Recluse in their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have been infected with another virus, that of plants. From a hobby to brightening up the interior, plants have become for some a passion, even an obsession.
Before the health crisis, Sarah Laval had a few plants at home. Her inner universe changed completely shortly after confinement began. “In the space of a few months, I went from three languages of a dying mother-in-law to around thirty plants. I must have spent between $ 600 and $ 700. I have gone a little crazy. I was always talking about plants. I read everything I could. I have never had a passion in life, at least never so intense, ”she recounts.
The plant virus also severely affected Sophie Izmiroglu. An aviation food safety specialist, she took a break from her job when the pandemic hit and crippled the airline industry. His passion was born on the shelves of a big box store. “One day when I was accompanying my chum at Réno-Dépôt, while he was buying screws, I bought plants. I really did not know this, but a little without knowing it I chose easy plants, which grow quickly. “
Watching them grow and flourish fueled his interest. “I found it so zen to take care of them, to see the effects on their growth and to put my hands in the earth,” she says. My passion for plants during the pandemic, it was saving. It distressed me and it became like an obsession. “
So much so that she decided to reorient her career and enroll in a professional horticulture diploma program. “It’s a big change, but I don’t regret my choice at all. I really think I will continue in there and make a profession of it. “
Rush to nurseries
The popularity of plants has been observed for several years, but the pandemic has accentuated the phenomenon. Amateurs are very active on social networks where they will seek advice on caring for their beauties, offer cuttings exchanges or show their acquisitions. In a few months, the Facebook group La Passion des Plants d’Amiens du Québec has seen the number of its members jump from 16,000 followers at the start of the pandemic last March to 25,400.
Buyer-importer at Serres Lavoie in Laval, Jean-Michel Tremblay was able to see the scale of the matter. Online sales through the company’s website exploded in 2020. “We had sales three times higher than we expected. And we think 2021 will be even better, he says. People have been confined to the house and they are buying plants to fill the lack of greenery inside. “
While many shops, restaurants and bars have been struggling since the start of the pandemic, nurseries and garden centers have the wind in their sails. “Tropical plants, aglaonemas, succulents and cacti, it never stops,” notes Sylvain Paradis, co-owner of Paradis Jardin, in Quebec.
The supply even became problematic at certain times. In the spring, Sylvain Paradis had to pay three times the usual price from a supplier to get his hands on birds of paradise, which cannot be found in the United States. “We sold them in a weekend. “
Customers are now looking for collector’s plants, rarer, with visible veins and unusual foliage. At Serres Lavoie, hoyas of less common varieties are flying away. “People are willing to put a hell of a price on a two-leaf hoya because these plants cannot be found. Jean-Michel Tremblay cites the case of two-leaf cuttings of hoya “Gunung Gading” which find buyers at prices ranging between 180 and 200 $.
On collectors’ sites and sales platforms, Monsteras albo, with white variegated leaves, can fetch prices in excess of $ 1,000 for a cutting. Even more common plants sometimes bear the cost of escalating prices on classifieds sites. “The prices are crazy! There are people who sell much more than in the garden center, ”notes Josée Blais, who had the bite of the plants at the end of summer. She maintains, however, that she was able to limit the budget allocated to her new passion. Exchanges of cuttings between amateurs can also avoid crazy expenses.
But who are the buyers of plants? “A lot of women from 20 to 40 years old”, summarizes Marc Champoux, president of Folia Design. “The clientele is much younger than before, in their early twenties,” notes Sylvain Paradis, of Jardin Paradis. At Serres Lavoie, buyers of collectible plants are 70% women, says Jean-Michel Tremblay.
Happiness and excess
The plants had a therapeutic effect for Sandra Vinazco who, in addition to having family problems, lost her job in the spring. “The plants saved me from my stress and anxiety. They give me happiness every day. My favorite time of day is in the morning, when I have my coffee next to them. I watch them and talk to them too, ”she admits. Her partner loves the inner jungle, “except when he can’t watch TV because there are plants right in front of her,” she says.
The craze for plants can also lead to excess, especially in times of pandemic. Deprived of social contact and after job loss, many confined people found themselves with a lot of free time, perhaps too much. They turned to plants. A long-time hobbyist horticulturalist, Dominique considers herself a rational person. Deprived of work due to the pandemic, she admits to having gone overboard in the purchase of plants, to the point of having had financial worries.
Social networks encourage consumption and fuel fashions that have caused plants like Pink Princess philodendrons to increase in price. Auction sites in particular lead to a frenzy that can be unhealthy, Dominique believes. “There are people who are vulnerable. I find that there is a drift, both financial and societal. And those who benefit are individual merchants and sellers. “
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