Plant obsessions are not a passion
November 6, 2021 4:46 AM Subscribe
Richard DeGrandpre discusses obsessions, sustainability, and the economy of houseplants.
"If you’re getting into houseplants, give up on the obsession for what’s trending or rare (such as unusual variegation and colours). Develop a passion for what’s common instead (namely, caring for, nurturing, and styling beautiful houseplants)."
"Thai Constellation Monsteras are shown in Australia at $295 — a year earlier they were almost twice that amount. I love the oxymoron of dozens of nearly identical plants being sold in a hardware store under the heading: ‘Extremely Rare.’ They’re not lying, though. The ‘Thai Constellation’ is to houseplants what DeBeers is to diamonds. Because only one company has successfully lab-grown a variegated Monstera Deliciosa, they intentionally limit the numbers they release so as to keep the price ‘artificially’ high. With a 40-percent drop in price after one year, you can see why. More importantly, you can see that price has little to do with the plant being rare in any natural sense. In fact, the ‘Thai Constellation” emerged as a tissue-culture ‘sport’ in a laboratory, so it doesn’t even exist in nature as a wild plant."
"If you’re getting into houseplants, give up on the obsession for what’s trending or rare (such as unusual variegation and colours). Develop a passion for what’s common instead (namely, caring for, nurturing, and styling beautiful houseplants)."
"Thai Constellation Monsteras are shown in Australia at $295 — a year earlier they were almost twice that amount. I love the oxymoron of dozens of nearly identical plants being sold in a hardware store under the heading: ‘Extremely Rare.’ They’re not lying, though. The ‘Thai Constellation’ is to houseplants what DeBeers is to diamonds. Because only one company has successfully lab-grown a variegated Monstera Deliciosa, they intentionally limit the numbers they release so as to keep the price ‘artificially’ high. With a 40-percent drop in price after one year, you can see why. More importantly, you can see that price has little to do with the plant being rare in any natural sense. In fact, the ‘Thai Constellation” emerged as a tissue-culture ‘sport’ in a laboratory, so it doesn’t even exist in nature as a wild plant."
Yeah I had no idea houseplants were going to get this "trendy." It's bizarre. I guess with the pandemic and people being home more, some wanted keeping plants to be seen as a more elevated hobby?
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:00 AM on November 6, 2021
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:00 AM on November 6, 2021
There may be a Pinterest element here. Every Pinterest search you do for "boho design" or "boho style" includes a kabillion plants.
I also wonder if this is a bit of the trend monster evolving away from succulents? For a long time you couldn't throw a brick online without hitting some lifestyle blogger talking about succulent collecting. Maybe this is the next step after that.
...Me, I keep herbs as my main houseplants, but that's mainly because I cook so much that being able to walk across the room and have some fresh herbs right there in the window is so tremendously convenient. But they also smell quite nice - the rosemary is especially strong (and big and imposing - I've had it for about ten years, and it's the size of a classroom globe by now and almost looks like a bonsai).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:34 AM on November 6, 2021 [5 favorites]
I also wonder if this is a bit of the trend monster evolving away from succulents? For a long time you couldn't throw a brick online without hitting some lifestyle blogger talking about succulent collecting. Maybe this is the next step after that.
...Me, I keep herbs as my main houseplants, but that's mainly because I cook so much that being able to walk across the room and have some fresh herbs right there in the window is so tremendously convenient. But they also smell quite nice - the rosemary is especially strong (and big and imposing - I've had it for about ten years, and it's the size of a classroom globe by now and almost looks like a bonsai).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:34 AM on November 6, 2021 [5 favorites]
It definitely seems to have surged with the pandemic, giving housebound people something to do, and humans being humans, some will develop obsessions, like with any hobby. There’s a spectrum. My wife is at the “this plant is cute” stage of the spectrum, but a lot of the tropicals are very hard to care for. Wouldn’t it be a drag to spend $300 on something that melted or collapsed because the temperature or humidity or quantity of sunlight wasn’t just right? Also, she has a source.
