It’s easy to fall for a gorgeous plant display at the garden center—but not every beauty is built to last. Some plants are grown in perfect greenhouse conditions that don’t reflect the reality of your home garden.
From thirsty divas to pest magnets, these 19 popular picks often struggle once they leave the store. Before you spend your money, find out which plants tend to crash and burn—and what to buy instead for longer-lasting success.
1. Fiddle Leaf Fig
Fiddle leaf figs throw dramatic tantrums when their environment changes. The glossy-leaved beauties often drop leaves and sulk for weeks after leaving the greenhouse paradise of the garden center. Their sensitivity to drafts, temperature changes, and new light conditions makes them notorious drama queens.
Minimize the shock by placing them in bright, indirect light and maintaining consistent watering – not too much, not too little.
2. Orchids in Bloom
Garden centers sell orchids at peak flowering to entice buyers with their exotic beauty. Unfortunately, many new orchid parents watch in dismay as those gorgeous blooms fade within weeks of bringing them home. The sudden change in humidity, temperature, and light often triggers flower drop.
Don’t panic! This isn’t plant death – just the natural cycle. Focus on growing healthy leaves and roots, and with proper care, your orchid will bloom again.
3. Maidenhair Fern
Delicate and lacy, maidenhair ferns seduce plant lovers with their elegant fronds. Their beauty masks their diva-like demands for constant humidity and perfect watering. Within days of leaving the garden center’s controlled environment, those feathery fronds often crisp up and turn brown.
Success requires mimicking their natural rainforest habitat with pebble trays, humidifiers, or bathroom placement. Even experienced plant parents struggle with these temperamental beauties.
4. Bonsai Trees
Miniature marvels that capture centuries of Eastern tradition, bonsai trees seduce buyers with their sculptural beauty. What garden centers rarely emphasize is their specialized care requirements and the disastrous consequences of missing even a few waterings. Indoor bonsai species like Ficus and Chinese Elm often decline rapidly in typical home conditions.
Their shallow soil dries quickly, and their light needs are precise. Without daily attention and proper knowledge, these living artworks quickly become expensive casualties.
5. Venus Flytrap
Carnivorous curiosities that captivate both kids and adults, Venus flytraps rarely survive long after purchase. Garden centers often sell them in inappropriate plastic containers with incorrect growing media. These bog natives require distilled water, high humidity, and intense direct sunlight – conditions rarely found in homes.
Feeding them hamburger (a common mistake) kills them quickly. Many die within months despite their owners’ best intentions, victims of their specialized needs and widespread care misinformation.
6. Lavender
Purple perfection in the garden center often becomes a scraggly disappointment at home. Lavender struggles mightily when pampered with rich soil and frequent watering – exactly what many well-meaning gardeners provide.
Mediterranean by nature, lavender craves conditions most plants would hate: poor, rocky soil and drought between waterings. Excess moisture leads to root rot, while humidity encourages fungal issues. Garden center specimens grown in ideal conditions often fail to adapt to typical garden settings.
7. Calathea (Prayer Plant)
Stunning leaf patterns make calatheas irresistible at garden centers, where they’re kept in perfect tropical conditions. Their dramatic decline often begins within days of coming home. Crispy brown edges appear when humidity drops, while curling leaves signal water quality issues.
Tap water’s chemicals can slowly poison these sensitive beauties. Their famous daily leaf movements (they fold up at night like praying hands) become less pronounced as they struggle.
8. Gardenia
Intoxicatingly fragrant with pristine white blooms, gardenias seduce plant shoppers with their perfume and glossy leaves. The romance often ends quickly once they leave the greenhouse’s perfect conditions.
Notoriously finicky about humidity, water quality, and temperature, gardenias frequently drop buds and develop yellow leaves after purchase. Their dislike of drafts, temperature fluctuations, and dry air makes them challenging houseguests. Success requires recreating their native humid, acidic environment.
9. Roses in Containers
Seductively beautiful in full bloom at the garden center, potted roses often disappoint once brought home. Their perfect greenhouse-grown flowers quickly fade, leaving buyers wondering what went wrong.
Container roses typically need immediate transplanting into garden soil to thrive. The small pots they’re sold in quickly become root-bound, while their high fertility needs outstrip potting soil. Disease issues often emerge as stress weakens their defenses, leading to black spot and powdery mildew problems.
