Re: Where have all the house plants gone?

**"* H* <g*@charter.net>**

Three reasons come to mind about the dearth of house plants.  I was talking 
with a couple of garden center owners today about this topic, ironically. 
This is what they say.

1.  The big boxes undercut them drastically on standards like poinsettias 
last year and this year, so they ordered less from growers.  They can't make 
a profit on them.  The same holds true with the standards like dracena, 
pothos, sanseveria, etc.  Few house plants are being ordered.

2.  Many of the house plants they are getting from Florida growers for the 
past few years come infested with mealy bug and/or scale.  Those two insects 
quickly mulitiply and infest the garden center's entire greenhouse, no 
matter what steps are taken for prevention and control.  The plant loss rate 
is high and consumers aren't getting good plants, which make them not buy 
again.  The spiral continues, as the garden center orders fewer and fewer 
plants from the growers.  One local garden center owner said he decided in 
late November NOT to order and stock house plants this winter due to these 
problems.  He doesn't need the headaches to lose more money.  He only is 
stocking succulents, cacti and a few orchids that he propagated.

3.  As someone else already wrote, the hurricanes of 2005 wiped out many 
growers in Florida.  And, the storms also hit Central America where many of 
the growers had contract greenhouses to build stock numbers.  Much of the 
house plant business went to China.  Then we had the oil price spike coupled 
with a failing economy.  Chinese grown plants are more expensive now that 
was orginally planned.  And, the variety of plants available has been 
condensed in favor of producing huge numbers of the most ordinary plants.
Doreen Howard

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