Owned a plant store up for a few years (closed earlier this year). One of the primary growers of "rare" plants in the US was Costa Farms out of Florida. For instance, the it plant for awhile was a Thai Constellation - the prices for a 4" were often north of $300+. Wholesale maybe $150ish. At some point Costa realized they couldn't grow them reliably (from seed) and flooded the market with their plants. You can now find decent 6" plants for cheaper than what the 4" was.
Similarly Pink Princesses started flooding Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. I get the idea of having your bucket list plants and wanting to get them at cheap prices if at all possible. Often, those from HD, etc. were not cared for properly and many had bugs and/or root rot and wouldn't last long.
The whole plant market for house plants was interesting.
Regionally things in CA were easy to get, but hard in OR/WA. The reverse was also true.
It was a fun business while it lasted for us, aside from the annoyance of reading FB groups where people obsessed about the lowest possible price - etc... We finally closed up shop mainly due to life being busy with higher priorities and finding reliable help (even paying well above minimum wage) was next to impossible.
Scored a giant Esqueleto from Costa Farms on sale recently. $50 including shipping and even came in a nice pot.
Thai Constellations are still hot where I'm at on the west coast. No nursery has them for less than $150 and they tend to be beaten up. Asked one nursery why theirs was so mangled and they said it was cause people kept trying to steal cuttings off it.
It does sound like a rough business though. Everyone who's a collector is in it for the best deal, for sure.
I mentioned below, I just picked one up today from a collector I've been buying a bunch of stuff from. $40 for two giant leaves and a big root ball. Over the moon to add this to my collection!
Do you have any advice or resources to share with someone considering entering the market? It seems so volatile right now its unadvisable. How long were you in operation?
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Owned a plant store up for a few years (closed earlier this year). One of the primary growers of "rare" plants in the US was Costa Farms out of Florida. For instance, the it plant for awhile was a Thai Constellation - the prices for a 4" were often north of $300+. Wholesale maybe $150ish. At some point Costa realized they couldn't grow them reliably (from seed) and flooded the market with their plants. You can now find decent 6" plants for cheaper than what the 4" was.
Similarly Pink Princesses started flooding Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. I get the idea of having your bucket list plants and wanting to get them at cheap prices if at all possible. Often, those from HD, etc. were not cared for properly and many had bugs and/or root rot and wouldn't last long.
The whole plant market for house plants was interesting.
Regionally things in CA were easy to get, but hard in OR/WA. The reverse was also true.
It was a fun business while it lasted for us, aside from the annoyance of reading FB groups where people obsessed about the lowest possible price - etc... We finally closed up shop mainly due to life being busy with higher priorities and finding reliable help (even paying well above minimum wage) was next to impossible.
Scored a giant Esqueleto from Costa Farms on sale recently. $50 including shipping and even came in a nice pot.
Thai Constellations are still hot where I'm at on the west coast. No nursery has them for less than $150 and they tend to be beaten up. Asked one nursery why theirs was so mangled and they said it was cause people kept trying to steal cuttings off it.
It does sound like a rough business though. Everyone who's a collector is in it for the best deal, for sure.
We have a couple Thai’s in our personal collection. The retail prices are still high, but down from a year or so back and much easier to find.
I mentioned below, I just picked one up today from a collector I've been buying a bunch of stuff from. $40 for two giant leaves and a big root ball. Over the moon to add this to my collection!
Why is it so expensive? It’s a very muddled looking pattern. Not trying to be dismissive, just curious.
Pretty simple, it was fairly rare and became a collectors item among plant lovers.
https://costafarms.com/blogs/get-growing/monstera-thai-const...
Do you have any advice or resources to share with someone considering entering the market? It seems so volatile right now its unadvisable. How long were you in operation?