My step-daughter has a pretty good eye for spotting good prices on plants that are trendy with the plant groups on FB, snapping them up and growing several from cuttings, and selling at “pop-up” events that she advertises in these plant groups, instagram, etc.
She specializes in carnivorous plants and succulents, and has a relatively green thumb so that she’s able to grow & keep some pretty difficult plants healthy. She usually cleans up at her plant sales and some of her buyers are almost in a fugue state of acquisition.
It’s not entirely a living, but it’s a good grey-market boost to her otherwise spotty income, and she does genuinely love plants, so having her finger on the pulse of the latest plant obsession has done her well.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:44 AM on November 6, 2021 [13 favorites]
My step-daughter has a pretty good eye for spotting good prices on plants that are trendy with the plant groups on FB, snapping them up and growing several from cuttings, and selling at “pop-up” events that she advertises in these plant groups, instagram, etc.
She specializes in carnivorous plants and succulents, and has a relatively green thumb so that she’s able to grow & keep some pretty difficult plants healthy. She usually cleans up at her plant sales and some of her buyers are almost in a fugue state of acquisition.
It’s not entirely a living, but it’s a good grey-market boost to her otherwise spotty income, and she does genuinely love plants, so having her finger on the pulse of the latest plant obsession has done her well.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:44 AM on November 6, 2021 [13 favorites]
elevated = expensive and easy to learn?
It’s not like there aren’t numerous traditions of growing difficult indoor plants, but the ones that aren’t Instagram shopping might involve talking to an old person.
Maybe I’ll take up fancy primrose breeding.
posted by clew at 6:48 AM on November 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
It’s not like there aren’t numerous traditions of growing difficult indoor plants, but the ones that aren’t Instagram shopping might involve talking to an old person.
Maybe I’ll take up fancy primrose breeding.
posted by clew at 6:48 AM on November 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
I work in a fancy-pants garden center on the north side of Chicago. Our greenhouse has (probably) the best selection of houseplants in the city and surrounding 'burbs. We specialize in caring for these things, we don't just sell them. So our prices are premium. And once in a while, we get these Instagram-hot plants in. The prices can be absurd.
As far as houseplants being a trend—summer of 2020, the first year of the Covid pandemic and lockdown— we managed to be open. But the inside area including the greenhouse had to limit the number of (masked) shoppers. We routinely had 30-50+ people—mostly 20-somethings—line up on the hot, sunny sidewalk, in 90 degree F heat (and more) just to get into the store. Our outdoor plants sold like crazy, too. Makes sense... lockdown, plus people saving money not traveling, not dining out, etc, means people want their homes and gardens to be nice. And part of it is we were one of a few "fun" businesses to be open, so people treat us like a free museum in a way. But the lines to get into a sweltering greenhouse.... on a sweltering day... were something else. We're still very busy, but not like 2020.
Houseplants are very popular right now.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:11 AM on November 6, 2021 [14 favorites]
As far as houseplants being a trend—summer of 2020, the first year of the Covid pandemic and lockdown— we managed to be open. But the inside area including the greenhouse had to limit the number of (masked) shoppers. We routinely had 30-50+ people—mostly 20-somethings—line up on the hot, sunny sidewalk, in 90 degree F heat (and more) just to get into the store. Our outdoor plants sold like crazy, too. Makes sense... lockdown, plus people saving money not traveling, not dining out, etc, means people want their homes and gardens to be nice. And part of it is we were one of a few "fun" businesses to be open, so people treat us like a free museum in a way. But the lines to get into a sweltering greenhouse.... on a sweltering day... were something else. We're still very busy, but not like 2020.
