Do you have one? A unicorn plant? Mine is the lovely Rhaphidophora tetrasperma. It’s the stuff of dreams. No, I literally have dreams about this plant. I could spend half of my day in my favorite planty corner of the house and just stroke its smooth leaves.
Am I being inappropriate?
I bet you have a plant like that in your collection. Or maybe, you have a plant that you are desperately wanting but cannot find. That was my Rhaphidophora for me.
I blame Instagram. That’s where I started seeing this unicorn in my feed and decided that I must own one. But try to find one for sale. It ain’t too easy, my friend. It seemed like every time I’d find a Rhaph for sale, it would be marked as sold out. Or it was from a vendor that was outside of the United States. Knowing that this plant is notoriously bad at shipping and pretty pricey as well, I wasn’t willing to risk it. So I went for the next year and a half searching the internet high and low, with zero success. Nothing. For a year and a half. I figured that I’d never be able to check this plant off my list.
Even worse was when I started buying from disreputable Etsy vendors out of pure desperation. I figured I’d try anyway. Talk about heart-break. When I finally started getting plants in the mail they were either completely rotted or had lost all of their leaves. So I obviously attempted to grow out stem cuttings only to experience further heartbreak when the cuttings all slowly rotted and died.
But don’t despair, friends! I did get a Rhaph not too long ago from a reputable plant seller and, so far, it is still living!!!
And don’t think that this plant didn’t struggle as well because she did. I unboxed her to find yellowing patches on the leaves and my heart sank straight into my shoes. I’ve had to treat the leaves with a gentle Hydrogen peroxide solution (several times) and I broke my “I never repot my plants until they are properly acclimated” rule on day number 2. But it’s been several weeks and things seem to be going well. Fingers crossed!
Feel free to comment below if you have had a terrible time finding a plant or just keeping it alive after rough shipping circumstances. I’d love to commiserate with you!
Mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.
Liquidambar Girl Gardening 
I love your videos on YouTube, especially the ones about succulents, and haworthias in particular! Please enter me in your plant drawing!
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Beautiful plant!
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Im so glad your Rhaph was able to recover! I’d be so devastated to finally get my hands on a dream plant only to lose it so soon. But seriously, instagram is a minefield of heartbreak. There are so many gorgeous plants that I don’t know I’ll ever get a hold of. Oh well, though. My plants are already special to me. 💜
(comment entry for giveaway)
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Danika, I agree 100%. I love Instagram, but it’s not always healthy for our minds.
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What does the peroxide do? Antibacterial?
Entering your drawing also!🤞🙏
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I had ordered a monstera adonasi ( know this spelling is wrong) and it’s still pretty rough looking despite me having it for several months now.i do believe it will get better in time. I don’t think I would look good after being shipped in a box from California either😀
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Haha, that’s a really good point! Why wouldn’t our plants look crappy after being shipped across the country? We would look like a mess if we were boxed up like that 🙂
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Such a gorgeous plant ! Love all of your videos.
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I recently killed my beautiful elephant foot palm, I over watered it and when I caught it well it was too late. I definitely want to get another one.
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I’m so glad you were able to obtain a Raph plant, they are so unusual and unique in the plant world. Thus far I’ve had no plant mail failures but have not ordered that much. Our small house has limited windows and I only have one 2′ plant shelf and am limited in how many more I can buy. Continued success with your Raph plant.
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Hi🙂 I have just recently started watching your you tube videos. I have a bird of paradise that started about a foot tall and now, 20yrs later is 8ft tall and I am still waiting for a bloom. I guess you could call that my white whale, it’s supposed to be a white version but I dont know lol. I have just started my learning on the most beautiful Monstera Adansoii. I also thought the string of hearts is pretty, I’ve only seen it on your channel. O have a string of Pearl’s, that could be neat, strings of hearts and pearls. Thank you for being so educational and nice to listen to. Good luck everyone! And big congrats to Soraia for being such a devoted follower.
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Well put! I’m glad I’ve found your content because it has opened my eyes to all the different wonderful plants out there! I trust your opinions and information! May the sun always shine for you.
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That plant is amazing! 🙂
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I’ve not had trouble with plants that were shipped, but I have moved to different climates twice and gardening was a new learning experience each time!
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Wow, I don’t think I’d like to change growing zones…
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What great info. Hope to get one of these one day!
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That’s why I’ve been buying them…in the hopes that I can sell them. I think everyone should have a chance to grow great houseplants like Rhaphis.
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It’s definitely a really cool plant. I just got one myself and have been enjoying watching it grow. My unicorn plant is the watermelon pepperomia. I finally got one today and i’m so giddy and excited. I haven’t tried buying online, I don’t think i’m patient enough. Good luck with your rhaphidophera!
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Congrats on finding your Unicorn Plant!!!
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