For the past couple years my pet supply store's plants have been mostly just in our animal room.
20-40 at a time, anywhere from $2.99 to $9.99.

They sell steadily, between regulars and college students, several hundred last year.

Figured 85% of our customers come in and grab the food or litter or toys they need and leave. They never see the plants cause they don't go in the live room with birds/tarantulas/snakes/, etc...

For me at least they're a great impulse buy, I'm a total sucker.
When I've brought plants out right where people wait for 45 seconds, sales tripled.
No lighting though.

Just had them set up a 34w Jungle Dawn bar on an end cap, right where people wait in 2 lines.
3' x maybe 18"-24" shelf, lots of room for 2" and 4-5" pots.
Looks great, see what happens.


I'll ask them to send me a picture tomorrow.

With them being front and center, I have a feeling you will be selling many more plants!

plantladylin said: With them being front and center, I have a feeling you will be selling many more plants!

That's what I'm hoping for. The employee did a great job, looks really good.

Waiting for picture! Nice ploy! Especially with current plant craze, they'll thank you for it!just one thought… do you know which plants are not recommended for like plant eating lizards?! Just to be on the safe side..

Mostly some gorgeous begonias and peperomias, lots of Swedish Ivy plectranthus, more pothos soon.

The plectranthus is my perfect go-to plant.

Looks great, propagates super easily, great for college kids, low care requirements.

In our bio-active terrariums it goes wild, attaches to wood like an ivy vine and produces super-dense leaf growth.

We have to cut it out eventually like a weed, and I can cut them up and pot them and have them on the floor in about 3-4 weeks.

Love the stuff, but have never gotten it to bloom after hundreds of plants spanning 25 years.

My sister in NC has one that blooms yearly damnit.

skylark said: Waiting for picture! Nice ploy! Especially with current plant craze, they'll thank you for it!just one thought… do you know which plants are not recommended for like plant eating lizards?! Just to be on the safe side..

I do the best I can as the main plant guy to stay on top of that and check out what new types we might have could be dangerous if ingested. The reptile guys are great too.

We basically have houseplants for sale, with a select few we'd recommend for terrariums. Can't think of any plant-eating lizard displays we have, mostly with poison dart frogs, scorpions and tarantulas, newts and aquatic frogs.

skylark said:just one thought… do you know which plants are not recommended for like plant eating lizards?! Just to be on the safe side..

There are many. I'd recommend researching a plant before putting it in an enclosure with a critter.

Dieffenbachia would be a big no
Pothos, Eprimemnum aureum? not great but not many things I know of that'd munch on it.

We do have really cool Exo Terra Nano tanks with mourning geckos (super neat, they're all female and clone themselves).

More into their fruit gel Rapashy diet though with a few fruit flies. No plants in the diet and the plectranthus goes crazy in a tiny ventilated enclosure with soil and moss and wood, gets misted twice per day, under some really good LED's.

👍. Plectranthus and golden pothos were my first 2 after college plants 😁.
Grew like crazy! In a year i had several each from cuttings.
Always have Pothos: love the trailing habbit. One day I'll set up long boxes of it on top shelf to trail down like a green curtain. But for now space is occupied with other plants.

skylark said: 👍. Plectranthus and golden pothos were my first 2 after college plants 😁.
Grew like crazy! In a year i had several each from cuttings.
Always have Pothos: love the trailing habbit. One day I'll set up long boxes of it on top shelf to trail down like a green curtain. But for now space is occupied with other plants.

Have always loved plectranthus. Such a gorgeous and easy plant.

And pothos...everyone should have one.

My problem is spending a few months with new "starts", checking on them daily, before getting too attached and deciding to keep them as new "mothers". I figure once I have enough mothers I'll have endless starts. Makes sense, right?

Ran out off room a long time ago. Need to find some strategic locations around the store for mothers I can just forget about for a few months, then go trim them back for new rounds of starts.

Marantas and philodendrons have been way too slow to propagate for sale, but plectranthus, pothos, peperomias, begonias and chlorophytums have been perfect.

Any other suggestions welcomed.

Employee sent me some photos...

Got set up right before I took off for the weekend but that shelf will be full tomorrow, probably some 2' pots on a small ledge on the pegboard above the rest as well.

And yes, we've got stacks of food all over the place. Biggest order of the week just came in.

Humboldt said: Employee sent me some photos...

This shot was taken from the front counter, with the pink stripes where we've been asking customers to line up for the past couple years.

Great location, the light definitely grabs attention, and we're already getting interest in the Jungle Dawn lights themselves.

I think that tradescantia zebrina and common syngonium (not the pink ones) are fast and easy to grow.
Certainly easier then begonias. Most of mine even from rhizome grow quite slow and are easy to kill.
Also smaller philodendrons like heart leaved and Brazil are easy to propagate and hard to kill.
I am not sure, but are you selling the plants that yr buyers might use in their tanks? If so, then whatever is recommended for terrariums and vivariums makes sense.
dendroboard forums mention all sorts of creeping plants like Ficus pumila, Callisia repens, Pileas , etc anything small that requires high humidity.

skylark said: I think that tradescantia zebrina and common syngonium (not the pink ones) are fast and easy to grow.
Certainly easier then begonias. Most of mine even from rhizome grow quite slow and are easy to kill.
Also smaller philodendrons like heart leaved and Brazil are easy to propagate and hard to kill.
I am not sure, but are you selling the plants that yr buyers might use in their tanks? If so, then whatever is recommended for terrariums and vivariums makes sense.
dendroboard forums mention all sorts of creeping plants like Ficus pumila, Callisia repens, Pileas , etc anything small that requires high humidity.

Thanks! I'll check them out.

We do having some mini creepings figs that do well, and the new Galapagos Mossy Sticks will be perfect for them. Pileas I can see, and I should re-visit syngoniums.

Just picked up a great Crassula pellucida 'Variegata", Calico Kitten crassula today, I think it might do well.

Philodendrons I'm steering away from right now. Easy to grow and propagate but so very slow. For me at least.

Just bought more 20" plastic trays and greenhouse enclosures.

Those things are awesome.
I don't think I've posted any pictures, will try to tomorrow.

Plastic greenhouse tray probably 14x20" with a humidity dome guessing 16" tall with 2 1/2 circle ventilation openings at the top that can be fully open or closed or in-between.

Work great, they're my go-to for cuttings now.

Humboldt said:
Just bought more 20" plastic trays and greenhouse enclosures.

Those things are awesome.
I don't think I've posted any pictures, will try to tomorrow.

Plastic greenhouse tray probably 14x20" with a humidity dome guessing 16" tall with 2 1/2 circle ventilation openings at the top that can be fully open or closed or in-between.

Work great, they're my go-to for cuttings now.

And for extra ventilation you can pin at least 4 laundry pins onto the tray sides, then lower the lid down into the V of the pins.

Tradescantia zebrina could certainly work too!

Not comfortable with the common name.

You can teach em the right common name. When you label them Inch Plant, it will help shed the 'old' name. I think Purple Zebra would be a catchy new name for the purple and silver one. I would guess anything Tradescantia/Callisia to be nontoxic AND fast rooting/growing under lights. (just guessing since spider plants are OK'ed for cats... are they not?)
I did not know Swedish Ivy would root on a pole, but should have.... the stems make those bumps all the time here. They bloom for me, is it day length? I don't know any secret. Other than don't keep cutting off the tips
to you for smart marketing! My library can be really stupid about 'marketing'