Pot plant mania has declined since its peak a few years ago in New Zealand when tiny monstera was going for $100, while you can get a large established monstera for $100 today. Unlike tulip bulbs pot plants do have aesthetic value and those who overpaid did it because they genuinely wanted a plant, not for speculation.
> tiny monstera was going for $100, while you can get a large established monstera for $100 today.
This isn't about monstera, it's about Mini Monstera (Brand name) and Monstera ‘Albo’
> Unlike tulip bulbs pot plants do have aesthetic value
Tulipmania is mostly made up and still is a global billion $ business 400 years latter and it does bring beauty to the world for anyone who's not a dried up HN user angry they can't understand tech anymore.
But there is an element like expensive watches where Monstera Albo were both a status symbol and a complex thing of pleasure but unlike tulips I can't see it continuing.
A Monstera albo is not going to beat my 15 foot monstera long term, I don't think humans like unsymmetric variegated plants. Without being told it's impressive I'm not sure it is.
Here’s a link debunking the tulip mania myth [1]. Put shortly, the myth was created as a moral campaign against speculators. Interestingly, one of the propagators of the myth was complicit in pumping the rail bubble, which did far more economic damage.
