Unlike many rare items that hobbyists seek, you don’t need a fat wallet to add uncommon flowering specimens to your garden collection. Many unusual flowers are not only inexpensive but just as easy to grow as grandma’s zinnias. Here are nine less common and curious-looking flowers to add to your garden. Keep the plant in filtered shade, planted in soil that remains moist but not soggy. This plant loves humidity as much as it hates the cold. If you find yourself reaching for a sweater, it’s time to bring the plant indoors. Plant the seeds in a sunny spot in average soil, and wait six weeks or less for the fragrant and delicate pink flowers to appear. The hotter your summer, the happier and more robust your vine will grow, leaping to 25 feet if you’ll let it. Roberto_Pighin/Getty Images Whether in the ground or a container, keep the plant moist and provide it with at least a half day of sun. If you prefer vining plants, look for clerodendron thomsoniae, the bleeding heart vine. The flowers are noted for their drooping blooms that straighten upright when pollinated. Guinea hen flowers are hardy in zones 3 to 8. Grow these petite flowers at the front of the border to admire their pattern up close, or better yet, force the bulbs indoors. Hoya plants, which grow in ball-shaped clusters, can be trained as a vine and grows between 2 and 4 feet. Provide your hoya with a sharply draining soil mix, like an orchid potting mix, and mist the plant regularly. Hoyas like a sheltered spot that never gets below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. passion4nature/Getty Images Sergey Bugrov/Getty Images Moisture, dappled shade, and an undisturbed location are important for these woodland plants. Humus from decaying matter in the soil is all the fertilizer lady’s slippers ever need, as chemical fertilizers may lead to plant death. Although red button ginger is a tropical plant, it will bounce back after light frosts. It can even grow back from the roots after a hard freeze. Its bright red-orange, waxy blossoms make for a stunning addition to a container or yard garden. The sensitive plant is a container-friendly 1 foot tall, but is considered an invasive weed in many other parts of the country. Therefore, you shouldn’t plant it in a garden in an area that it could spread and invade the growing territory of native plants. As the plant matures, it will form small pink blossoms. Sensitive plants do best in sunny locations in temperatures of 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
