Houseplant disrupter lends some sanity to the madness

How much would you pay for a houseplant? How about a single cutting from a rare houseplant?

If you’ve not kept up with the houseplant craze, the number might surprise you — $350. That’s how much single-leaf cuttings of Monstera ‘Thai Constellation’ were selling for during the Covid pandemic when houseplant madness was running amok.

And then the houseplant disrupter came along. Jason vanWingerden, who owns The Plant Company with his brother-in-law Frank Paul, thought charging those kind of prices for often sub-par plants was akin to fleecing. Some of the plants being sold as “rare” varieties were actually anomolies caused by viruses, sealing the plant’s fate as short-lived.

But vanWingerden and Paul knew there was a better way to grow houseplants. European and Canadian growers had for years been producing them in a much different way, ensuring they were viral indexed, patented and grown from tissue culture rather than seed, guaranteeing that plants were healthy and what they claimed to be. So they sought out growers who could meet that standard, vowed to sell plants to independent garden centers at a reasonable price and invested in educating the houseplant community.

And one of the first things they did was sell healthy ‘Thai Constellation’ plants for less than $20. That certainly didn’t win him any friends among houseplant growers, but it did start to change the houseplant world, which is made up of people who often don’t do any other kind of gardening but are often so into plants that they call themselves “plant parents.”

Then vanWingerden and Paul partnered with the Proven Winners plant brand to create the company’s Leafjoy line, bringing interesting and exciting houseplants to a broader market with the power of Proven Winners marketing muscle.

Part of that strategy is to bolster the education side of that pledge. In addition to online content and tutorials, Leafjoy is commited to helping houseplant lovers. Heather Wheatley, who now serves as the brand’s marketing manager, answers questions sent via Instagram nearly 24 hours a day, identifying plant problems and offering solutions, in an effort to help people grow houseplants better.

And while Leafjoy’s efforts have been primarily focused on independent garden centers, this year the plants have been showing up at some Home Depot stores, and at least one of them is a houseplant cult classic, a plant that is on houseplant enthusiasts’ bucket lists.

It’s called Anthurium magnifica ‘Michelle’ from the DocBlock Select collection and bred by an anesthesiologist with penchant for experimenting with plants. With nearly black leaves that sport silver-white veining, ‘Michelle’ is a truly stunning plant, which is why in the past it’s been sold for $350 and up.

But if you’re lucky enough to snag one of the six to eight plants being sent to each Home Depot, you can pick it up for $97.

And you can thank the houseplant disrupter for that.