Hardy Tropicals UK

I was looking over some ebay listings and I found a listing for a var. agave listed at 395.00 roughly £ 243. the plant is just beautiful but I just couldnt bring myself to pay that much for a plant. what is the most you will pay for one? be it a palm, tropical, cacti whatever plant what is your cut off point.. I believe for a nice large palm I could go maybe 200 USD about £123 but it would have to have a few feet of trunk and be a nice one. anything over that price for any plant would take alot for me to consider buying it.

I would spend as much as a plant is worth then get it in a50% sale.

The most I've paid is about £300 ish for a very large Butia and a similar amount for a Jubaea.

If I had a big garden and the money I'd think nothing of spending 10x that on a giant specimen palm to be craned into position.

I'm a big fan of sale prices though.

I paid £150 for one of Nigels waggies, and it cost me £40 in diesel to drive to Bristol in my van to pick it up! This was a very extravagant thing for me to do by my standards and I darn't let the missus know! to this day she thinks it cost £100 including Nigel delivering it for me, hehe Was it worth it? Hell yeah

It really seems palms are the exception. they do grow slow so a nice piece is alot of money but I would say it would be worth it to me for a 5 or 6 ft palm to go right in the ground. I think its the small plants for big money that draws us all back. I love a good plant sale as much as the rest of us but we have them at such bad times. either the spring ( here the ground is still frozen) and you can't plant yet or the fall ( the cold has set in and the plants can't get established) not the best time for sales...how bout a mid summer blow out sale?

£100 is my cut off point, although the most i`ve paid is around £80.

I work it on the basis that I can (I`d be deeply piffed off) just about stand to loose that much and possibly replace if it died.

Ditto to Phil, never paid more than £100 for a plant but I have paid £100 for a few palms that were priced much higher and paid £100 asking price for my Brahea but got some extras thrown in.

What's the first rule of Plant Club? Never pay the asking price.

What's the second rule of Plant Club? Don't pay that price either.

£100 for me too. I have bought some 2M Yews, at that price, to kick-start some Topiary I want to make.

I got 8 about 3 years ago for my chess set, and 16 <Ouch!> last year. One of those has died I need to replace that one this year, and I need 5 more for my Living Gazebo feature (leave your great grandchildren a note in your will to come round and look at it ...). Flogging some stuff I don't need on eBay to finance it ....

The original chess-set-eight are now fat-chaps and have already had their girth trimmed at final-diameter, and are pushing 10' tall, so I'm well happy with them.

The 16 look skinny, but the wet summer will have got them settled in nicely, so they should get under way this coming year. They were in the sale and are a bit scrawny looking, so I just need them to fill out a bit and then shape them into cylinders as the basis for my aqueduct topiary

The Gazebo is the last one, I promise!

I have never spent more than £100 on a plant....BUT...I might do for the right plant

I had a mad moment,about eight years ago and spent £300 on a huge grape vine .Grape vine doesn't do it justice,it was more like a tree(6ft).It was the centerpiece to my mediterranean garden.My logic was,i could have bought a tv for that amount,which would only lose value(no doubt it would be in a landfill by now).I still have it growing in my yard,having moved house twice.It took three strong lads to lift it in to place!


I have also bought a 1.5m high, two headed yucca rostrata,for just over £100.Which i think,is a raving bargain,considering how long it would take to grow and how much it would cost to bring over from mexico .

I reckon this post would be better,placed in the community forum .

Plants are actually one one the few things that gain in value so look on them as investments

dino wrote:Plants are actually one one the few things that gain in value so look on them as investments

Very true. Money does grow on trees.

Yorkshire Kris wrote:

dino wrote:Plants are actually one one the few things that gain in value so look on them as investments

Very true. Money does grow on trees.

I think this proves your point,gents
You would need a very productive money tree,to be able to go shopping here .http://www.buro-bloemen.nl/planten/excl ... anten.html

I have posted this link,on the main forum(it isn't any thing to do with cacti really).

Yorkshire Kris wrote:

dino wrote:Plants are actually one one the few things that gain in value so look on them as investments

Very true. Money does grow on trees.

half way true..something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it..there are palms out there people claim are worth 100K USD..thats only if you can find someone to pay it.. to me its only worth 100 USD. I think alot of times you can recoup your investment by selling off a tree or cuttings but after a point its get so large and your asking price so high its not resonable to think you will get rid of it

I wanted a C Dealbata really bad so I purchased a 45cm trunk 8ft frond for about £330 never again would I pay so much. I will normally pay what I think it is worth to me normally my upper limit is £120.