What’s causing plants to be so expensive?
There are numerous reasons why plants are becoming more and more expensive. Here are some reasons:
- Demand has increased
- Supple has decreased
- Business models have shifted
Increasing house plant demand is driving up prices
Instagram is a vehicle for consumerism. We see something we like, we decide we must have it. Whether it’s designer bags, traveling to exotic locations or seeing beautiful foliage.
With the pandemic, more and more people are on instagram, discovering the beautiful life of plant keeping. This means, there are more plant parents. I like to call them pandemic plant parents. There’s no shame for when you began plant keeping or what drove you to it. If you love it, that’s all that matters. This means our plant community is growing and is getting larger and larger. This is awesome because now there is something positive and beautiful that links all of us together.
With more and more people wanting plants, this is causing nurseries to be out of stock quickly. Those who really get into the hobby will eventually get into more uncommon and rare plants. This drives up those prices because now they become more scarce.
Plant imports have become unreliable and are causing supply issues
There are several countries that are not able to mail plants to the United States. This is causing an issue with supply. As you might have heard, there are some issues with sanitizing plants, but the main issue is shipping. It’s getting hot, couriers are impacted by the pandemic, there is less staff and more and more packages are taking longer to get to their final destination. This has inadvertently made it difficult for sellers to successfully complete a transaction, when plants arrive dead. Therefore, many sellers have decided not to sell.
With the combination of sellers not selling, plants arriving dead, and some countries unable to ship to America. This has resulted into a very low supply of house plants.
The basic principles of economics is supply and demand. With both going in the direction that drives prices up, we are seeing plant prices more than double in some instances. A good example would be rio/cream splash/ silver strip philodendrons. These plants were uncommon and sold between $10-$20 per 6″ pot. Some sellers are now selling the same pots for over $100. The same thing is happening with more and more plants. Such as the Monstera Albo cutting. Those, prior to the pandemic were selling between $50-$120 per cutting, based on variegation and where it was cut. Now we can see them selling for over $400 in some cases.
Sellers are now auctioning more of their plant stock
The price of things have increased across the board. More and more companies are trying to recover from the initial lock down of the pandemic and we are all okay with it. We get it. Though, some companies, based on their business model are finding opportunities at selling their plants at the best price point. This means auctioning their plants. This means, a plant that they would normally sell for $50 is now auctioning for $200 and this makes it more lucrative for these companies and individuals.
This is great for sellers and for those who have money to obtain the plants they want without having to beat 100s of other people to check out plants before it’s all sold out. Unfortunately, this makes plants only accessible to people with money.
How To Get Plants Without Spending Money
If prices are too much for you, then I would recommend trading plants. This way, you are able to grow your collection without breaking the bank. Or you can sell your cuttings and use that money towards buying other plants. Just because plant prices are making plants inaccessible, doesn’t mean you can’t access new plants.
Join Facebook groups, get on Instagram and follow local plant people, or get download blossm. Good luck!
