Care is the active ingredient.

Forgiving · 9–10 weeks

Every gathering has one person who gets along with everybody — the aunts, the teenagers, the neighbor nobody invited. Blue Dream is that person, and California made it famous for exactly that reason. Born somewhere in the Santa Cruz fog out of Blueberry and Haze, it spent two decades as the best-selling strain in the state, which is a little like being the most popular song in a state that only writes hit songs. As a plant, it is embarrassingly agreeable. It grows fast, forgives your learning curve, stretches toward whatever light you give it, and produces like it is trying to impress your parents. The smell is blueberry over sweet haze; the character is bright, easy company — awake, chatty, nothing heavy-handed. Wants: room to stretch and a decent amount of sun. Forgives: nearly everything, including you.

A fair middle-ground grow · 8–9 weeks

Some plants have a résumé. OG Kush has a discography. It arrived in Los Angeles in the nineties, promptly rearranged the entire West Coast family tree, and has been name-checked in more songs than most record labels. Half the strains on this page are its grandchildren and the other half are pretending not to be. It smells like the inside of a cedar chest parked at a gas station — pine, earth, fuel, lemon — and it does not apologize for any of it. The character is the classic evening exhale: shoulders down, edges off, opinions optional. As a plant it wants a bit of attention — it prefers steady indoor conditions and rewards people who actually read the card we send. Wants: consistency and a grower with mild standards. Forgives: less than Blue Dream, more than your last houseplant.

Rewards experience · 10–11 weeks

Sour Diesel is loud in every sense the word has. The smell walks into the room before the plant does — fuel, citrus, something faintly illegal-feeling even where it is perfectly legal — and the effect is the same energy translated: bright, chatty, ideas arriving three at a time and none of them waiting their turn. Fair warning, told with love: this is a project plant. It grows tall like it is trying to see over the fence, takes its sweet time finishing, and will absolutely inform your neighbors of its existence. In exchange it hands experienced growers one of the great harvests in the catalog. If this is your first plant, take a teen and a deep breath, or start with something in the Forgiving column. Wants: real sun, real height, real patience. Forgives: honestly, not much — that's the deal.

Forgiving · 8 weeks

Granddaddy Purple was introduced in the Bay Area in 2003 and immediately became the strain your most relaxed friend will not stop recommending. At maturity it turns colors that look photoshopped — deep violets under orange hairs — and it smells like grape candy that studied jazz. The character is gravity, administered kindly. This is an after-dark plant: limbs get warm, the couch improves, the phone loses its urgency, and eventually the pillow wins the argument. As a grow it is a gift to beginners — compact, sturdy, quick to finish, happy in a tent or a big pot by a bright window. One honest note: the famous purple arrives at flower, with cool nights. Your teen will be green and ordinary-looking. So were all of us at that age. Wants: a calm corner and cool evenings late in the season. Forgives: new growers, missed Tuesdays.