Hi everyone—normally I kick off the year with a wishlist video, but for 2026 I wanted to do something different: wishlist rejects. In this video I walk you through the popular plants (and whole plant groups) that did not make my wishlist and, honestly, probably never will. This isn’t plant hate and I’m not throwing shade at anyone—these are just my personal opinions based on what I like visually, what I have space for, and what I’m realistically willing to maintain as a plant parent. I get into why certain newer Monstera varieties (like Devil Monstera and White Lava) don’t do it for me—between the “skeletal” look, veiny variegation that my brain associates with sickness, weirdly elongated leaves, and in White Lava’s case, leaves that look straight-up deformed. I also talk variegated Alocasia (Pink Venom/Venom and Cupria ‘Ora’) and why I’m cautious—especially with unstable variegation and the risks of buying variegated Alocasia as corms. Then I zoom out into plant groups I’m just not in the mood to deal with right now: big climbing/crawling/self-heading philodendrons (upkeep and space hogs), Scindapsus that want to shingle instead of trail, crusty/veiny large-leaf Hoyas, and cane begonias that grow like weeds and get gangly fast. And yes—I reveal the one plant I truly wish I’d never put on my wishlist: Philodendron melanochrysum.