Cactus prices higher than ever

[BennieAnTheJets]

Wow..thats just crazy..my example is a giveaway in comparison! But really,, can you blame the sellers? If people are willing to pay such ridiculous prices for a single node, I guess people who aren’t already very well off, couldn’t be blamed? The craze will pass almost certainly and we who don’t wont or can’t pay such prices will have a chance too


Unfortunately few of my neighbours seems to got bitten by cacti or plants at all.. In fact I can’t remember when I have seen cacti in any windows around here and I don’t feel for knocking on strangers doors asking; ‘You shouldn’t by any chance happen to have cacti?’ I may have gotten off with it as a kid as you mentioned but now..nahh , I don’t think so

In fact I don’t know anyone IRL who are interested in growing cacti for ‘real’ i.e not just buying a decorative plant who last as long as it lasts.

I am not on any of the popular soscial medias as Fb, insta , etc. But thank you for your suggestions which could prove helpful for others

Yeah, I would not knock on random doors, only if I saw a cactus bursting with offsets in the window already.

The local library or community center may be a good place to start a small club of interested people - interested in plants and cacti, maybe - once you know people personally, they tend to prefer to share with you rather than over the internet where you never know who may complain or give you a hard time, even if you give away your plants.

Too bad I cannot send you any. I don't dare shipping abroad because of import laws.

I am sure you will collect many nice ones over time - that is part of the charm of the hobby - sometimes you have to be patient and then the reward is even sweeter when you get something nice coming your way.

By the way, there are cactus nurseries in Germany and the Czech Republic that have very nice plants for sale (cacti) and are experienced with shipping and phytosanitary documents that are usually required for import, if you are interested and have resources that you can spend that way - I got my Christmas presents and birthday presents from dubencactus.

I don't know if Norway allows imports of houseplants/cacti and what the rules are but I think most countries allow some imports for personal use with a little trouble, care, and expense. One has to get the information about what is required and do the steps, if possible and if it is worth it, personally. There is always some risk with shipping plants that they may arrive dead and it is best to not have too high an expectation, but I have had good luck several times, especially with the hardy cactus plants!

It is best, of course, to ship when the weather is permitting transport without the plants getting overheated or freezing, so summer may be good in Norway? Here in Virginia, U.S.A I have to be careful in July and August because it gets too hot for packages to sit in the mailbox - it would kill plants easily.

https://www.ebay.com/usr/dubenkaktus

https://www.uhlig-kakteen.de/en/plants/cacti/

https://www.uhlig-kakteen.de/en/service ... g-returns/

[keith]

If it encourages poaching then its bad. If it gets growers to start more rare cactus from seed then that's OK.

I think it will do both.

[DaveW]

"The local library or community centre may be a good place to start a small club of interested people - interested in plants and cacti, maybe - once you know people personally, they tend to prefer to share with you"

The British Cactus & Succulent Society is a single national society but has local branches for members. The American Society is local autonomous cactus clubs simply affiliated to the Society. Both versions seem to work.

To find any interest to form a branch or club we used to put an advert in the local paper with an address to contact if interested and that was in the days before email, therefore now you can just get people to email you if interested. Even free Church Magazines can be used for publicity and sometimes church halls for meetings.

These clubs usually stared off with an invitation to visit their advertisers greenhouse or collection by appointment and developed into enthusiasts visiting each others collections until they decided they had enough members to form a local club. Then they would hire a local room, say once a month for meetings, and find a speaker to give a talk. There was usually a meeting fee to cover hire of room and cost of outside speaker who usually gave a slide show or cultivation talk. However most of the time you can initially get by with your own members giving a talk which obviously costs less.

Clubs are also a good way to exchange, buy and sell plants for a lot less than the fancy prices on EBAY.

