Acquiring Plants
So, you’re a newbie looking to start your houseplant collection and you’ve been researching and browsing through your Instagram and Pinterest feeds looking at big, beautiful, rare and expensive houseplants. You’re getting very tempted, and you really want to turn your home into a lush, indoor jungle. You’ve obviously been bitten by the plant-collecting bug, but the truth is, this passion can get quite expensive quite quickly, especially if you’re new to the hobby. In this post, I will give a few tips on how to start your own plant collection on a budget.
Start Off With Small, Less Expensive Plants
Yes, it’s tempting to leap right into collecting rare and expensive plants, but this is not the way to go if you are new to gardening. You will end up killing a plant or two (or maybe more—it is part of the learning experience), so you absolutely do not want it to be a rare, high-value specimen. Start off with smaller, more common plants that you can find at your local nursery or big-box store. These will only be about $5-$10, depending on where you’re located. Stick to the more common plants if you have very little experience caring for plants. You need to gain experience and hone your observational skills if you want to level up to the more expensive plants. Some great examples of beginner plants are: Pilea peperomioides, Dracaena (Sanseveria), ZZ plants, Spider Plants and Pothos.
What’s also great about starting with smaller plants is that you will feel a sense of satisfaction and pride watching it grow and thrive into a lush, gorgeous specimen.
Check Out Nontraditional Places To Find Plants
Expand your search beyond nurseries and big-box stores. In the United States, you can find nice plants at grocery stores (especially Trader Joe’s), garage sales, plant shows and sales, Craigslist and Farmer’s Markets. The prices generally tend to be quite affordable, if not outright cheap. And if you’re lucky, you may come across something very special and unique!
Buy Plants Online
Nowadays, purchasing plants can be done easily via the Internet, depending on your location. In addition to browsing through Google for specific types of plants, you can score some good deals and opportunities from Etsy and Ebay. I have even found some interesting plants from Amazon.
When you’re searching online, make sure you do your research properly. These are a few things to look at:
- A reputable vendor that has good ratings and a decent-sized audience
- Price of the plants and if they fit into your budget
- Positive customer reviews. If there are any negative reviews, note how many there are and whether or not these negative points really bother you.
- Do price comparisons with other vendors
- Take shipping costs into account with your budget
Signing up onto the vendor’s email list may also get you access to any coupons or discounts that they might be offering.
Shop For Plants At The End Of The Growing Season
Near the end of the growing season, many commercial nurseries, big-box stores and independent growers may discount their plants to get them out of their inventory. They may also discount plants that look a little ragged around the edges, or are otherwise needing some type of rehab or TLC.
Attend Plant And Seed Swaps
Plant swaps and seed swaps are a great place to get interesting and hard-to-find species in the form of seeds, cuttings and transplants. It’s also a great place to interact with other gardeners and plant enthusiasts. There are certain rules of etiquette for plant and seed swaps. Generally, they are as follows:
- Participants should bring their own plants or seeds to contribute
- Hoarding of a certain type of plant or seed is frowned upon. If you stay until the end of the swap and there is still plenty of plant and seed material left, see if it’s OK to acquire some more.
- Don’t take more plants home than what you brought to the swap
Some swaps can be conducted online in garden and horticultural forums and various social media platforms. Participants can exchange plants and seeds via mail or by a local pick-up. The rules for swapping may vary between online forums, so be sure to read the instructions first.
Get Involved In The Plant Community
Another affordable way to grow your indoor jungle is by getting to know other gardeners and plant enthusiasts. Inevitably, people will end up gifting or trading plants with you. This is similar to plant and seed swaps, but here we are specifically talking about making friends and establishing ongoing relationships with people within an online or local plant community.
In your local community, you can join or volunteer with various horticultural societies, clubs or social groups. Just don’t go in with an agenda to get plants from people. Even though gardeners and plant enthusiasts are a generous bunch, taking advantage of that generosity is still very rude. The whole point is to make friends and learn. Swapping, splitting the cost of plant orders or gifting plants is just icing on top. The same thing applies to plant communities online.
Don’t Try To “Keep Up With The Joneses”
Or, for my international readers who may not know this mostly-American phrase: Don’t look at other people (online and offline) and get sucked into collecting expensive things (including plants) to the detriment of your own finances.
Buy plants you actually like and attract you, not ones that you just see on people’s social media feeds. For example, I love Anthuriums, but I’m not a fan of Syngoniums, even though variegated specimens are rare and pricey and very sought-after. While they are beautiful plants, I’m just not as enthusiastic about them as other people are. I don’t entirely know why, but it is merely a personal preference. It may change in the future, or not.
Likewise, if you have personal preferences for certain types of plants, then don’t bother buying those that you are not interested in. If you can’t stand yellow-variegated plants because they look sickly to you, then don’t buy them just because everyone else is.
I hope this post was helpful! By implementing a few (or all) of these methods, you’ll have your indoor jungle established in no time! If you have any other tips, please share them in the comments section for the benefit of everyone!
Always Keep Growing,
Heather (a.k.a. The Botanical Chick)
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