Our Collection

The ExoticsAtHome collection consists of palms, ferns and other exotic plants. Familiar species are combined with plants that are not always available and sometimes need to be specifically sought.

The collection is not a fixed range. New discoveries, our own cultivation and the availability of seeds and plants determine which species can be added and offered.

From Hardy to Tropical

We grow almost everything ourselves. Hardy and semi-hardy species are cultivated in Erica in the Netherlands, where ExoticsAtHome has a greenhouse covering approximately 15,000 square metres. Tropical species and palm seedlings for the wholesale market are cultivated at our company in Thailand.

Thanks to these two growing locations, the collection includes hardy and semi-hardy plants as well as warmth-loving tropical species.

From Seed to Plant

Many palms at ExoticsAtHome are cultivated from our own seed. Herbert Riphagen visits the natural habitats of palm species to obtain fresh seed. Some of this seed is also resold by him to other traders.

These are often exclusive species, for example from groups such as Trachycarpus, Licuala and Johannesteijsmannia. Germinating, selecting and slowly cultivating plants are therefore important parts of the collection’s development.

Experience with Different Plant Groups

The experience behind the collection encompasses palms, tree ferns, other ferns and a wide variety of exotic plants. By germinating seeds and cultivating and trading hardy palm species for many years, Herbert has become a specialist in hardy exotic plants and palms.

His true passion, however, lies with the more tropical palm species and plants. He considers these more beautiful, more diverse and more difficult to cultivate, which also makes them more challenging. This preference plays an important role in the species that ExoticsAtHome searches for and cultivates.

Plants for Botanical Gardens

Thanks to Herbert’s plant knowledge and his many contacts and journeys through the jungle, ExoticsAtHome also supplies many plants to botanical gardens. This often involves plant lists containing species that are not always available and sometimes need to be specifically sought in nature.

Many of these unusual species can also be found on the ExoticsAtHome website. Supplying plants to botanical gardens also makes it possible to keep exclusive species in stock and make them available to private enthusiasts and collectors.

Plants That Others Do Not Have

The ExoticsAtHome vision is to offer new plant species before they are propagated in a laboratory and, above all, to try to offer plants that others do not have.

The value of the collection therefore lies not only in the number of different names. It also lies in the origins of the plants, our own cultivation, our experience with a species and the opportunity to share the accompanying knowledge and our own photographic material.

A Collection That Continues to Change

The Thai phase of recent years has brought Herbert back to the core: searching, selecting, cultivating plants slowly and discovering new species in nature to make remarkable plants available internationally.

New discoveries and our own cultivation allow the collection to continue developing and enable remarkable plants to be added time and again.