There is a fairly easy way to make some extra money selling plants. You do not even need to sit and wait for seeds to grow. You just need to know the market, as many local nurseries do not.
Houseplant sales have grown by 50 percent in the past 3 years and is now a billion-dollar industry. We have plantfluencers that make common plants sought after to the point that they sell out so fast that sellers have a hard time keeping up with the demand.
As these plants happen to be fairly common many nurseries keep the price tag quite low since they are either unaware of the demand or they have not yet adapted to it. This is especially true for stores that do not specialize in selling plants but still sell them, like hypermarkets and big box stores.
I stumbled upon a fully grown Monstera Variegata Albo Borsigiana in my local nursery. It was actually four plants growing together in the same pot and climbing a moss pole. The price? $200! You might think this was expensive but this was a crazy BARGAIN.
One leaf cutting from this plant can sell for between $40–200 online and this plant had 36 leaves, that meant 36 cuttings. I took it home and started selling these cuttings on Ebay. 20 of the cuttings (the ones with fairly little variegation) sold for a bit over $40, 4 of them sold for around $70 usd, and one sold for a whooping $140. Mind you that I excluded the shipping costs from these numbers. That means that I made a total profit of $1 200 and still have the whole living plant left with 7 leaves. And the best thing with plants? They keep growing, which means that there will be more leaves growing for future sales.
You do not have to start with a cost of $200 though. I have tried this with way less expensive plants like the Stromanthe Triostar. I found a huge Stromanthe Triostar at my local big box store for only $16 dollars, this was $10 cheaper than in my local nursery for the same size Triostar. I bought it, took it home, and propagated it. Plant propagation is the process of creating new plants from a mother plant. With Stromanthes it is done by dividing the rhizomes (piece of the plant with roots) and potting them up in new pots.
By the end of that day I had 6 small Stromanthe Triostar plants and one mother plant that was smaller than when I bought it but still quite massive. Then I waited to see if the plants would survive the transfer and all but one did. Next I posted my 5 small plants on Etsy for $25 per plant excl. shipping (which was still a massive undercut for the general Etsy prices for this plant). Once sold they made me around $110 and I still have the mother plant at home which will keep growing.
Now, let me tell you how you can do this yourself:
1. Do your social media research
Make sure to spend 1–2 days browsing social media to understand which plants are currently popular — but not too rare. There are variegated versions of common plants that are popular like pothos, Hoyas and Peperomias. Pink plants are quite popular too. The important part is to get the right plant. So if people want a Tradescantia fluminensis Tricolor then do not go get a Tradescantia quadricolor, because even if they are similar enough for people to mistake them it is not the plant that plantfluencers are hyping right now.
Make a list of all the plants you find, or take screenshots with the photo of the plant and the name.
2. Check the online market price for these plants
Check places like Ebay, and Etsy as well as plant online store websites. Check for three things — price, if they are frequently listed as out of stock, and how many people currently have them in stock. Price will show what price you can expect to sell them for, being out of stock everywhere means that they will be very easy to sell, and high competition means that you might have to lower the expected price, while low competition means that you can probably get away with an even higher price.
3. Check the care requirements
This is an important step as you do not want to go buy a plant that will struggle to survive in your climate or that is a super slow grower. Also, be aware of the plants that tend to need humidifiers, that never seem to have flawless leaves or have extremely complex care needs. Especially if you are new at this plant thing. You do not want to end up with a dead plant.
3. Go shopping
Now take your car, your bike or your walking shoes and go to all local nurseries and big box stores that you have in your area and start scouting for the plants you want to buy. You might find some on your first try, and others might take you weeks to find. That is fine. This is a game of patience. Start small by buying one or two plants that you think will do well, or set a budget beforehand and stick to it. You do not want to spend an amount of money that will give you unnecessary stress. Buy for a small amount in the beginning and as you start selling later on, you will gain more confidence.
4. Propagate
When you get home with your plants start propagating what you can. Some plants might take weeks to propagate so the sooner you start the better. If you do not know how to propagate a plant I assure you it is very easy, just go on Youtube and search for how to propagate your specific plant.
5. Learn how to ship plants
Go online and do proper research of how other people pack their plants for shipping. This is again fairly easy but you will have to spend a few bucks on packaging so that the plant will survive the shipping process. There is endless information on how to do this, and once you know how to ship your plants, make sure to figure out how much shipping costs so you know how much to charge for it.
6. Start selling
Finally, we are at the step where it is time to make money. Figure out what platform you want to sell on. Some plants do better on Ebay while I believe most to do better on Etsy.
Take some fantastic photos of your plants and describe in detail what the buyer is getting. Fix your profile or store look and post your listing.
All you need to do now is sit back, wait, and keep those plants alive and in good condition until you get your sales coming in. On Ebay it is fairly clear when you will sell a plant as it is an auction that will end at a specific date. On Etsy you might not know when you will get a sale but on the other hand you will know how much you will earn from a sale.
