Marketable miniatures

In the last 50 years, houseplants experienced quite the trend cycle. With interest peaking in the ‘70s and ‘80s, demand waned in decades that followed, only to be resurrected by plant-happy millennials in the last 10 years. Of course, it’s hard to predict what comes next without a crystal ball, but Gary Hunter, owner of Gary’s Specialty Plants in Drumore, Pennsylvania, believes the latest trend may be flowering miniature plants.

“When I started nine or 10 years ago, one of our sayings was ‘miniature plants for miniature gardens,’ and that was a thing that was going on at the time where people would make their own little miniature garden scenes,” Hunter says.

While people are no longer as interested in the trinkets, there’s still a spot for miniatures — and that’s alongside traditional houseplants. Right now, Hunter says retailers are still very interested in houseplants and notes string of pearls and the Chinese money plant are some of his bestsellers.

“We hope houseplant popularity continues but we don't have any control over this trend,” Hunter says with a laugh. “Why did it start? Why did it continue? Why did it go up? It will go down — we just don't know when.”

However, he thinks flowering miniatures will start to take off soon, especially varieties found in the Gesneriad family — all of which are flowering houseplants. These include African violets, Streptocarpus, Aeschynanthus, Achimenes, Smithiantha, Kohleria, Sinningia and Primulina.

“You can get a lot of plants in a smaller area for display and that’s a good thing. In general, the price went up on that stuff. When we started, the retail was about $4. Now it's almost $5 everywhere and some places they're selling it for $6,” Hunter says. “So that sounds like a lot of money for a little plant, but actually, if somebody can buy several little plants for not much money, that helps sell them and the customer gets more variety.”

Here are some varieties to get you started:

Achimenes

“Almost no young person knows about this one. We grew these 40-50 years ago. It’s most like an impatiens. It has pastel flowers and can flower in the morning sun and afternoon shade,” he says.

Hunter points out that Achimenes have always been grown by Gesneriad hobbyists, but it is not in the commercial system.

“The easy method for the homeowner is to grow it as a summer plant or a patio plant. In the fall, it will die back. You can either just put it in the basement and let it go until next spring, or you can knock out the pot and harvest those little rhizomes and save them, and start them in March or April and start the next year,” he says.

There are many hybrids in all colors — ranging from pinks, reds, yellows, white and lavender — with single and double-flower, upright and trailing varieties.

Sinningia ‘Li'l Georgie’

Sinningia ‘Li’l Georgie’

A micro-mini, Sinningia ‘Li’l Georgie’ is one of the world’s smallest flowering plants, Hunter says. Sinningia ‘Li’l Georgie’ contains many purple flowers on a compact plant, and, if grown from a tuber, can resprout if it goes dormant, he says.

“I have produced these before and am in the process of reestablishing a supply from tissue culture. The breakthrough with this micro-mini Sinningia is that it does not require the extra humidity of a terrarium, but can grow on a windowsill,” Hunter says.

Primulina 

Primulina 'Loki'

African violets are already popular amongst houseplant parents, and Hunter believes Primulina is an excellent miniature option.

“I’ve been growing Primulina for 10 years as a variegated small plant in our assortment of 2.5-inch foliage. There are hundreds of species and hybrids in the hobby world. Primulina are like an African violet, but better,” Hunter says. “The plants can survive being dry, low and high light. They flower after one to one and a half years from being propagated by leaf, similar to African violets.”

According to Hunter, Primulina is in the same stage as African violets were 70 years ago, and he predicts that Primulina will eventually replace African violets. Native to South China and North Vietnam, most of these contain purple and blue flowers, but some contain white, pink and yellow flowers, he says.