Houseplants are very popular right now.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:11 AM on November 6, 2021 [14 favorites]
We routinely had 30-50+ people—mostly 20-somethings—line up on the hot, sunny sidewalk, in 90 degree F heat (and more) just to get into the store
I don't get it, but there's this urgent need among some people to form a long queue outside in ridiculous temperatures. I lived by Hot Doug's and I'd see it when I drove by on the weekend.
posted by wotsac at 7:16 AM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
I don't get it, but there's this urgent need among some people to form a long queue outside in ridiculous temperatures. I lived by Hot Doug's and I'd see it when I drove by on the weekend.
posted by wotsac at 7:16 AM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
I mean, people have been lining up for clubs and museums and concert tickets and movie premieres for ages. I think all that changed is which experiences we do it for -- fast no-reservations food and houseplants weren't on the list a few decades ago.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:34 AM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:34 AM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Lines must have been about the only even semi-licit interaction with strangers at the time, very valuable to many. Heck, go with non-pod friends, see them distanced. That part makes sense to me.
posted by clew at 8:01 AM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 8:01 AM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yeah, houseplants I think definitely got a boost with the pandemic. One of my favorite Facebook groups at the moment is a local plant swap one. It's really great because I see pretty frequent posts of people giving away their hard to care for tropical because they realize they're in over their heads and just want the plant to thrive again. Others will give away plants that no longer bring them as much joy so they can focus on really caring for the ones they love. There's a general sense of people really caring for their plants more than people collecting for the sake of collecting.
I've gotten some fun plants out of my swaps. I mostly have succulents at the moment because I received one as a gift from a friend, then decided to learn how to propagate it, and then started collecting other leaves of succulents that I see in order to propagate those.
I keep threatening to make myself a nice set of planters and then sell succulents in handmade pottery...I know I can probably clean up pretty well with that combination, but also don't have the desire to monetize my hobbies.
posted by astapasta24 at 8:06 AM on November 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
I've gotten some fun plants out of my swaps. I mostly have succulents at the moment because I received one as a gift from a friend, then decided to learn how to propagate it, and then started collecting other leaves of succulents that I see in order to propagate those.
I keep threatening to make myself a nice set of planters and then sell succulents in handmade pottery...I know I can probably clean up pretty well with that combination, but also don't have the desire to monetize my hobbies.
posted by astapasta24 at 8:06 AM on November 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
Having just been forced by impending freeze to bring our plants inside, we are in the annual "holy shit, that is a lot of plants and our dining room looks like a greenhouse and how many weeks might the hibiscus keep blooming indoors" phase, this year incredulous that the pony tail palm grew another 18" over the summer and is now a foot taller than me and seemingly only one season away from touching the 9' ceilings in our old home. None of them are rare or expensive though many are 10 maybe 15 years old now and one is a Christmas cactus my wife became caretaker for when her mom passed which was before we met and since we've been together 35 years she estimates to be roughly 45 years old. It's now 2 feet across and sitting in its favorite south-facing window, covered with tiny buds that, if history holds, will begin blooming mid-December and keep going 'til March. We love all these plants but now only acquire new ones to replace the ones that turn ill and die - at any rate had not a clue this exotic obsessions trend was a thing though I guess it doesn't surprise me.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 8:10 AM on November 6, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by thecincinnatikid at 8:10 AM on November 6, 2021 [9 favorites]
Even if it's ridiculous, the fact that people line up for houseplants makes me feel at one with humanity. "Please, give me something living to care for."
posted by warriorqueen at 8:35 AM on November 6, 2021 [20 favorites]
posted by warriorqueen at 8:35 AM on November 6, 2021 [20 favorites]
I was very puzzled by the variegated Monstera deliciosa story at the beginning until I figured out the author is in New Zealand. I've had one since 2010, sold under a different name ('Cheesecake' rather than 'Thai Constellation,' but they're indistinguishable in the photos and it's not like it's unheard of for the same plant to be sold under multiple names as if it were multiple varieties). It's . . . okay. Maybe a bit of a white elephant, since my set-up isn't well-suited to large, vining, horizontal plants, but I have whiter, elephantier ones,[1] and a variegated Monstera isn't significantly tougher to grow than a solid green one. I don't understand what's taken so long for some of the varieties he names to get to NZ; a lot of those have been gettable in the U.S. for more than a decade, and they don't propagate that slowly.