You can also print leaflets on a computer with cultural advice and details of your club and ask garden centres and shops selling our plants to give them one when they purchase a plant. The retailers will often be grateful for such advice to their customers since they often know little about our plants themselves. Also if you have a specialist cactus nursery in your area they are usually ready to give customers a leaflet with your clubs details on. Remember some individual always had to take the first step in getting local enthusiasts together to start every club. The same ideas for setting up general garden clubs apply to specialist clubs like ours devoted to cacti and other succulents.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ho ... &FORM=VIRE

https://www.rolawn.co.uk/blog/november- ... ening-club

https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Gardeni ... %20More%20

Regarding emails, as our Nottingham Branch BCSS is unable to meet due to Covid Social Distancing at the moment we are keeping in touch via an email Round Robin that has 20 participants therefore even if you can't get enough enthusiasts for a local club you may be able to form an email group.

[BennieAnTheJets]

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ho ... &FORM=VIRE

https://www.rolawn.co.uk/blog/november- ... ening-club

https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Gardeni ... %20More%20

Great links! Thank you!

[Mrs.Green]

Wow..thats just crazy..my example is a giveaway in comparison! But really,, can you blame the sellers? If people are willing to pay such ridiculous prices for a single node, I guess people who aren’t already very well off, couldn’t be blamed? The craze will pass almost certainly and we who don’t wont or can’t pay such prices will have a chance too


Unfortunately few of my neighbours seems to got bitten by cacti or plants at all.. In fact I can’t remember when I have seen cacti in any windows around here and I don’t feel for knocking on strangers doors asking; ‘You shouldn’t by any chance happen to have cacti?’ I may have gotten off with it as a kid as you mentioned but now..nahh , I don’t think so

In fact I don’t know anyone IRL who are interested in growing cacti for ‘real’ i.e not just buying a decorative plant who last as long as it lasts.

I am not on any of the popular soscial medias as Fb, insta , etc. But thank you for your suggestions which could prove helpful for others

Yeah, I would not knock on random doors, only if I saw a cactus bursting with offsets in the window already.

The local library or community center may be a good place to start a small club of interested people - interested in plants and cacti, maybe - once you know people personally, they tend to prefer to share with you rather than over the internet where you never know who may complain or give you a hard time, even if you give away your plants.

Too bad I cannot send you any. I don't dare shipping abroad because of import laws.

I am sure you will collect many nice ones over time - that is part of the charm of the hobby - sometimes you have to be patient and then the reward is even sweeter when you get something nice coming your way.

By the way, there are cactus nurseries in Germany and the Czech Republic that have very nice plants for sale (cacti) and are experienced with shipping and phytosanitary documents that are usually required for import, if you are interested and have resources that you can spend that way - I got my Christmas presents and birthday presents from dubencactus.

I don't know if Norway allows imports of houseplants/cacti and what the rules are but I think most countries allow some imports for personal use with a little trouble, care, and expense. One has to get the information about what is required and do the steps, if possible and if it is worth it, personally. There is always some risk with shipping plants that they may arrive dead and it is best to not have too high an expectation, but I have had good luck several times, especially with the hardy cactus plants!

It is best, of course, to ship when the weather is permitting transport without the plants getting overheated or freezing, so summer may be good in Norway? Here in Virginia, U.S.A I have to be careful in July and August because it gets too hot for packages to sit in the mailbox - it would kill plants easily.

https://www.ebay.com/usr/dubenkaktus

https://www.uhlig-kakteen.de/en/plants/cacti/

https://www.uhlig-kakteen.de/en/service ... g-returns/

Thank you very much BennieAnThe Jets Very sweet of you to would have sent me something if it would have been possible ! For one I am afraid it wouldn’t have gone trough and I would have been a bit worried about the long travel too.

Patience is a virtue yes..but you know when you get interested in something , patience isn’t always easy..

..and thank you for the links

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

I'm glad I saw this thread because I've been talking about this here in Canada since about late 2017. I'll see if I can find the threads and PMs exchanged on the topic. At that point we entered a succulent fad that was bleeding into cacti as being very chic and I was reselling many of my oddball grafts and variegated Astrophytums to the 'Boho' crowd of ladies. The best seller were Rhipsalis. I slowed down though because most of them could not appreciate the specimen as it was without the decorative planter and that's just a skillset I don't have.

