Why are plants so expensive

Pilea peperomioides was extremely difficult to get hold of and expensive if you could find one in the US until relatively recently. Time is money when it comes to running a successful business, and plants that root quickly are often far cheaper than ones that can only be grown from seed, or just take a lot longer to grow.

One of my favourite plants is my Tradescantia Zebria, because it grows like a weed. During the second repotting I accidentally snapped off a portion of it, so I stuck in back in the pot and hoped. Not only did it survive, it started putting out new leaves almost immediately. One of the biggest costs that large houseplant producers have to cover is transport.

Most of the plants supplied to the garden centres and supermarkets of the UK are from Holland. Even considering companies that specialise in growing plants will be experts at keeping these plants alive, casualties are inevitable. The cost of these casualties will be reflected in the cost of the rest of the shipment. In order to keep the number of surviving plants high, precautions will be taken.

Many people in the houseplant community have been discussing how COVID has brought an influx of new and intense enthusiasts. The new wave of enthusiasts has resulted in an extremely high demand for houseplants. Some prices are so high that the plants have become unattainable by most. While the pandemic has played a huge role in rising prices, the houseplant industry was already increasing in popularity over the last several years.

Where is the data in this article from? Click to Expand. All of the graphs utilized in this article are created using data from Google Trends on August 31, The Y-axis or vertical axis of the graph is a measurement of interest in a particular subject.

The X-axis or horizontal axis shows specific dates to show how interest changes throughout a specific period in history. What is Interest Over Time? A value of is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.

With orange stems and long leaves speckled with yellow variegations, the Billietiae is an expensive variety because of its genetic mutation that produces the interesting leaves of this plant. A post shared by James sluggplants. Since it often grows near riverbanks in its native Brazil and French Guinea, the plant enjoys moisture and humidity, so make sure you provide a suitable environment. A post shared by abode plants abodeplants.

Another rare philodendron that usually comes with a high price tag is the variegated version of the philodendron Minima. Variegated versions can sell for thousands, while unvariegated versions stay affordable.

Like with the Billietiae, the Minima can also lose its variegation if light requirements are not optimal. Therefore, make sure your Minima receives bright, indirect light, warmth and humidity to thrive. They keep the plants healthy, nicely shaped, right sized pot, etc. If you need advice, they have it or will get it. Plants are ALL tagged with growing information unlike big box which has the ubiquitous "Assorted Perennial" tag.

Man, I'll pay extra just about every time. They hardly even carry the cheap flats of annuals. They know everyone goes to Lowe's or HD for those, so why bother the upkeep on them? You probably have to work harder as a small nursery owner to maintain the kind of quality that brings people back and merits the higher prices, but believe me, there are LOTS of us out there who appreciate this.

I go to wholesale nurserys to buy for my costomers. At a minute notice I might have to fly over to home depot for a plant and pay whatever price. Many nurserys do charge to much because of their time involved with the plants. Mom and pops don't sell the quantity that HD does so have to get more.

HD does buy from very credible mass growers that sell a quality product or HD will buy from someone else I worked at Disney for many years and we all do the same thing to save money.

Plants not healthy will look not healthy. I'm ending this with, small retail places need to not charge so much and find a way to cut cost to do so. You have to be competitive in this world now if you want to stay in the business. Chains lead in volume nationwide because they are chains, individual chain store nursery departments here I don't think sell at that much volume relative to large, long-established independents like this one.

Something funny that happened to me. I had this older lady come in and tell me "Why are your hanging baskets so high? She laughed, said "I appreciate your honesty", and she's been back twice Go figure!

When this thread began I worked part time for a large nursery. Now I work weekends for myself selling plants and garden decor at the local and large flea market. The benefit to this arrangement is that I now can say to the customer whatever I feel like saying. My new and improved attitude in this situation is that when a person is standing at my display and complaining about the quality or the price - there is a customer standing behind them ready to hand me money without complaints.

