The best thing about younger people buying houseplants

Algaonema ‘Cutlass’

The best thing about younger people buying houseplants is now everyone is selling houseplants.

That is great news for older people like me who have always had houseplants.

Back in the day—and I’m going back maybe five years—it seemed like the only places you could buy houseplants were the floral sections of the big box stores, plus some of the larger hardware stores like Lowes and Home Depot. Plus florists sold a few.

Even garden centers, which often had huge dropoffs in business in the wintertime, were hit and miss on their houseplant offerings.

Overall the choices were pretty limited unless you mail-ordered from a specialty nursery.  And not only were those choices limited, they were plain too.  Mostly green trailing philodendrons and variegated pothos, with a few fig trees mixed in, plus the ubiquitous peace lilies and little plain palms.

Sure, there were also African violets and at Christmas time… well, you get the idea. It was all so predictable.

Then along comes a generation that I jokingly have stated “invented houseplants” and the options have exploded.  Not only do the usual places that had houseplants still have them, they now stock houseplants I’ve never seen before, in all shapes and sizes ranging from tiny succulents to massive Monsteras. (Yes, those Monsteras— this season’s new “it” houseplant which has knocked fiddleleaf fig off its pedestal as number one.)

Plus, there are now shops that exist primarily to sell houseplants. (Like Grounded Plant and Floral Co. in Indianapolis.)

This is all great news for those of us who have always had houseplants.

I just bought my third Chinese Evergreen variety in as many weeks from Grounded Plant.

I made them look up the variety before I bought it because variety names are important for me to know at least when I buy the plant. Never mind that I’m likely to forget that variety name later on.

This particular plant, pictured above, with narrow variegated leaves, is called Algaonema ‘Cutlass’.  It is a good-sized plant so when I re-pot it, I’ll probably end up with three pots of it, like I did for the Algaonema ‘Red Valentine’ I bought a few weeks ago.

Algaonema ‘Red Valentine’

There is one other best thing about younger people buying houseplants, other than more people are now selling more varieties of them.

Now that this younger generation has discovered houseplants, they just might, possibly, maybe, hopefully, be inspired to go outside to garden as well.  Maybe to grow some vegetables?  Or a big flower border?

We can hope!