I’ve been wondering a lot about the ethics behind houseplants and their industry. There is so much hidden by growers/sellers that the majority of information regarding a plants history is disregarded. How would one support a sustainable and ethical source of plants? What is the carbon footprint of different houseplants and their journeys to get to your home? Ofc I’m also contributing to this (and will continue to), so this is in no way confrontational, lol. Lmk your thoughts!
this is what bothers me about people “rescuing” plants from big box stores. i understand the intention, but i am always trying to either get plants for free (propagating and trading with friends) or purchasing them from somewhere local, ideally whose greenhouse practices are posted on their website. purchasing from big box stores only encourages them to continue selling low-quality mass-produced houseplants for everyone who is using them as home decor nowadays. like you said, they also often have incredibly misleading tags, so people care for the plant according to the tag and end up killing it, then going back and buying another. i think this is the reason many plants say “low light” — so people can place it on a shelf or coffee table and not be worried about it getting enough light. nobody in this for aesthetics wants to crowd their plants around windows lol
8件のいいね the ridiculous prices for “rare” plants are also bothersome to me, did you know a monstera obliqua cutting went for around $8 USD a few years ago? and because of the houseplant craze and how many people are new to horticulture, they don’t realize they are paying $1k for a poached plant that really isn’t that uncommon in its native range, but is “new” to the houseplant community. so much information is really hard to find, like you said, but i have a feeling much of this information is hidden on purpose, so it is easier for people to profit off unethical growing practices. i also get the feeling many people are happy ignorant about the origins of houseplants. the craze started in the victorian era when upper class white people used foreign (usually south american) plants as a sort of status symbol
5件のいいね Yes 100% we need to support literally anywhere other than big box stores. Trades or buying cuttings online (even on fb marketplace) are great options to match the lower price point of big box stores. And then obviously supporting local shops when you have the money to do so.
4件のいいね It’s totally hidden on purpose, that’s what I meant! Withholding information is power. I have only read a little bit about plants as a status symbol but want to read more into their history. I’m so excited about people participating in this post!
6件のいいね yesss to both these comments! i’m really pleased a lot of people are starting to get curious and research, wondering why and how this “houseplant culture” got the way it is now
6件のいいね thinking a little more about this and i believe it’s all been a little dicey from the start, especially considering most specimens were collected from the wild at one point. nowadays, that is especially harmful, and poaching still occurs. i was reading recently about stephania erecta, a south asian caudex plant, which is pretty much always poached; it became very popular among rare plant enthusiasts during the pandemic much like every other houseplant. numbers are declining in the wild because of this, but since it is not endangered there are no laws against it. our environment is at very delicate point due to human activity. the large-scale, profit-driven aspect of the houseplant trade is the damaging part, much like with everything else under capitalism. i think our efforts cultivating plants are best focused on maintenance vs growth— keeping what we have, trading away what we don’t like anymore, propagating and trading for more plants instead of buying the ones we see in every grocery store and supermarket. there is nothing we can do to change the past, or the way corporations operate currently, but i like to think if enough people change their individual habits things can improve in the future
5件のいいね Yes this was my original thought and concern that started this topic! Species being taken from the wild - destruction of habitats. You worded it all so well 😊
3件のいいね I think so much would be improved if we looked at every topic in this way - recognizing impact, trying to unlearn consumerism, trading and selling amongst ourselves, etc
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I am loving this conversation! And glad its being had! I too have come to realize I am/have been part of the problem. Even tho I don’t shop at big box stores, the poaching and simple ignorance factors alone has made me reflect and conciser my approach and participation in this hobby. At the very least, it has become my practice to research every plant before I buy it, to best understand where it came from, what its needs are (to be sure I can care for it in my conditions) and that its not so rare that it was most likely poached. I recently watched a great PlantOneOnMe you-tube video on this very subject, which I thought was extremely eye-opening.
I’ll definitely have to watch that!
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I definitely try to buy locally. I'm lucky to live near a few great nurseries and greenhouses where I can find some great plants. They tend to do better than store-bought plants because they are already acclimated to my climate. I've often thought about this when buying a commercially grown plant in relation to the carbon footprint of growing and shipping, as well as the plastic materials needed for pots and hangers. I try to propagate often and reuse all my nursery pots. I buy local soil and make my own fertilizer with kelp meal and added electrolytes purchased from a local plant shop that does their own mixes. I think the fact it stays on our minds is a good place to be. Making the best choice for your dollar is a start. I'm not sure there's been any research done to figure out the by-products of these farms. I would be interested in looking into this with more detail. I also attend local plant exchange events.
いいね 1件 Absolutely, I think awareness is the first step 😌 I wish there were more good plant shops around me :( I will have to keep an eye out for local exchanges. Rn I’m mostly buying from fb marketplace locally, so I know there are planty ppl near me - but actually all meeting up is a different thing. Have the plant exchanges been good?