My job is to get customer "A" out of my way so that I can sell to customer "B". Sometimes my responses seem rude or harsh but I don't want customer "A" to come back anyway. I want to focus my time on lots and lots of customer "B's". I have the directions to the nearest Big Box retailers memorized in detail and I freely give them out to difficult customers - anything to get them as far away from me as possible.

I don't need the aggravation. On the flip side I bend over backwards for honest to goodness real gardeners and I can see the effects at the cash register.

And I live in New England! On several trips to the Seattle area for other purposes , I made a point to go to Molbak's. I've brought plants and items home on the plane - the plants survive the carry-on x-ray fine, without visible mutation. Molbak's is a super example of a non-chain that has a formula that works. Also, they are a mature business, and have grown over the years through a combination of wise foresight, careful planning, and attention to market trends.

For example, if a store opens near a local bakers, the supermarket will deliberately sell bread at a ridiculous price until the smaller business inevitably folds - at which point, bread will stop being discounted. This is not a rare attitude but is the dominant from of big retail. Competition is a good thing for customers and retailers but the hideous tactics practiced by the likes of Tesco are deeply wrong.

There are serious implications for farmers who sell to these outlets and ultimately we, the consumers, get the short straw. I see it as a moral responsibility to support independent stores, especially if their employment practices are more enlightened than the anti-union, minimum wage slave system of super retailers. As for diversity, there are also implications for us since we do not get offered the much advertised 'choice' but only the limited selection of poorly maintained goods.

If we, the buying public, continue to put price cuts above all else, then we will get the retailers we deserve. An independent bakery here tried to get local supermarkets interested in their home-quality goods.

All the store representatives that were approached wanted to know was how much they were asking. If you sell tomatoes, find the ones that ripen in YOUR climate a problem for us northern gardeners with summer temps in the low 70's. If you sell trees, offer them in sizes that the BBSs don't offer.

Right now about half my annual sales are to reclamation contractors. Silver buffaloberry. Look for a niche -- one I target is the DIY acreage owner. OMG I've got 3 acres of grass. I sell trees big enough to miss with the mower, small enough to not get on your chiropractors permanent Christmas card list.

Target very short term markets. I have to bring in liners for my own production anyway. This year I brought in 1 year old liners -- and sold of them immediately, along with instructions on their care.

The sales not only paid for all of my own liners, but netted a reasonable return on my time. The Lynnwood nursery and retail store will close by mid-December at the latest. But, with a clearance sale under way, Emery's could close within a month, Tullis said.

But tough economic times have meant that more and more people are turning to big box stores for their gardening supplies. Gardeners shop at Costco, Lowe's or Fred Meyer for plants but then come to Emery's for advice on how to tend to the flowers, shrubs and vegetable starts they've bought elsewhere, Tullis said.

The lack of warm summer weather this year didn't help matters. For nurseries, 'if you don't make all your money in the summer, you're in trouble,' Tullis said. The store opened as Emery's Garden in after owner, Emery Rhodes, bought the nursery from the Uyeda family.

The Uyedas, who had immigrated from Japan, started their garden shop, located at th St. SW, in when th Street was still a gravel road. Tullis doubts the location will remain a nursery when it's sold. She wouldn't be surprised if the land, which sits on a busy intersection across from Fred Meyer, will be turned into a strip mall or condos.

Barbara Chase of Edmonds, agreed that Emery's had been good for local gardeners, noting that she had taught classes there as a master gardener. On Wednesday, Chase had just returned from a master gardener meeting during which the closing of Emery's was lamented. Fellow gardener Walter Thompson noted the personal attention that people would get while shopping at Emery's as compared to big box stores. When Chase landscaped her home 10 years ago, she followed Emery's hedge recommendations, which differed from other stores.

