I was shocked to learn that I didn't choose my houseplants myself.

I'm a plant fashion victim - as with tan boots and bell-bottoms, Monstera, Ficus and Feather of Fortune were preselected, not by bossy magazine journalists and fashion designers, but by people like Mike Rimland - a 'plant hunter'.

Plant hunters, that sounds like adventure and Crocodile Dundee.

In fact, the American travels all over the world, trudges through jungles and over mountains in search of THE next trend plant, which at some point will be in the living room of hipsters from Berlin to Brooklyn and supposedly expresses individuality.

Johanna Kuroczik

Editor in the "Science" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Indoor plants are booming, in 2021 people in Germany spent 10.3 billion euros on plants, a record sum.

Crops offer a consumption opportunity to people who refuse consumption.

If you want to be considered sustainable, you can send a clearer status signal with an extraordinary Monstera than with a designer handbag.

What's the difference?

Fashion is fashion.

The American plant producer Costa Farms, one of the largest in the world and Mike Rimland's employer, sold an exclusive, limited Monstera variant with a special leaf pattern at Walmart in 2022, the so-called "Thai Variegata", which promptly sold out - for 600 dollars each.

Luck with the Korean Lucky Feather

It still sounds strange when the plant hunter Rimland cheers: "The current collection is simply WOW!" And: "So cool!" The American does not mean evening dresses, but pink begonias - one of his biggest coups.

Rimland is also not "cool" in the traditional sense.

A paunchy senior with gray hair, wearing a polo shirt and unfashionable glasses, it's easier to imagine him on a cruise than in the wilds of Kenya, Myanmar, Colombia and 57 other countries hunting for plants.

It always has to be in the tropics, because that's where our indoor plants originally come from, and they have to withstand constantly high temperatures.

Where exactly he finds his treasures, Rimland does not reveal - because of the competition.

However, as he emphasizes in interviews, he does not pluck any plants along the wayside, he keeps in touch with local farmers, plant breeders and collectors and rummages through shops and markets.

The search for trend plants is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Some are accidental discoveries, too—a farmer south of Seoul found a lucky feather,

Zamioculcas zamiifolia

, with unusually black leaves in his fields.

It took him nine years to grow enough offshoots to sell them exclusively to Costa Farms in 2014 - who had a hit with them as "ZZ Raven ®".

To be a "winner," Rimland explains, not only does a plant need to have the perfect shape and leaf color—it needs to be hardy and easy to care for, most importantly.

Only after a year or two is it clear whether the plant is suitable for breeding at all.

The plant also goes through numerous tests, for example it is kept without light or tortured with the air conditioning for two weeks.

Anyone who survives without a brown leaf is raised at Costa Farms in the Caribbean to become a mass product.

Many years pass before a plant finally ends up in plant boutiques in big cities and on Instagram.

Incidentally, the current trend is towards colorful leaves, says Rimland.

Purple, yellow or – like his begonias – bright pink.

Other experts believe that the sun-thirsty exotics are out and regional plants are on the rise.

Hopefully Coco Chanel's wisdom also applies to my ficus: fashion is fleeting, style stays.