Some Houseplants Are Selling For Thousands Of Dollars. But Who’s Buying Them?

How much would you spend on a plant? Back in June, someone in New Zealand, going by the name "meridianlamb," paid $19,297 on the auction site Trade Me for a white variegated Rhaphidophora tetrasperma. If that price is hard for you to wrap your mind around, you're not alone — for most people, the idea of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on any one object, especially a houseplant, is unfathomable. And yet, there is a worldwide community of rare plant collectors who feel differently, and invest quite a bit of money in their plant collections. What they gain in return, they say, is priceless. 

In the past five years, houseplants have become newly trendy — especially among millennial women. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified that trend, even sparking a casual interest in plants for many people now stuck at home and looking for a hobby. But 36-year-old Vic's love of plants is anything but trendy or casual.

A native of Brazil, Vic has been collecting for 16 years, having been prompted to do so following the major transition of moving to the United States for college. Vic began building a collection of very specific specimens that lent a little bit of familiarity to an unfamiliar place. "Plant collecting was something that was always involved in my culture back in Brazil. I grew up in the tropical forest," Vic tells me over the phone. "But when I came to the U.S. all by myself, it became a way of staying connected to home." He began purchasing plants that reminded him of his grandmother and mom, and little by little, they accumulated. Now, Vic has two greenhouses with around 200 plants. 

Ten years ago, Sophie, 37, also began collecting rare plants as a way to emulate a specific part of her upbringing. "My mother and grandmother always had beautiful gardens," she shares. "The closest thing I could get to that as an apartment renter was to create my own indoors." Alex, 26, who is originally from New York City, says his passion for plants began when he was a toddler. "It started with our family's annual vacation to Florida," he explains. "The lush tropical plants are a huge contrast to the urban and northern landscapes I was used to, and I wanted to create a similar feeling in my parent's yard on Staten Island." Over the course of his childhood and adolescence, Alex collected hundreds of tropical plants. "When I moved from New York into an apartment without a backyard, I had to be a lot more selective about the plants I was growing outside, and that's when I turned to houseplants to add some greenery to my life."

Not everyone who is investing a large portion of their time and money into rare plant collecting has been doing it for that long, though. Lauren, 34, says her husband got her into the hobby around three years ago and the pandemic pushed her deeper into rare plant collecting, specifically. She's spent more than $5,000 on her collection and usually buys around four to five new plants a month. Daniel, 21, who is currently studying botany, started collecting rare tropical plants about a year and a half ago. He estimates that he spends around $100 a month either on plants or supplies, The most he's ever spent on a single purchase? One-hundred dollars for a cutting of Philodendron verrucosum.