She liked the results. However, Emery's Tullis said that fewer and fewer people own property large enough that allows them to support landscaping and gardens. Tree sales at Emery's have been declining for years, she said. And, while Thompson appreciated the variety of plants he found at Emery's, Tullis said that fewer people have been interested in harder-to-find plants.

Instead, the most common question Tullis hears: 'what's on sale? About 12 full-time employees will lose their jobs with the closing of Emery's.

During the spring and summer, Emery's also would hire another 12 to 15 seasonal employees. I am very sorry to read about this, Gardengal, and to see so many people lost their jobs. I've never bought any trees etc at HD and never will. Well, eight years later and I'm still selling "expensive" plants.

Not so many, of course, but no one is right now. I suppose the reason we're still open is because we did some things right - went aggressively after niche marketing, like 85 selections of tomatoes and 60 of peppers; specimen conifers; pretty but pricey Japanese maples, etc. Oh, and no one has had a raise for several years - but we still have jobs, so I guess that evens out This was a real interesting thread, I know I've learned a lot from it.

For those of us still in the industry, I wish you the best for the upcoming spring. It's not just plants that people buy as cheap as possible and then demand help from the specialist. I sell koi and goldfish. People buy low quality fish from the cheapest place possible, the fish are sick, they want me to spend hours on the phone telling them how to cure them, then its my fault that I couldn't cure their fish. The other day I was at Home Despot buying potting soil for a friend who has no vehicle and saw an ad for a supposedly superior brand being on special there.

The woman checking out ahead of me complained to the cashier that a nearby independent wanted. And there you have it. I was there because somebody thought they could get a quality product at a discount and somebody else thought two dollars for a flowering sized pansy was outrageous.

I first tried gardening on a very narrow balcony a few years ago and was delighted to find that I lived dangerously close to the city's oldest nursery.

It was great--a huge place with a good variety of well-tended plants, their own branded fertilizers, and so on. Well, about a year later, they closed, and I'm still mourning it, especially as I've recently been working on my balcony again after I left it largely ungardened during that time.

I can still picture that store So I've been stuck with the big boxes, our garden-only equivalent of a big box even bigger than the independent that closed but a chain , and a small independent that had very little but at least had the plants I wanted but wasn't otherwise overwhelming, even though the owner was friendly I'm not sure what else is good yet.

My trouble is that I want certain specific plants, and the big boxes are hopeless for things like that well, unless I actually want what they sell. I don't want to drive all over. I definitely think it's good if independents specialize, so if I want a [genus] [species], I know I can go to the store that sells all of that genus. I will absolutely pay the price for that, too. One of my big boxes I forget which is which, as they're basically the same store in most respects has a knowledgeable employee.

I've not spoken to her myself, but I've overheard her answering people's questions, and I think when people overhear her, they come over to ask her things themselves. They both seem to use consignments, too--one of the representatives was actually greeting customers the other day when he passed them--and while they occasionally have iffy plants, most of the stock is fine.

It's just that again, when you're wanting [genus] [species], unless it's a common petunia or what-have-you, no dice. The big boxes aren't always cheap, by the way. Admittedly, they're about 6 feet and pink, where a no-name potted plumeria will often be 3 or 4 feet and white or yellow, but still I am a consumer and I would like to say that if a customer is asking you why your plants are more expensive; then it is likely that price is NOT their only consideration.

If it was, then that customer would just leave. A customer asks you 'why are your prices higher' I don't really understand what else I should be considering when I decide where to purchase.

If a customer already knew this information, they wouldn't ask you about your prices. And if all they cared about was price, then they wouldn't bother asking you to educate them. I asked the same question of a farmer selling organic meat. He explained to me about raising cattle and such. I didn't buy meat from him that day, but I went home and researched what he said. I now only buy organic beef and whenever I go to that market, I always buy meat from him just bc he took the time to explain it to me.

I wasn't trying to be cheap when I asked him I just wanted to know what made his meat worth more than Walmarts If you can't explain it, then your plants probably aren't worth more.