Btw, something I learned recently about house plants: In an analogous way to sneakers, there is a large subculture built around certain varieties of them. They get to be expensive, there is a network of trading, there are ones associated with high status, there are knockoffs (not joking) etc. Very interesting! This site does not appear to be about that subculture.
There are also varieties with temporary genetic expressions (often used as knockoffs), so it’s like buying a white sneaker that gradually turns green, haha. Some of these plants are $100-$500 for a 3” pot with a single leaf of growth.
As the new growth appears, the genetic expression is no longer the desired type. It’s a real racket.
An interesting niche I came across is Carnivorous plants, where the seeds of a successful new cross can fetch 1k USD in auction. For a plant that no one knows how it will look yet.
Great idea to avoid the viral varietals as they tend to be more difficult to keep alive since everyone tries to produce them. Also very nice to shop at local stores to avoid the tik tok midnight variegated monstera nonsense!
(Not sure if always but variegated->less green->less chlorophyll->harder to keep alive)
Some of them, like clivia, have a non-trivial lottery component to their hybridization and breeding that makes buying and crossing even a couple of relatively er, garden variety examples a potential ticket to fame, fortune and startdom in the clivia-verse.
Btw, something I learned recently about house plants: In an analogous way to sneakers, there is a large subculture built around certain varieties of them. They get to be expensive, there is a network of trading, there are ones associated with high status, there are knockoffs (not joking) etc. Very interesting! This site does not appear to be about that subculture.