This is a really great article all about houseplants from the Washington Post, and featuring commentary from our friends at Flora Plant Shop in Nashville! 

Of special interest to us is the section about pottery - terra cotta pots are still essential, but other colored clays, such as our Basalt and Granite clays are also great, affordable options:

As your plants grow and thrive, you’ll need to spend more money to repot them. But don’t throw away your old pots or feel pressured to fill them immediately. Instead, keep them for reuse in the future, or consider swapping empty pots with friends as needed.
There are also ways to be budget-conscious while shopping for planters. “Terracotta is typically the most affordable when it comes to pottery,” says Howat, “and there are beautiful options available that aren’t the standard orange clay.” 

All photos shown are from Flora Plant Shop's incredible displays.

This is an amazing video – if you aren’t focusing on the indoor plant market, you are giving your competitors a huge advantage with the Millennial consumer:

Why are Millennials Obsessed with Houseplants?

If you’ve been paying even the slightest amount of attention to your social media accounts over the past few months, you will have noticed that the succulent trend of the past few years has transformed and blossomed into a fully-fledged resurrection of the houseplant craze of the 70’s and 80’s.

As with most trends, the houseplant revolution took root on the coasts, and is making rapid inroads towards the center of the country. Retail consumers (especially young, apartment-dwelling ones) are driven by the health benefits, the portability, and the affordability of houseplants; they are a super-easy way for your customers to make an impact on a living space, and make great gifts.

Even if you cater mostly to more established, home-owning consumers, you can still capitalize on this style shift, although you might also want to carry a selection of larger houseplants – we are seeing a big increase in sales of larger saucers this year, indicating that consumers aren’t just interested in small “starter” houseplants.

That this market shift is occurring is great news for just about everyone involved in the garden industry – houseplant sales aren’t seasonal in nature, and can help drive year-round profitability for your garden center.

Over the past few years, retailers who embraced succulents have seen sales spike in related categories as well, as consumers shopped for specialty soils, watering cans, fertilizers, and most importantly (from our perspective, anyway), pottery. We fully expect that the same thing will happen for garden centers who have the foresight to latch onto the houseplant craze as well.

We recommend that you include a range of planters in your Spring stocking order to ensure that you’re ready for consumer demand – hanging baskets, self-watering planters, pots with attached saucers, bonsai planters, and small pots with matching saucers are all good add-ons to your outdoor pottery offerings.

If you’d like to read more on the impact that houseplants are having on our industry, The December issue of Green Profit Magazine includes several perspectives on the growth in this market, and is worth a read.