Foliage Plant Crystal Ball

MANILA, Philippines - June to September is the lowest season in Floricultural Trade in the Philippines. This yearly cycle is generally used by growers to stock up on merchandise for the last quarter of the year and the year after. This is the time of the year that growers ask what the best plant to grow to maximize profit.

Fads come and go. Few years back, some very lucky plant importers went into Euphorbia blindly. Seeing the beautiful color varieties in Thailand, importers brought them into the country by the thousands and made an estimated total of 50 millions pesos of revenue (low end estimate). The trading path from importers to the end users (the gardeners) made profits along the way. In a matter of 2 years, as soon as the number of available new varieties dropped, the interest in the particular product line dropped also. Several importers and grower-investors that came in late into the trade found out that the local market is not there anymore.

Next came Colored Aglaonemas, foliage Anthuriums and Sansevierias. There were wild frenzied trading activities around Asia. The Indonesians, Malaysians, Brunei and Filipinos joined the bandwagon.

Colored Aglaonema Craze. Aglaonema craze was started when a Malaysian trader bought 3 Aglaonema plants for 1M Baht (approx. P1.4M) in Bangkok for a garden in Brunei. Those were the first high-priced colored Aglaonema released into trade and made news in the Floricultural world. Indonesia came out with its own line of colored Aglaonemas after that. The yearly King’s Show in Bangkok fueled the interest in this particular plant group. At this point in time, the colored Aglaonema price has dropped to an international level (below $0.90/cutting).

Colored Aglaonemas are becoming less available in collectors’ nurseries and more available with commercial propagators. The international market for colored Aglaonemas is growing by leaps and bound. The German and Dutch traders have invested in nurseries and warehouses in Thailand to ship colored Aglaonema regularly to Europe. 

Foliage Anthurium Craze. Foliage Anthurium craze was triggered by the Indonesian traders. The Indonesian collector-traders have a curious characteristic of trying to corner the market by trying to buy everything available. This market behavior drove the price of foliage Anthuriums sky high and created an artificial demand worldwide. The craze benefited a handful of plant traders in the Philippines and burnt quite a few Indonesian traders financially. The fad died suddenly with a glut situation in Indonesia. Efforts are underway to market the voluminous plants as indoor plants to Middleeast. Most of the Indonesian stocks are now falling into neglect because nobody is buying. 

Sansevieria Craze. 20 years ago, an importer-collector in Thailand hacked off the Sansevieria leaves off his garden because nobody likes them and nobody buys. Sansevieria is one of those “It is so ugly, it is cute” type of plants. He offered all his friends the leaves for propagation. There were no takers. He now estimated that the amount of materials (about 10 cubic meters) he threw out of the garden could have made him about 80 Million Baht easily during the Sansevieria frenzy. 

Sansevierias are still being actively traded but not as much as 2 years ago and the price has dropped. The product is undergoing a re-dressing. The next product in line will be the hybrid Sanse-vierias.

Foliage Plant Future. Philippine growers and traders had benefited from all these horticultural fads. Everytime a fad dies down; growers will ask “What is Next?” The answer to this was already mapped out during the 50’s. The Passive Floral Marketing Theory goes: “If there is a substantial volume of plants with a substantial number of varieties developed, it will create an interest and will eventually spill out into the market.” 

So, what do we see in the floricultural crystal ball? 

Thailand is developing their stocks of Dracaenas. New varieties and hybrids are being produced in volumes. It is interesting to note that they prefer Philippine species over their own because the Dracaena multiflora has denser foliage and look better. Variegata lines of different species and hybrids are showing up in the collectors’ gardens. In Hawaii, one of the bigger nurseries launched the marketing of Dracaena hookerana for the US market. Dracaena hybrids in Thailand are becoming very interesting with developments of new forms and even colors and blotchings.

Interest in Ferns and Aroids are cropping up allover the world. With modern hybridization and vegetative propagation techniques, new forms and colors are coming into the market. 

The interest in Aquarium Plants has started few decades ago but this sector is growing fast because of trading between producing countries. The revenue derived from a small aquarium plant is a lot more interesting than indoor or landscaping plants. International trading partner is the key to the success of this horticultural enterprise.

There is a small group who invested on Cycads. This longterm investment is relatively stable but the gestation period might be too long for a small garden plant suppliers. With the Brontispa (infesting palm trees) threat in the Philippines, the landscape industry might just shift to Cycads which is not affected by the said pest.

With the developments in technology, there are so many plants that will show up in the Floriculture Market in the near future but the general predictor will always be: availability (i.e. volume), variety and usage of the plant. Beyond that, the success in launching a plant product will depend mainly on product development and promotion.