2021 houseplant hysteria

Use these stats to help with planning production schedules and marketing houseplants to your independent garden center customers.


Editor’s note: Only responses from garden centers that sell houseplants are included in this report.

It’s no surprise that garden centers saw stellar sales in their houseplant departments during 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic had customers spending more time at home. Building on the momentum driven by plant parents, biophilic design trends and plant collectors, the houseplant craze was driven to new heights last year.

In March, Garden Center polled more than 250 independent garden center owners and managers in the U.S. and Canada to see how houseplant popularity has hit their stores. 


— Kate Spirgen, editor

In the April issue, we dove into why the houseplant craze continues to climb and how the retail industry has reacted. nurserymag.com/article/houseplant-hype-2021
 
This month, we share exclusive research from sister publication Garden Center that illustrates the growth of houseplant sales at independent garden centers and other insider information that will help you better serve that market segment.
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When compared with last year, it’s easy to see that IGCs saw a higher percentage of sales coming from houseplants and related indoor growing supplies. Garden centers seeing 20% or more of sales coming from indoor growing jumped up 18 percentage points this year over last.

 

IGCs that saw an increase of 15% or more in their houseplant departments jumped up nearly 25 percentage points this year over last and they aren’t planning to slow down any time soon. More than 80% of those surveyed say they increased houseplant offerings in 2020 and plan to do the same in 2021. But although sales and offerings were up, garden centers didn’t increase their prices much more than they did in 2019.

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