I'm also a little confused by the article in general; I feel like I've been scolded, but I'm unclear what for. I have been the guy combing through the garden centers for unusual / rare / weird houseplants, and . . . it was fine. I didn't spend money I didn't have. Sometimes I bought plants that didn't work out. Often, I overestimated how much space was available at home, and bought plants I didn't have room for. But, so what? I still have some of those; others came apart almost immediately. Sometimes when you ask, can I grow ____?, the answer will be no. But if I'd only focused on the plants everybody agrees are easy and foolproof, I'd still have lost some of them, and I wouldn't have tried the "harder" and flashier plants that work just fine for me. Besides which, isn't spending too much money on a houseplant collection kind of a self-correcting problem, in that you're eventually going to run out of plants to acquire, money, or space?
-
[1] Including
• A 5-foot Pilosocereus pachycladus that got top-heavy enough to fall over repeatedly, leaving bruises and dead patches near the top of the stem, which I would like to discard but can't, because its size and pointiness mean that I would have to chop it into pieces and then wrap the pieces in newspaper in order to put them into a trash bag. It would take all day, be physically painful, and the garbage bags would probably tear anyway, so I put it off. Haven't watered since mid-May. It's not growing, but it's not dying either.
• Multiple pots of Pereskia aculeata var. godseffiana, which has very pretty leaves (they emerge hot pink and age through orange before maturing as yellow-green) but also longs, deep in its soul, to be a 40-foot-long vine, and has needle-sharp spines at the base of each leaf, so whenever I need to pick it up, it's this writhing mass of long skinny flexing vines that catch on other plants, clothing, furniture, skin, and anything else it can get its stems on.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 10:39 AM on November 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
I'm also a little confused by the article in general; I feel like I've been scolded, but I'm unclear what for. I have been the guy combing through the garden centers for unusual / rare / weird houseplants, and . . . it was fine. I didn't spend money I didn't have. Sometimes I bought plants that didn't work out. Often, I overestimated how much space was available at home, and bought plants I didn't have room for. But, so what? I still have some of those; others came apart almost immediately. Sometimes when you ask, can I grow ____?, the answer will be no. But if I'd only focused on the plants everybody agrees are easy and foolproof, I'd still have lost some of them, and I wouldn't have tried the "harder" and flashier plants that work just fine for me. Besides which, isn't spending too much money on a houseplant collection kind of a self-correcting problem, in that you're eventually going to run out of plants to acquire, money, or space?
-
[1] Including
• A 5-foot Pilosocereus pachycladus that got top-heavy enough to fall over repeatedly, leaving bruises and dead patches near the top of the stem, which I would like to discard but can't, because its size and pointiness mean that I would have to chop it into pieces and then wrap the pieces in newspaper in order to put them into a trash bag. It would take all day, be physically painful, and the garbage bags would probably tear anyway, so I put it off. Haven't watered since mid-May. It's not growing, but it's not dying either.
• Multiple pots of Pereskia aculeata var. godseffiana, which has very pretty leaves (they emerge hot pink and age through orange before maturing as yellow-green) but also longs, deep in its soul, to be a 40-foot-long vine, and has needle-sharp spines at the base of each leaf, so whenever I need to pick it up, it's this writhing mass of long skinny flexing vines that catch on other plants, clothing, furniture, skin, and anything else it can get its stems on.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 10:39 AM on November 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
I'm also a little confused by the article in general;
Me too. I just shared my story but I was puzzled by the point of the article. There is a dumb trend with design magazines/blogs/Instagram where certain "houseplants" become trendy and also happen to be extremely difficult to care for in a normal home. For instance, mini olive trees and citrus trees recently became fashionable. You cannot have a normal, run of the mill home and expect those to thrive. But we end up selling them because there's an online trend and people want to be a Part of It. I kind of feel bad about that. Our store DOES indeed discourage many people from buying things that won't work in their homes. But many people just buy it anyway, and who's to tell them no? A big part of our customer base has plenty of disposable income.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
Me too. I just shared my story but I was puzzled by the point of the article. There is a dumb trend with design magazines/blogs/Instagram where certain "houseplants" become trendy and also happen to be extremely difficult to care for in a normal home. For instance, mini olive trees and citrus trees recently became fashionable. You cannot have a normal, run of the mill home and expect those to thrive. But we end up selling them because there's an online trend and people want to be a Part of It. I kind of feel bad about that. Our store DOES indeed discourage many people from buying things that won't work in their homes. But many people just buy it anyway, and who's to tell them no? A big part of our customer base has plenty of disposable income.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
I found their earlier post Why Is Houseplant Advice So Bad? more useful!
