Unpopular opinion: plant influencers are ruining the hobby for newbies

I went to a local plant swap last Saturday and heard a woman crying because her variegated monstera was 'ugly' by Instagram standards. Three years ago I started collecting succulents from a hardware store shelf, and nobody told me my plants needed aesthetic staging. Now every new person thinks they need grow lights and rare cuttings just to belong. Has anyone else seen beginners quit because they felt their setup wasn't fancy enough?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_clark813d ago

Right? Saw a girl throw away a perfectly healthy pothos because it wasn't trendy enough.

caleb_bell53d ago

and that kinda junk drives me nuts @rose_clark81. Pothos will survive basically anything, I've got a cutting from my grandma from like 15 years ago and it's still going strong in a bucket in my garage. People treat plants like fast fashion now, just grabbing whatever looks good on Instagram and tossing the rest. All you gotta do with pothos is give it some water and a bit of light and it'll outlive half the fancy plants people pay $60 for at the nursery. Honestly it's a shame because that girl probably spent good money on whatever new thing she replaced it with.