FALMOUTH, Maine — When Gardening with Gutner talked with Melissa Madigan, a houseplant expert at Skillins Greenhouses, about choosing the perfect plant and how to care for it, it was shocking to learn just how expensive the air-filtering greenery could cost. Madigan had plants to sell for hundreds of dollars each.
"[It's] because they are so very rare. They're found in rainforests. In the deep forests of Columbia, southeast Asia, different places in South America," Madigan explained. "It's their genetics. Their DNA that causes all these different colorations in them. Which means no two are alike."
While rarity is a factor, demand can also create high prices as was the case of the pink princess philodendron. It was hard to collect from the rainforest but then add its popularity and the price surged.
"Because it was so popular, they just couldn't propagate them fast enough," Madigan recalled.
When you own a pricey plant, the stakes are higher, so you don't want to mess up taking care of it. But Madigan said not to be intimidated.
"The majority of them are philodendrons," Madigan instructed. "Philodendrons prefer to be a little on the dry side. They prefer lower to medium light. Even with their variegation, lower to medium light. So just keep those things in mind when you're going to put it in your house. What you're going to do with it and care for it and don't drown it. It will not be happy."
So the next time you're trying to come up with a meaningful gift, don't turn up your nose at a houseplant because you could be in for some sticker shock.
Expensive houseplants:
variegated monstera - Thai Constellation
Florida ghost philodendron
pink princess philodendron