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:58 AM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:58 AM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
I’m told that NZ intends to enforce serious biosecurity for all organisms, so I expect it takes longer to import new plants.
posted by clew at 1:30 PM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 1:30 PM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm also a little confused by the article in general; I feel like I've been scolded, but I'm unclear what for.
I... don't think this is about you? I'm in a bunch of Faceboook plant groups and I 100% know what this author is talking about - constant posts from people saying "I need a PPP cutting DESPERATELY where can I get one??" and other people selling them for $50 a pop.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:09 PM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
I... don't think this is about you? I'm in a bunch of Faceboook plant groups and I 100% know what this author is talking about - constant posts from people saying "I need a PPP cutting DESPERATELY where can I get one??" and other people selling them for $50 a pop.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:09 PM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
"I’m told that NZ intends to enforce serious biosecurity for all organisms, so I expect it takes longer to import new plants."
Not intend. Actively does and has for decades. When being a distant archipelago means you can be free of many pests, and your economy is largely built on agriculture/horticulture, you can't afford not to. And yes it is hard to bring plant material into New Zealand.
As an aside, it seems like every comedian from the US or UK who visits NZ ends up with a bit about our border controls, sniffer dogs and fruit.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:27 PM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Not intend. Actively does and has for decades. When being a distant archipelago means you can be free of many pests, and your economy is largely built on agriculture/horticulture, you can't afford not to. And yes it is hard to bring plant material into New Zealand.
As an aside, it seems like every comedian from the US or UK who visits NZ ends up with a bit about our border controls, sniffer dogs and fruit.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:27 PM on November 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Oh yeah this is the Ministry for Primary Industries bisecurity website 404 page.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:31 PM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:31 PM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
"Intend" was a joke about Covid, but even there NZ's impressive.
posted by clew at 2:39 PM on November 6, 2021
posted by clew at 2:39 PM on November 6, 2021
My late father had a beautiful collection of 15+ year old columnar cacti and a hallway in his house dedicated to anthuriums. His partner owns a plant and seed import business and makes a killing when they are the first ones to bring a fashionable plant here, this year they made bank with a couple of variegated tropical plants imported from Holland. His brother owns a nursery specializing in poinsettias and cempasúchiles.
Nature or nurture, I’ve always liked to collect interesting plants. For the 20 or so years that I lived in tiny apartments I kept planted aquariums and carnivorous plant terrariums. I really get into the biology side and only consider it a success if I can propagate heathy plants. When I moved out of SF I gave my collection to people from the forums, plant nerds that could keep them healthy. The collection included a few aquatic mosses that were in fewer than half a dozen collections in the US.
For the last 3 years I’ve lived in a house with a large yard. We have a pretty good collection of common and rare cacti and succulents. Many grown from seed. This year I am growing 12 different types of chili peppers and a small pollinator garden in a corner.
When we got the house I decided to get seriously into Aracea (aroids? I think that is the common name in English) after one of my neglected aquatic anubias produced a pretty flower. That is how I discovered how insane prices can get. I’ve been visiting nurseries and buying damaged or sick plants for a fraction of the price. I am looking mostly for Araceas, with other tropical plants thrown in when I can find them.
Converting from Mexican Dollars to American Pesos I got a broken Ficus elástica “Ruby Tineke” for $5 instead of $70, about 8 inches of half rotten Pink Princess rhizome with about 3 salvageable inches for $1 instead of $200, a few branches of sun damaged Ficus triangularis for free.
I also like to walk the dogs at night in a neighborhood full of old trees and houses with massive gardens. Gardeners leave refuse piles outside the houses for the city to pick up once a week. From these piles I’ve gotten a bunch of damaged plants and sometimes just pieces of mystery rhizomes that I nurse back to health. Just in philodendrons I’ve gotten an Atom, a Prince of Orange, a squamiferous, a gloriosum, a verrucosum, and what could be a Black Cardinal or similar. I’ve also gotten a dwarf monstera, a giant elephant ear fern, and others I have not identified yet.
