Oh yes, been there several times. I would think that most of us with spouses or a live-in significant other are dealing with the same issues. Tropicals are one of my hobbies and just like any other hobby (sports for example), the other half always seems to have problems with it.

I second that whole motion paul! I had to do a whole lot of persuading just to get my coconut in the house in front of a window. Damn spouses!

My husband actually likes my plants and doesn't get bent out of shape about my collecting. I allow him to collect guitars, so we call it even. Our house is very "open"...we have glass in every door that leads to the outdoors, and large banks of windows in all the public rooms...there is a bay of skylights in front of floor to ceiling windows that is about 16 ft of space in the main living area. I always have plants there. I am getting ready to put that new Dypsis lutescens over there as a possible permanent feature after the holiday, when I get the chance to repot it and find a really nice "overpot" for indoors. Its hanging out in the greenhouse at the moment. I always have more plants in the house in winter because I bring in the porch plants for long periods sometimes, and he thinks that they really add to the look of the house.

Right now the permanent inhouse collection is a collection of 3 anthuriums, a Jatropha, approx. 30+ sanseverias, a Lady Palm, 3 ponytail palms, 2 very large philodendrons, a few cactus, a couple of Euphorbia, 2 dracaena, some large ALocasias, and some bromeliads. That will increase to include about 25 more bromeliads and 3 plumeria if it freezes.

My plan this summer is to get some larger indoor palms for permanent indoor plants. The Dypsis will be a good start. It will take down to about 25F, but I don't want to chance losing it out in the yard so I am not going to plant it out.

My wife was mostly ok with my collection in the summer. Now that the cold has arrived, all the plants have come indoors. The family is greatly outnumbered by my plants. She is still realitively patient , however I keep finding more to add to my collection and shes beginning to get a little overwhelmed. So Ive started getting a bunch(well a couple hundred actually) seeds ready for spring.....Perhaps a 12 step program is in my future.

funny thread! My dh is pretty ok with it but he mostly only likes the wierd looking or unusual colored types plants. However, sometimes I get comments from him to the effect of,"too many plants". Some people on the tropical fruit forum were giving me advice on how to *hide* plants from dh :P You know you got it bad when you gotta start doing that lol. Grouping together plants to sorta blend them in, seems to work well outdoors, but I could see how that would be more difficult in the house. It would probably be ideal to have a greenhouse to hide them in during the winter.
~SJN

Well, I actually made some progress this weekend. Last night while my girlfriend was away, I took two of my potted smaller roebies (3ft) that I've been keeping in the garage ever since the weather went sour, and moved them into their winter home in the family room. To my surprise, she actually loves how they look in there and wants them to become year-rounders in the room. So now I will be finding myself tracking down some other palms for the front entrance come this spring--sounds like a plan to me. Maybe some bottle palms this year--I've gone a bit overboard with the roebies for those that have been reading any of my recent postings. =-)

My wife was moving furniture around this weekend and a few of my palm trees got the boot. Down to the dungeon with you. She's making room for the Christmas tree and that means everything goes. Hopefully I can sneak a few plam trees back upstairs.

Why decorate a christmas tree? Just decorate the palms :D HA! if you told her that, you would probably get the boot to the dungeon! (sorry just had to say it lol)
~SJN

My wife is from Colorado and thought I was a bit crazy for trying to plant palm trees outdoors here in Northern Virginia, but since I have been successful, she really likes them. In fact she said she is so used to them that if they were not there she would miss them and all the other cold hardy tropical plants I have planted. They used to be a novelty and now they seem common place on my property.

no he doesnt share the same affection.
but he will sit patiently in the getaway car while i collect seeds.

Great thread.
To be honest witcha, I have never ask my wife if she likes them or not. LOL, I bring them in and she lives with them. I guess the reason she never said anything is the fact that they are in the greenhouse during the winter, so she never sees them in the winter. I do bring in some orchids from time to time and she likes that.

The one thing she hates is me buying a new plant. :-) So when I go on trips I have to sneak one in. Make alot of excuses and whine a little. LOL. Mail order helps with this problem, mail them in and you never know.....hehehe.

On the flip side, I think she is impressed that she has the only spindle palm in this town so when people come buy and do the WOW thing, she takes the credit. LOL