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High priced carnivorous plants

  • #21
I have no problem with a plant being mass produced even if most of them die. The life of an individual plant in this situation is of little consequence. Certainly not equal with the life of one in situ from a survival of the species point of view. I can rattle a half dozen species of tropical fish off the top of my head that are completely extirpated and exist solely in aquaria. Suitable habitat no longer exists, due to either destruction, or more often introduced species. If hobbyists and fish farms didn't churn out these fish they'd be gone.
 
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  • #22
Back when Utric. graminifolia was in high demand I sold off enough of it to expand my grow area massively. In the process I tanked the market.
The laws of supply & demand are here for all of us to watch. When supply for a cool / new / interesting plant is limited, price soars (ie: mature eddy or RHH). Since the overall CP market is small, we can often watch supply & demand real time. RSS had one example with how he personally tanked the market for U. graminifolia (which was actually a crossover into aquatic plant market). A few years ago, a Colorado grower did the same with Petiolaris (especially D. falconeri). When he started to supply plants that were previously unavailable in USA, prices were crazy. As the small CP market got saturated, some of his auctions didn't even get any bids.

When I sold some plants for charity earlier this year, N. tenuis fetched a higher price than N. hamata (over $300) due to the fact that it's in short supply in USA. Let a few more mature plants hit the market & the price would probably be cut in half (if not more) since the overall demand for this species is very small.

Many people start growing CPs with delusions of getting rich selling their spares. This just doesn't work with a niche market - demand is too small. The biggest TC company (BE) supplies the world (so their market is a bit larger) & they work to be very efficient (grow in a climate with low utilities & personnel costs).

In the last 3 years we lost the two largest suppliers in the USA - Paroubek & Catalani. One of the other larger suppliers moonlights part time at a car dealer to help make ends meet.
 
  • #23
I think with the orchids they have become a semi substitute for cut flowers. Probably purchased with the idea, "Hey its alive!" But with the knowledge it probably will die. Or be scrapped in some fashion. I used to see orchids with spent flowers often at garage sales for a buck. I got a BIG Sharry Baby at Trader Joe's a couple weeks ago for $13 or $16. That seems insane. And kind of amazing too.
 
  • #24
I think with the orchids they have become a semi substitute for cut flowers. Probably purchased with the idea, "Hey its alive!" But with the knowledge it probably will die. Or be scrapped in some fashion. I used to see orchids with spent flowers often at garage sales for a buck. I got a BIG Sharry Baby at Trader Joe's a couple weeks ago for $13 or $16. That seems insane. And kind of amazing too.

Let's face it, if you buy a Phal in bloom you'd have to really try to get the blooms to fade before a bunch of cut flowers would. And with the price( I know a place where I can buy Phals in bloom for $5 all the time) it's better bang for the buck.
 
  • #25
It really depends on what you want to sell and how. It's a lot easier to resell then grow plants from seed yourself. For instance, Sarrs take about 3 years to be large enough for most people to want to buy. That's three years of space you have to dedicate to plants that you'll sell. Considering most Sarrs will sell from $15 - $25, that means you're making $5 - $7 a year per plant from seed. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to import some cheaper plants from elsewhere and resell shortly thereafter. If you can import a Sarr for $7, selling it for $15 a couple months later is a big profit compared to doing it yourself (but it's still not a big profit).

What sets the price of the plant is what people are willing to pay. I sell extras from my collection, mainly so that I can afford to buy more plants/plant supplies/etc. When I set prices, I take a survey of US and European nurseries to figure out what any given plant is selling for and weigh that against the time it takes to propagate a plant. U. livida, for instance, was spreading like a weed for me a while ago. Therefore, I could price it very cheaply. In contrast, U. fulva is rarer and is slower to grow. Therefore, I price it more expensively. Of course, what happens with plants, especially perennial plants, like most CPs, is that if you do your job well (and your buyer cares enough to do some research) you'll never sell the same plant to the same person. Since the market is small, you'll always have to come up with new plants to sell, or wait for a new crop of growers enter the hobby.
 
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