As I said, I only like to keep plants I can propagate. A fellow plant collector who is more into the money side came by a few weeks ago and according to his numbers if all the cuttings and baby plants I have in propagation boxes work out I could sell them in a year or two and get a new bicycle.
I only have a couple of photos on me right now. One of a Ficus triangularis rooting experiment in “self watering” tepojal (local pumice from the volcano I can see from my window) and of a shelf where I am hardening cuttings that rooted well.
posted by Dr. Curare at 4:03 PM on November 6, 2021 [10 favorites]
Nature or nurture, I’ve always liked to collect interesting plants. For the 20 or so years that I lived in tiny apartments I kept planted aquariums and carnivorous plant terrariums. I really get into the biology side and only consider it a success if I can propagate heathy plants. When I moved out of SF I gave my collection to people from the forums, plant nerds that could keep them healthy. The collection included a few aquatic mosses that were in fewer than half a dozen collections in the US.
For the last 3 years I’ve lived in a house with a large yard. We have a pretty good collection of common and rare cacti and succulents. Many grown from seed. This year I am growing 12 different types of chili peppers and a small pollinator garden in a corner.
When we got the house I decided to get seriously into Aracea (aroids? I think that is the common name in English) after one of my neglected aquatic anubias produced a pretty flower. That is how I discovered how insane prices can get. I’ve been visiting nurseries and buying damaged or sick plants for a fraction of the price. I am looking mostly for Araceas, with other tropical plants thrown in when I can find them.
Converting from Mexican Dollars to American Pesos I got a broken Ficus elástica “Ruby Tineke” for $5 instead of $70, about 8 inches of half rotten Pink Princess rhizome with about 3 salvageable inches for $1 instead of $200, a few branches of sun damaged Ficus triangularis for free.
I also like to walk the dogs at night in a neighborhood full of old trees and houses with massive gardens. Gardeners leave refuse piles outside the houses for the city to pick up once a week. From these piles I’ve gotten a bunch of damaged plants and sometimes just pieces of mystery rhizomes that I nurse back to health. Just in philodendrons I’ve gotten an Atom, a Prince of Orange, a squamiferous, a gloriosum, a verrucosum, and what could be a Black Cardinal or similar. I’ve also gotten a dwarf monstera, a giant elephant ear fern, and others I have not identified yet.
As I said, I only like to keep plants I can propagate. A fellow plant collector who is more into the money side came by a few weeks ago and according to his numbers if all the cuttings and baby plants I have in propagation boxes work out I could sell them in a year or two and get a new bicycle.
I only have a couple of photos on me right now. One of a Ficus triangularis rooting experiment in “self watering” tepojal (local pumice from the volcano I can see from my window) and of a shelf where I am hardening cuttings that rooted well.
posted by Dr. Curare at 4:03 PM on November 6, 2021 [10 favorites]
I live in an area that is trendy, young, and $$$$$, and I’ve watched like spider plant babies and pothos cuttings going for $10-20. I hate it so I just keep rooting & cutting & propagating and giving them away for free. Trying to fuck with the market.
posted by Grandysaur at 9:02 PM on November 6, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by Grandysaur at 9:02 PM on November 6, 2021 [8 favorites]
When being a distant archipelago means you can be free of many pests, and your economy is largely built on agriculture/horticulture, you can't afford not to.
I suddenly find myself wondering why the online version of the game Pandemic chose Madagascar to be the nation that locked everything down super-fast each time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:43 AM on November 7, 2021
I suddenly find myself wondering why the online version of the game Pandemic chose Madagascar to be the nation that locked everything down super-fast each time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:43 AM on November 7, 2021
When I worked in nurseries we'd often have to explain to people that some fairly ordinary looking plants were more expensive because they were either very slow growing or very hard to propagate (or sometimes both!), which is why expensive trendy plants are very funny to me. Variegated monstera are no more difficult to grow than the non-variegated, but nurseries often scrape by on a boom and bust cycle, so I don't blame anyone jacking up prices if they can.
