RABBIT’S FOOT FERN (DAVALLIA FEJEENSIS) A hanging basket made of wooden slats provides a comfy home for this fuzzy native of the Pacific Islands. Mr. Lorimer has encouraged his four-year-old plant to “creep around the bottom of the basket and make a kind of fern ball.” In the summer, the fern swings from the branch of a peach tree in his courtyard.

BIRD’S NEST FERN (ASPLENIUM NIDUS) Mr. Lorimer could probably bring more sunlight into the house  say, if he removed the roof. Somewhat easier, from a gardening perspective, is to select a shade-loving plant like the bird’s-nest fern, whose form resembles “a badminton shuttlecock” turned “upside-down.” The new growth from the central rosette is chartreuse, Mr. Lorimer said; the older fronds, which may be a foot wide, are dark and shiny.

CROTON (CODIAEUM VARIEGATUM) Finally, a plant that matches everything: the whorls of brightly colored leaves can be “yellow, red, green and orange,” Mr. Lorimer said. When the shrub grows large and woody, it can practically steal your date at a party. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s conservatory, he said, “You can see it from 50 yards away, looking through the glass.”

★ CAST-IRON PLANT (ASPIDISTRA ELATIOR) Like vending machines and cosplay, Mr. Lorimer said, the aspidistra is big in Japan. Maybe it’s the ground-level flowers that bear an unlikely eight petals  the botanical equivalent of a two-headed goat at the state fair. Or perhaps it’s the plant’s indifference to light and water. Ultimately, Mr. Lorimer said, you can treat this plant like a piece of furniture. That is to say, remember to dust its foot-long leaves every once in a while.

TRY THIS AT HOME Mr. Lorimer is surely too busy to run a spa for houseplants. But he does recommend pampering them with a good soak in the shower. Winter is “a hard time for plants in apartments,” he said. “It’s much dryer than people realize, especially if you have radiator heat.”

FROM THE GREENHOUSE TO YOUR HOUSE For ferns, he occasionally shops online at Logee’s Tropical Plants (logees.com), which can be visited in Danielson, Conn., in the northeast corner of the state. He also drops by the Black Jungle Terrarium Supply site (blackjungleterrariumsupply.com) to look at plants that are suited “to low light levels.” And for the poison dart frogs  “on sale!” Mr. Lorimer noted.