A greenhouse full of rare and uncommon plants is located in Miami, Florida. This is where Costa Farms grows its Exotic Angel collection, which is a collection of unique indoor plants with more than 400 varieties. From polka dot plants to bright pink earth stars and orchid cacti, there is much to choose from when it comes to this collection of rarities. In her recent YouTube video, plant vlogger Ashley Anita received a tour around the greenhouse from Danny Lee, the head grower of the Exotic Angel collection.
25,000 square feet of ivy
Danny Lee has been managing the Exotic Angel collection for almost 14 years. He explains that the hanging plants in the greenhouse usually hang for about 12-16 weeks before they are ready to be shipped out. 25,000 square feet of the facility is solely dedicated to growing ivy, a plant that they sell a lot of. “We are constantly finding new mutations and different varieties of ivy, probably about 5 to 6 different variations per year,” Lee says.
Unique but not complicated
How does the team choose which plants to include in the Exotic Angels collection? “We work only with assortments, we don’t do any straight cases of customers saying ‘I want only this or that’. We choose the assortment based on the success that we know the customer is going to have with the plant, which is our end goal. That is the beauty of the Exotic Angels collection: we are bringing plants to the market that would not typically be available to a lot of customers, but they are also not complicated. The end consumer having success is key to what we do.”
Enabling growth
“We keep the greenhouse no colder than 57 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees Celsius). Although these plants would live well beyond going below that, it stunts the growth. These plants are getting ready for springtime and we cannot miss that time window, so we cannot let these plants slow down.” Therefore, the greenhouse uses heater tubes through which hot air gets pumped, which will then heat up the greenhouse in an efficient way.
For more information:
Costa Farms
www.costafarms.com