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The ethics? You talking like PETA for plants? Should we be considered plant abusers for forgetting to water our plants? Held accountable for their deaths? We collect their seeds, and help them spread them across the globe.. maybe sometimes through Amazon but the plants are achieving their goals. Propagation. We remove less productive growth and allow the plant a chance to thrive even more, while again helping it achieve its goal of reproducing and reaching new places, in this case my house. If a circumstance happens, and one side does not benefit.. does that make them a victim? If so I feel very victimized by my plants and pets because here I am bettering their lives and they aren’t returning the favor. Sustainability... That’s plantism. Holding a bias that the plants that exist first have some empirical right to the land they grew in. All plants should have equal rights to grow in every location. The history of the plant, yes yes, we need to make sure that these plants had perching space and were grass fed. I’m wondering if we could start a movement where we block traffic and demand, “Just grow local”. Honestly hey, weeds have feelings too, down with tropical, grow your local weeds instead! #WeedsMatter
0件のいいね I’m so fascinated by your passion and aggression 😂
0件のいいね It got more fun the deeper I went
いいね 1件 Ok I’ll bite. I love a healthy friendly debate! Your passionate arguments and stance are fascinating and thought provoking for a larger conversation indeed! I suppose it’s all a matter of philosophical perspective of life itself. This is getting deep! Lol. I feel like there are layers of this conversation difficult to put into short words. There is so much we as plant parents all continue to uncover and learn about, and teach each other, through documentaries (check out “One Strange Rock” or “Connected”), geology/botany podcasts (check out “In Defense of Plants”), through you-tube conversations with evolution scientists and historians (check out “Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t”)… all of these informationals help us understand the science everything being connected with plants on earth and our role we as humans have had and continue to have on the earth and its ecology and habitat. Millions of years of habitat that predates humans existence on this earth, all of which we are directly impacting or causing to go extinct in the mere tiny fragment of time we have been here in comparison to plants. Our participation in taking (knowingly or unknowingly i.e. poaching) plants from their natural habitat for a hobby and our personal pleasure, potentially impacts thousands of other creatures insects, animals and entire eco-systems. It also will impact humans in the near future and is currently beginning to do so. Plants are connected to the levels of CO2 and oxygen in the air, and the carbon in the deep oceans. Humans would not exist if it were not for plants. Its less about “helping the plant achieve its goal of reproducing” in a home setting or elsewhere, or because plants have been “victimized”, and more about what happens to the habitat they were poached from in order to have them in our homes? And what are the systems or economic businesses in place that begin that process that we participate it? Where do we fall in that system and how can we as consumers (one individual within a mass of numbers collectively) have power or a voice into shifting that practice? Without knowing what you may or may not have been exposed to in terms of all this, makes it a bit challenging to debate your responses. But none-the-less, at the very least, I can see your point about feeling we living beings all having equal opportunity for existence on this planet. But I would point out that in order to continue our human existence, we need an eco-system of plants to breathe and eat and continue providing a natural habitat for all that we resource it for. This is a subject that gets deep… In a lot of ways, we are ultimately casting a light on a bigger problem that essentially aids in the eventual collapse of the human race. Now some may say oh well, we killed ourselves off because of our stupidity! Better for the planet without us, so it can evolve again and circle back through another ice age and new species of plants will create themselves and what will be will be. And yes, it will! With our without us! Existential crisis aside, ultimately, humans are just being selfish by wanting to prolong our minuscule existence on this planet, and therefore care about maintaining the ecosystem in the state that serves as humans to breathe and eat and utilize. So I suppose it’s up to each individual how much the pointlessness of life itself matters to you, into any future we may have a hand in changing or continuing to exist in. I would say trying our best to have all living things benefit equally, living in harmony, is key. Trying to co-exist with all living things, whether it was here before us or not, rather than dominance and control over all and ignorant elimination of things we don’t yet understand completely, especially when it directly impacts us and the entire planet. For example, your statement “all plants should have equal rights to grow in any location”… ok sure, if you wanted to give plants rights, lol. But by removing an entire species of plant from a habitat, you could also potentially cause extension to a an insect that maybe bats feed on that plants berries, and without the bat guano dropping and spreading its seeds, maybe fungi that host that plant and connect to other root systems are now gone, and now underground symbiotic relationship with the trees are now impacted that also feed the squirrels… all of which impacts the atmosphere and carbon and oxygen. Literally everything is connected. Buying locally has to do with minimizing the carbon footprint of that plant, eliminating the gas of transport and packaging waste. And it also can (not always) help you trace its origins of creation of that plant to the source (i.e, that seller grew it from cuttings or from self propagation rather than having them shipped from Indonesia where who knows if the plant was poached or not before that). Being able to have a conversation with the grower and ask questions (hoping they don’t lie to your face of course) is helpful. Funny you should mention weeds. There is a whole podcast about that. And how we current humans have come to determine which plants fall into the “weeds” category (shifts like fashion trends) and how they evolved to be invasive or not, etc etc. Now, am I going to stop trying to control and design and manicure my yard because of this understanding of the origins of weeds? No! But it certainly shifts my approach to how much I trim and when and what pollinators I’m effecting or helping or hurting by doing so. Cause as it turns out, Weeds DO matter! 😂 It may not seem from an outward perspective that buying and watering plants as we all do is harmful in any way (and It’s not, if purchased with knowledge of its origins, and we know it wasn’t a poached rare specimen taken from its natural habitat in mass numbers, so that we all can have designer plants no one else has to look at and kill quickly because we can always buy another one). But like an ant, minuscule and unremarkable, the impact of millions of ants together, doing the same thing (blindly and unknowingly) can have catastrophic results. We humans are basically a massive ant colony on this earth. The more we know, the more we can collectively avoid our own demise. And that is the long and the short of it. 🌿
いいね 1件 Danika, I am the most amazing plant. *plot twist*
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