In the latter half of November my colleague Jen Polanz emailed me to say, “I just watched Groovy Plants Ranch sell through an allotment of Monstera in about 10 minutes!” What kind of plant drop was going on here? And how do they pull something like that off?

Earlier this week I contacted Groovy’s co-owner Jared Hughes to ask about it. He said the sales event, which was announced via their email list in the early morning for an 11 a.m. start time, was a Monstera-focused rare plant drop. “It was more of an experiment than anything, and it went pretty well,” Jared said. They sold a couple dozen or more of three or four rare to unusual varieties. “What was nice about it is that we had these Thai Constellations, which have come down in price quite a bit so we offered them at a pretty nice price,” Jared explained. “People really ate those up. I think that’s one of those plants that people have been waiting on for quite a while, but we decided to do this experiment, bring in a decent number of them, and then actually have enough to do a release.”

Some of Groovy’s learnings from this November drop include:

• Manage expectations. Jared cautioned against overestimating your outcomes and buying too much inventory, which could be disappointing if the sale doesn’t go as expected.
• Leverage an established customer base. Groovy Plants has a very strong following for rare plants. This helps drive participation in plant drops such as this.
• Start small and test. Groovy has done plant drops before, but not necessarily with Monstera. They did the Monstera-focused plant drop to see what would happen. “We could easily have put these in the store, and we would knew they would do well, but we thought let’s try it online and see what happens.”
• Make sure you have quality plants. “Don’t let them down when they come to get it!” he said. Groovy Plants does not ship. The folks buying these specially dropped plants are willing to drive to their Marengo, Ohio, garden center for pick up.

Oh, and I also asked if they had plans to do another plant drop. Yes! In fact, I coincidentally spoke with Jared the day before the next scheduled plant drop. 

Screen shot of this week's Groovy Plants Ranch Monstera plant drop just as it opened. 

The folks feverishly buying plants online like in the above example might be interested in the following new book from Cool Springs Press. Or, if you’re newish to the tropical foliage industry, you may learn some key techniques to bump up your plant hobby into pro mode. The book is “The Ultimate Guide to Houseplant Propagation: Step-by-Step Techniques for Making More Houseplants … for Free!” The description of this book calls it the “comprehensive bible of propagation techniques” with step-by-step prop instructions for more than 80 different houseplants. That’s a lot!

Written by Lindsay Sisti, founder of the brand All the Plant Babies and a successful Etsy plant shop, the book covers a dozen different propagation techniques and also takes a deep dive into anthurium pollination and breeding to create your own unique hybrids.

Whether it’s for yourself, your staff or your shop’s bookshelf, “The Ultimate Guide to Houseplant Propagation” will help spread the love of houseplants by helping people engage in creating more of them. And retailers, think of all the decorative plant pots you’ll be selling to pot up all these new plant babies. Get your wholesale copies from Quarto’s specialty sales rep Monica Baggio.

Houseplants are beautiful things—until they start going rogue, dangling where they shouldn’t dangle and such. The Plant Company has a solution! They are adding the Climb-itt line of products to the Proven Winners leafjoy line.

These houseplant supports are 100% natural, too. Made from a combination of potato starches and elephant grass, the new Climb-itt products give you and your customers a plastic- and chemical-free choice when it comes to supporting plants. The line includes 40-mm and 60-mm support poles, climbing planks, support canes, Eco Wire, shapeable support sticks and connectors. Here are a few features of the Climb-itts:

• The potato starch/elephant grass materials offer a bark-like texture and allow attachment of plant aerial roots;
• Bio-clips help attach the plant parts to the support and bend with the stem’s growth—no pinching;
• Climb-itt poles can stack to grow as the plant grows;
• The lactic acid found within the Climb-itt’s potato starches helps prevent mold growth.
• These materials will last for years in indoor applications and will completely break down in the landfill.

The Plant Company worked with the Netherlands-based Kratiste on the Climb-itts, and you can talk to the owners of that company as well as the creators of the Climb-itts at TPIE. Catch them in booth 517!

Can you believe that the Tropical Plant International Expo is roughly five weeks away? January sure does sneak up, doesn’t it? I have two public service announcements regarding this event, taking place in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, just when you need tropical vibes the most:

If you register for TPIE by January 3, you’ll save $10 per badge. What better gift to give yourself or your staff than a ticket to the best international marketplace for tropical plants and foliage professionals? Hey, every dollar counts nowadays.

All the education sessions at TPIE are amazing and applicable, but here are three that might be just what you’re looking for at this time and place in your business:

Pest Management Made Easy: An Employee’s Guide to Answering Customer Questions. Your favorite entomologist and mine, Suzanne Wainwright-Evans designed the session specifically for garden center employees and owners, focusing on the most common pests homeowners seek help with. Learn about sustainable pest management techniques that align with growing consumer demand for eco-conscious products, helping your garden center provide expert advice and solutions. Wednesday, January 22 at 3:00 p.m.

Navigating Growing Pains: Overcoming Common Scalability Barriers. If your company is going through growing pains, struggling with the right tech, this session given by Iryna Pakhomva and Karin Horn can help. You’ll learn to scale your business by leveraging professional tools and software to streamline operations, improve efficiency and enhance collaboration. Thursday, January 23 at 11:00 a.m.

Top Ten Ideas for Unlocking the Healing Power of Nature: An Exploration of the Benefits of People-Plant Interactions. Leah Diehl offers an enlightening session on the use of plants and nature for human health and well-being, delving into the transformative influences plants and nature can have on our behavior. I love the idea of this workshop for hort industry professionals, as it can change the way you think about how your job impacts other people and the world. Thursday, January 23 at 1:00 p.m.

For more information about attending, vendors, hotel and other educational opportunities, head over HERE.