A sexy plant home.

When all was said and done, the basket was another $100.  I'm supposed to bring it to the plant store this weekend in prep for the plant arriving, but it is cold outside, so I assume I'll neglect to do that until it is absolutely necessary.

And if all goes according to plan, sometime next week we'll have a lovely plant in the living room.

It's scheduled to go here...

Estela would correct me here and say "It's not a tree.  It's a plant."

I cannot understate how much it bothers my father that the A/C vent is white.  It should be the same color as the walls, I know.  I'm mentally working up to fixing it.  Or I'll put a plant in front of it and hope to eliminate that issue.

So, what do you think of the plants? Any advice for not killing them?