Fast forward to pandemic life and it appears to have exploded the interest in houseplants in general as many young people have had most of their social hobbies mandated out of existence. I know The United States is largely opened up again (Canada is still stuck in lockdowns and heavy restrictions), but the bottleneck on supply and likely restrictions put on the manufacturer (grower, seller, shipping, etc.) has had some time to catch up.

And as some of the posters in this thread have pointed out, there has been a sort of curation to the trend that started a few years ago. In my area and from what I gather, houseplants are still selling well in big box stores, but that the online demand (social media mostly) has shifted to more quality or rare examples. It nearly reminds me of trophy game displays. I hope people choose to educate themselves and understand what they're getting into, but to be fair I've talked to a couple of local customers who think they're getting a bargain from me and that they will be taking cuttings and learn how to grow soon enough and put me out of business.

[Mrs.Green]

It would be interesting to know what happens to all these plants people suddenly ’must have!’ . Do they die off by neglect/wrong care or will they be thrown out when the craze passes and something new is ‘in’?

[keith]

Cactus often die slow so I would expect they get thrown out after they are mostly dead. Or maybe they will try and sell them ?

Hopefully we will get many new life long hobbyists to cactus

[DWDogwood]

I do 1 or 2 sales on eBay per year. I start every one at $9.99 and I’m stunned by what small 10 year old Copiapoa cinerea and column alba currently end up at. Even my secondary Copiapoa species are beyond what I could have predicted.
But I have no interest in cashing out. Approaching 60 years old, I’ve grown cacti for decades out of a passion for the plants and picture myself enjoying walking into the greenhouse and seeing 100 cinerea of various personalities more than lamenting whether the fad died out before I needed the money.
I have a saying, the best time to start growing cacti is 30 years ago. For those without that luxury, the luxury of more time is yours.

[DaveW]

Yes at 80 years old I would say to the youngsters start setting seed now. If you wait to get large mature plants it will probably never happen and if available will be probably be outside your price range seeing some of the stupid prices on EBAY. Even if you do get a larger plant later you can always sell your seed raised plants on EBAY at stupid prices to help pay for the larger one you now acquired. If everybody raised from seed cactus prices would plummet.

[eulaspiegel]

Very interesting discussion. I joined a facebook group for "buying and selling exotic plants" not that long ago and was really disappointed that the only thing that was traded in that group were variegated Monsteras (and other trendy plants) for absolutely ridiculous prices. As others here have said it felt strongly like it wasn't about being interested in the plants but more like people wanting to have a nice status symbol...

If everybody raised from seed cactus prices would plummet.

I hope the fact that growing cacti has become more popular will actually lead to more plants being grown from seed, but that will of course only happen if more people with a genuine fascination get into the hobby (and not only those who just want a fancy apartment decoration).

[keith]

I started seriously raising cactus from seed 30 years ago because I wanted a Lopho. Now 60 and I have some nice cactus. And some lophos

[NiklasTyreso]

During corona people have been working from home, att least in my country. Away from office they started renovate their homes and buy garden plants. It has been a boom in buying pets too. Maybe even cactuses.

After Corona, when people go back to work in office they probably lose interest in their new garden, their new pets and their new cactus hobby.

[Aiko]

Don't buy plants online. Go to succulent plant fairs.
At least in (northwestern) Europe the prices are still low. Much, much lower than any garden centre or shop will sell the plants for, let alone Ebay and such. The people on the plant fairs are usually private persons selling excess plants from their own greenhouse for very moderate prices. The only expensive plants are the more choice plants, which does not seem unreasonable.

[7george]

Comes out that a mature Gymno for CAD$12 is not so expensive now?
Yeah: the pandemic & travel restrictions raised the price of plants but at least did not kill our hobby. Do not buy rare expensive cacti, these can be from habitats pocked. Better grow them yourselves.