10. Japanese Maple
Garden centers showcase these elegant trees in perfect condition, their delicate leaves glowing in vibrant reds and purples. The transition to a home landscape often triggers a shocking decline as these woodland natives face harsh realities.
Young Japanese maples struggle with direct afternoon sun, wind exposure, and inconsistent watering. Their thin bark easily suffers sunscald, while their shallow roots dry quickly. Improper siting leads to scorched leaves and stunted growth, turning these living sculptures into expensive disappointments.
11. Azaleas
Gloriously covered in blooms at the garden center, azaleas charm buyers with their colorful flowers. Their post-purchase decline often happens gradually as soil conditions work against them. Most gardens lack the acidic soil these woodland shrubs require, causing yellowing leaves and poor growth.
Planting too deeply or in heavy clay leads to rot issues. The perfect flowers that sold you on the plant may not return for years without proper soil amendments and care.
12. Avocado Trees
Trendy and promising, potted avocado trees at garden centers suggest years of homegrown guacamole ahead. Reality hits hard when these tropical trees face typical home conditions. Young avocados struggle with dry indoor air, insufficient light, and temperature fluctuations.
Even outdoors, they’re extremely frost-sensitive and need perfect drainage. Most disappointing: store-bought specimens rarely fruit indoors, despite years of dedicated care, leaving owners with merely decorative (and increasingly large) houseplants.
13. Boston Ferns
Lush and full at purchase, Boston ferns create instant tropical vibes. Their rapid decline in typical home environments can be shocking as fronds brown and drop seemingly overnight. Few homes provide the consistent moisture, high humidity, and filtered light these woodland plants crave.
Air conditioning and heating systems create particularly hostile conditions. Without humidifiers or regular misting, these classic hanging plants often become sparse shadows of their garden center glory.
14. Cyclamen
Jewel-like flowers hovering above marbled leaves make cyclamen irresistible winter purchases. Many new owners watch in confusion as their plant gradually stops flowering and appears to die within months. What garden centers rarely explain is cyclamen’s natural dormancy period.
These Mediterranean plants naturally lose leaves and rest during summer months. Continued watering during dormancy causes tuber rot. Most purchasers discard perfectly healthy plants, not realizing they’re simply sleeping.
15. Citrus Trees
Miniature oranges, lemons, and limes at the garden center promise years of homegrown fruit and wonderful fragrance. The glossy-leaved beauties often face serious struggles after purchase. Indoor conditions rarely provide enough light for healthy growth or fruit production.
Dry air leads to spider mite infestations, while incorrect watering causes leaf drop. Their heavy feeding requirements are frequently overlooked. Without grow lights and careful attention, these Mediterranean plants gradually decline.
16. Poinsettias
Holiday icons that brighten winter months, poinsettias seem to vanish from homes by February. Their rapid decline after the holiday season leads most people to treat them as temporary decorations rather than perennial plants.
Few realize these tropical Mexican plants can live for years with proper care. Their specialized light requirements for reblooming (12+ hours of darkness daily) make them challenging to maintain. Most succumb to overwatering, cold drafts, or simply being discarded after their colorful bracts fade.
17. Peace Lily
Elegant white spathes rising above glossy green leaves make peace lilies popular choices at garden centers. Their dramatic wilting once home often alarms new plant parents who aren’t familiar with their expressive nature.
Peace lilies communicate through drooping – their leaves collapse when thirsty, then perk up after watering. This drama leads to overwatering as nervous owners try to prevent any drooping. Too much moisture causes root rot, while tap water chemicals create brown leaf tips.
18. Air Plants (Tillandsia)
Quirky, soil-free novelties that seem carefree, air plants often meet quick ends after purchase. Garden centers display them in cute glass globes or perched on driftwood, suggesting they survive on air alone. In reality, these epiphytes need regular soaking and quick drying to thrive.
Their deaths typically come from either neglect (not enough water) or rot (water trapped in their bases). Native to humid environments, they struggle in dry indoor air without proper misting.
19. African Violets
Perfectly blooming at purchase, these nostalgic favorites often stop flowering once home. Their velvety leaves and colorful blooms gradually diminish as they struggle with household conditions. Cold water spotting their sensitive leaves causes unsightly brown patches. Incorrect light leads to leggy growth, while improper watering damages their shallow roots.
The specialized care they received at the greenhouse – bottom watering, perfect humidity, and ideal light – is rarely replicated at home.