Years and years ago, I bought a couple of Anthurium regale from a place here in Florida called Tropiflora. Back then in the early to mid-2000's, A. regale was an almost unknown anthurium in cultivation here. The plants that Tropiflora was offering came from the collection of Mardy Darian of California, the well known horticulturist. He was selling off parts of his extensive collections. I was pretty thrilled to get an anthurium that actually came from his collection. The plants did well for me, they grew and were getting sizable. Then disaster struck, there was a heater failure in the greenhouse on a string of very cold nights, and they were lost. I never could find a replacement after that, because as I said, the plant was not in any kind of wide US cultivation. Now, they seem to be everywhere, but are so expensive, they are out of reach for many people. I had decided to just not try and replace mine, when serendipity happened...I got an offer to make a trade for an equally sought after Anthurium that I have in my collection. I decided to do it, and now look at my baby! I have had it for several months now and it is growing and growing. So pleased to have it again. Anyone else growing it? 2nd photo my hand for scale
I know. Me too. So many things have gotten unaffordable as far as aroids are concerned. Hopefully the craze will die down and things revert to a more normal status quo. It would help if the only tissue culture labs producing these sought after plants were not in Asia or the Netherlands. The American companies need to get on the stick and start producing some of this stuff to bring the cost down (AND save some of the more rare species, like Philodendron spiritus-sancti, which are being poached to extinction in the wild)
I'm really surprised we don't have a better selection of nice TC aroids, considering the crazy prices they are going for. Remember back in 90's when we got our Alocasia longiloba 'Purple Prince'? I believe most of those were TC from (I think) Agristarts. Not long after that I remember lots of TC Anthurium veitchii being available, and others. Where are all the cool TC aroids today (please don't say 'Prince of Orange'). With the high prices I thought we would see more by now. I can't even afford a veitchii anymore.
I think the recession of 2008-? did away with that. Niche nurseries closed down (like Barry Yingers old nursery) and I think Agristarts just decided to focus on things that they could sell a million of to the big box stores (like P of O LOL). The TC companies in Asia and the Netherlands and Australia HAVE been producing some of the more unusual plants, but AGristarts and the other TC companies here in the US have been slow on the uptake. If they would restart their efforts, the prices of all these plants would drop overnight. A well known ginger hybridizer here told me that Agristarts is not interested in anything that cannot be patented. All of the Chaidee and Saradee curcuma hybrids that started blanketing the box stores a couple years ago are a patented line of plants that they started mass producing. Costa Farms apparently holds the patent now on Philodendron Birkin and the ZZ Raven, among other plants, and has had those in TC and been selling them here at box stores and even the grocery stores. They apparently also hold a patent now on at least some form of the variegated Monstera D called Thai Constellation...and have been planning to release that in stores for about a year now. All those people who have paid $200-300 for a single node no root one leaf stem cutting of variegated Monstera may be really sad they didn't wait a bit
@Tom Hulse and @bihai I hope you don't mind me butting in on your topic, but after reading both of your posts, I thought you both might be interested in this article I was reading. Rare and fashionable houseplant stolen from botanic gardens in New Zealand Prices are now in the silly bracket, so thieves will be on the lookout for our plants.
@Acerholic, this has been happening here already. The Marie Selby Gardens in Sarasota used to have 3 specimens of the true (very rare) Monstera obliqua in its collection. TWO were stolen, so they removed the third so that it did not meet the same fate. People steal from Fairchild gardens in Miami all the time. Helping themselves to cuttings and the like. I know a very longstanding old nursery in SO FL (SilverKrome) had two thefts in this past year (maybe more), he posted video of the thief on Facebook in an attempt to catch him...but the scariest thing that has happened is that on a video of a nursery theft, one of the perpetrators actually can be seen in the film with a GUN. Even though I hold a valid FL nursery license and can ship to most states (I can not ship to AZ, and will soon be able to ship to CA, LA, MS and TX when my nematode certification comes through) I NEVER allow people to come to my house to pick up a plant they have purchased, if they live here. I always meet them somewhere, and have them pay in advance through PayPal. But the saddest part of this whole rare plant craze isn;t just the lousy people who are thieving from nurseries and institutions, but this who are poaching rare plants from the wild. Plants that may only now grow in one tiny corner of one tiny place and nowhere else on earth.
@bihai agreed this has been going on for some time, but this year has seen some plants rocket in value and the thieves are fully aware of this. How we protect our treasured plants from the thieves is a rather difficult question to answer. And as you have said they are being plundered in the wild where there is no protection. Also if the perpetrators are now arming themselves, this takes on a whole new dimension re crime prevention. Although a loud dog or a loud alarm is always something I used to reccomend. CCTV is OK to a point, but with face masks now the norm due to Covid, identification has been greatly reduced. I do hope you have specialist police officers you can discuss flora and fauna crime with as we do have in the UK. ( Full time Country Watch Officers). The regular patrol officers are not too aware of these specialist crime matters. So glad to hear you take excellent precautions already.
