The practice of collecting rare plants dates back as far as the 15th century BC. Buying indoor plants and rare indoor plants for your burgeoning collection in Melbourne, Australia, has never been easier. Online ordering and delivery in eco-friendly packaging brings your beauties to you quickly. Here are some of the world’s most desirable options (some we can even deliver to your door!)

History tells us that Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut sent botanists to Somalia to bring back some incense trees. She was a successful pharaoh, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty. The fascination with plants and flowers that she started continues today. In the first half of the 1600s, tulips and rare tulip bulbs were all the rage in the Netherlands, creating the first futures market in history. Predictably, it crashed like a lot of them.

We wanted to introduce some of the most exquisite and rare exotic beauties to add to your collection. Here is a selection of anomalies and current favourites:

Rothschild’s Orchid: A$6,700 per Plant

The magnificent, show-stopping Rotchschild’s orchid a.k.a. Paphiopedilum rothschildianum orchid, was first discovered in 1987. It has a long terminal (stem) which can reach 1.5m high, topped with deeply impressive, horizontal petals of deep sultry colours. The huge blossoms can grow up to 45 cm wide!

Unfortunately, soon after the discovery, human greed launched at this treasure, ravaging the wild population into extinction in the wild. Reintroduction from cultivated seedlings has allowed for an elusive existence in the wild only at the Kinabalu National Park in Malaysia. This prize plant takes many years to produce a single bloom.

Shenzhen Nongke Orchid: A$208,000 per Plant

While this is not a naturally occurring plant, we are mentioning it because its price is so astounding. It was made in a laboratory, over eight years, by agricultural research corporation Shenzhen Nongke Group.

The flower collectors’ world was blown away when an anonymous collector won the bid at an auction for 1.68 million Yuan. This is the highest amount ever paid for a flowering plant!

Old Pine Bonsai: A$1.3 million for specific plant

An old pine (Pinus parviflora) bonsai tree, many centuries old, was offered by S-CUBE, at the 11th Asia-Pacific Bonsai and Suiseki Convention & Exhibition in at Takamatsu, Japan, 2011. The tree sported a sold sign on the second day of the convention. It is one of the most expensive bonsai houseplants in the world with its price tag at 100,000,000 yen (about A$1.3M)

From these heady stratospheres, we step back into reality with rare plants within everyone’s budgetary goals.

Variegated Monstera:  A$900 – A$6400 per plant

Variegated Monstera leaves can be half white and half green or variations of that and are highly desirable! Variegated Monstera Deliciosa and Monstera Adansonii or ‘Swiss cheese plant’ can also sell at A$900.

A Monstera Borsigiana Aurea, which produces yellow variegations, sold for A$4,800 in August 2020.

The variegated Monstera’s skyrocketing popularity is due to its suitability to indoor growing, the gorgeously simple but bold shape and the delight in watching the variegation it produces. Its slow propagation rate makes it very rare.

Variegated Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma: up to A$6800 per plant

One auction site made the news in the plant world in August 2020 with an anonymous New Zealander winning a bidding war finally with A$6818.30 for an “extremely rare” variegated Rhaphidophora tetrasperma. It was a record for that online platform. The variegations are difficult to achieve as cuttings and propagation usually destroy the variegation.

Variegated Hoya carnosa ‘compacta’: up to A$6,100 per plant

Mid 2020, June to be exact, another cracker of a bidding war ended with a record. Hoya carnosa compacta plants are also known as Hindu rope plants and are vines with twisted waxy leaves which can be solid green or variegated. They produce the most exquisite tightly bunched heads of flowers. A Hoya carnosa ‘compacta’ was put on the platform with cream and yellow variegation and sold for a record A$6,068.

Order or bid online today if you want to buy indoor plants & rare indoor plants to add to your exquisite collection.

Your beauty will be carefully contained in an eco-friendly package and will be delivered by 100% carbon neutral shippers within a few days in Melbourne.

Helping to save the planet one plant at a time!

_{Sources:
https://bonsaitonight.com/2011/11/25/million-dollar-bonsai/
https://www.treehugger.com/most-expensive-flowers-in-the-world-4864230
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/121837916/new-zealands-most-expensive-houseplant-6500-hoya-breaks-trademe-record}