My favorite piece of advice to give new students is to get a plant. Some days it’s hard to get out of bed or to get motivated, so having something to take care of, even if it’s just a plant you need to water, can help. Just the presence of green has shown calming and relaxing effects. According to the Royal Horticultural Society, houseplants improve its owner’s mood, reduce stress, improve attention span – which is particularly helpful if you work from home – and improve air quality, which is nice in those musty dorm rooms.
Money doesn’t grow on trees
Getting a plant is great – the only problem is how expensive they’ve become. If you’re already an avid plant parent, like myself, then you know just how pricey houseplants have become in the last couple years. In 2020, houseplant purchases increased 10 times. It’s unsurprising as it coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic. Interest gradually fell off as those that bought complicated plants during quarantine abandoned the hobby, but interest is still high. The drastic increase in demand in 2020 and the coinciding increase in price has stayed around.
Social media and the exposure houseplants have received on apps like TikTok and Instagram haven’t helped. According to research by Flowercard, Cacti, Lavender and Venus Fly trap plants are the top three most viewed houseplants on TikTok. Runner ups include the Snake Plant, Fiddle Leaf Fig and String of Pearls. As quarantine sparked plant hobbies, and those plants started showing up on social media, their prices soared with their popularity.
Three specific types of plants saw a spike in popularity and have continued to be popular: Philodendron, Hoya and Monstera. These plants are viney and leafy. Pothos fall under these categories. Pothos are so popular because they’re relatively easy to take care of and aesthetically pleasing. The good news is that the price for plants is expected to drop soon. The bad news is that the price for the popular plants, like the beloved Pothos, are not expected to drop in price as much or as soon. However, if you aren’t willing to wait until the price drops, I discovered some crafty ways to find inexpensive plants.
Plants the frugal way
I don’t buy plants online or at home improvement stores – not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just find those marketplaces far too expensive for my budget. To be fair, I don’t keep rare plants,and sometimes, you can only buy the rare varieties online. These are some of my plants and where I got them.
I bought my Pothos at PlantStay, a local plant store in Gainesville. I paid $8 for it because I bought a small one. Although the big viney and bushy Pothos are tempting, you can easily drop $50 for a plant. The small one I bought will grow and get there in a year or two.
I propagated my other Pothos from a larger Pothos. One of my favorite and cheapest ways to get new plants is to find mature plants and kindly ask their owners if I could snip off a few vines to propagate. Luckily, here in Florida, outdoor plants are abundant, so it’s not hard to find giant Philodendrons crawling up trees. Be wary of doing this to strangers – only get them from people you know. I got a sprig from my roommate’s nail tech which I propagated and it’s doing great. If you don’t know how to propagate, I used this tutorial. The best part about propagation is it’s free.
The next options aren’t free, but still cost effective. Facebook Marketplace is a great place to find houseplants for low prices, especially mature plants. Often students graduating or moving don’t want to move with all their plants, so the houseplants they’ve had for four years need to go. Most of them I see sell for less than $10. I think there is no such thing as a used plant – that’s like saying a pet is used – so getting them from another plant-parent is just fine. And sometimes, they’ll give you the smaller plants for free. I once met a seller off Facebook Marketplace to buy a television, and on my way out, she forced two potted plants into my hands, completely free. One year later, those free plants that were in soup cans are now five-foot tall Mexican Hat plants that are taking over my living room.
Another inexpensive option is to grow them from seeds. Herb and vegetable seeds range around $2, like these Basil seeds from Lowes. Even with the additional cost of the potting and soil, it’s still more cost effective than buying a mature plant. If you have an outdoor space to plant these, that’s great, but if you don’t, I can speak from experience that home grown herbs usually do well inside. A grow light is great if you live in space with little light or no outdoor space. This one from Walmart is the one my roommate and I used to grow our basil and strawberry plants. The tasty part about growing plants like herbs from seeds is you can use the fresh herbs instead of buying them, making this an even more frugal option. Plus, I always have fresh basil for my recipes.
If you still want to buy your plants, UF has some cheap options on campus. Wilmont Gardens hosts a plant sale every fall and spring. They have a large variety of plants, indoor and outdoor varieties, for super low prices, especially seasonal ones. Last spring, I purchased succulents for $3 each.
The UF chapter of the Collegiate Plant Initiative does plant drops on campus periodically. They give away 1,000 free plants to anyone at popular places on campus like Turlington. I went to the 2019 Plant Drop, and I still have the free Coleus I received.
Plant sales are everywhere in Gainesville. Just driving around the city on a given Saturday morning, you might run into a plant sale at someone’s yard. There is one off 13th Street most weekends, and a 13th Street resident hosts plant sales in their backyard. It may seem strange or sketchy, but bring a friend and stay safe – those low prices are worth it. There is a plant seller I dub “plant man” on Archer Road, near Haile Plantation. He sells plants from a tent on the side of the road most weekends in the summer and spring. His mature plant prices are the lowest I’ve ever seen. I bought a 5-foot-tall Monstera for $20. For reference, a Monstera of this size from Lowes costs around $50.
Houseplants can be expensive, and I don’t plan to stop buying more Pothos any time soon, so I use these to get around those high home improvement stores and plant nursery prices while still fueling my plant collection. Hopefully, this helps you grow your plant collection, or start it, on a budget.