Here are my variegated monsteras in my messy (Japanese maples just decided to drop all their leaves two days ago) Oakland garden. I've had them in the ground for about eight years now.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:34 PM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
Here are my variegated monsteras in my messy (Japanese maples just decided to drop all their leaves two days ago) Oakland garden. I've had them in the ground for about eight years now.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:34 PM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
> I’m told that NZ intends to enforce serious biosecurity for all organisms, so I expect it takes longer to import new plants.
Sure. Totally understandable. But how does it take ten or more years? If we were talking about a new-to-horticulture species, I could understand a wait of years while the powers that be did the studies to determine whether it was likely to become invasive or whatever, but 'Tineke' is just a rubber plant. 'Thai Constellation' is just a Monstera. Those have both been in horticulture for ages. What justification could there be for that long of a delay?
> I'm in a bunch of Faceboook plant groups and I 100% know what this author is talking about - constant posts from people saying "I need a PPP cutting DESPERATELY where can I get one??" and other people selling them for $50 a pop.
Well, that explains it, then -- I haven't been on plant-specific forums in a very long time. This also explains an e-mail I got a few months ago: we were having a relatively normal back-and-forth about houseplants and then out of nowhere my correspondent asked don't you think 'Pink Princess' philodendrons are overrated? (I do, but I didn't understand why the subject was on their mind in the first place. I haven't seen a 'Pink Princess' in person for at least a decade.)
posted by Spathe Cadet at 1:13 PM on November 7, 2021
Sure. Totally understandable. But how does it take ten or more years? If we were talking about a new-to-horticulture species, I could understand a wait of years while the powers that be did the studies to determine whether it was likely to become invasive or whatever, but 'Tineke' is just a rubber plant. 'Thai Constellation' is just a Monstera. Those have both been in horticulture for ages. What justification could there be for that long of a delay?
> I'm in a bunch of Faceboook plant groups and I 100% know what this author is talking about - constant posts from people saying "I need a PPP cutting DESPERATELY where can I get one??" and other people selling them for $50 a pop.
Well, that explains it, then -- I haven't been on plant-specific forums in a very long time. This also explains an e-mail I got a few months ago: we were having a relatively normal back-and-forth about houseplants and then out of nowhere my correspondent asked don't you think 'Pink Princess' philodendrons are overrated? (I do, but I didn't understand why the subject was on their mind in the first place. I haven't seen a 'Pink Princess' in person for at least a decade.)
posted by Spathe Cadet at 1:13 PM on November 7, 2021
To hazard a guess: biosecurity is one barrier, but another is intellectual property in plant varieties. To get novel material here, it has to be checked out and approved by the relevant authorities; but if it's some cool new cultivar that's proprietary, the barriers to importation are not just biosecurity but commercial. Licensing might be the issue. Also getting things through the various biosecurity gates costs money: if no one finds that worthwhile, then it's not gonna happen. Although I have declared packets of seeds at Customs and been waved through in the past, so... who knows. Biosecurity is one part of a bigger picture, I guess, with different standards for different kinds of perceived hazards... commerce is another.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:52 PM on November 7, 2021
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:52 PM on November 7, 2021
For getting chili peppers into Mexico the issue is with virus. The virus can be in the seed, to make sure a seed is virus free one would need to grow at least one generation in quarantine and check for virus. There are no resources or will to do it.
Just out of curiosity I got an estimate from someone who has the permits and resources to do this and they quoted around 30k USD per variety and a 2 to 3 year timeline.
I imagine New Zealand is worried about invasiveness and disease, that is why new varieties of well knows species would take long.
posted by Dr. Curare at 5:04 PM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
Just out of curiosity I got an estimate from someone who has the permits and resources to do this and they quoted around 30k USD per variety and a 2 to 3 year timeline.
I imagine New Zealand is worried about invasiveness and disease, that is why new varieties of well knows species would take long.
posted by Dr. Curare at 5:04 PM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
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