There he is!

If you are someone who got into plant keeping during the pandemic and have done no research on your own prior to buying an expensive ass plant: I don’t feel sorry for your pitfalls. I feel sorry for the plant who was unfortunate enough to be bought by someone who thinks they can buy their way into the hobby

People are buying single node stem cuttings of variegated monstera and other obscure rares for $200+ then going to plant groups to ask how to care for it because they fear they’re going to kill it? Dumb. If you don’t have complete confidence in caring for a plant that is worth more than half a paycheck: leave if for someone else! Plants smell fear and will rot and die out of spite

I don’t care how much money you spent on a plant if you don’t know how to take care of it

And risk it not being the same variety I want, or going to a local nursery and see if I can haggle the price down from $75. There is no reason for their houseplants to be that outrageously priced. I have two varieties of banana and paid $12 and $14 for the same size from other nursery’s. I’ve got a monstera deliciosa and philodendron hope for $25, then found them for sale at hyvee (same size!!) for $15. At this garden center, 4-6 inch plants are priced $20-$45!

Nobody there knows the varieties of the house plants they sell. One employee said that a peperomia was a Hoya when I asked: it was a pixie lime.

I only started going crazy with plants and gardening this year, I shouldn’t be able to go into a store that sells plants and gardening supplies, and know more than the employees that have been working there longer than I have been buying plants! They sell roses and have a Japanese beetle problem and don’t use the beetle traps that they sell!

But anyways: This is the elephant ear I want.

They have three greenhouses, a tree yard, and a couple other areas.

One of the greenhouses is how the nickname plant zoo came from:

I’m not a huge fan of plain green foliage, but they have some cool plants!

Look at all those succulents, some of them have to be real flipping old to be as big as they are

Like where would anyone put this? Those guys just live in there... this isn’t California - and we’re getting a lot of rain...

They aren’t even badly priced either? My mom paid more for the endless summer hydrangea from here than most of these bid ol green kids...