Growing viral: Pandemic contributes to collectible plants

MOSES LAKE — Roost Lifestyle owner Bruce Bailey said he brought some of his plants from home to his shop, just to decorate and soften the look. They weren’t for sale, just set out as decor, but his customers kept asking about them.

“Everybody kept wanting to buy them,” he said.

Small businesses like Roost have had a tough couple of years, and Bailey’s customers were asking for plants, so he said he started selling plants. And he discovered plants are in high demand.

“People are collecting plants,” he said.

Roost now sports a collection of plants – big, tall plants with variegated leaves, small plants with multicolored leaves, cactus, a tangerine tree. His customers are buying plants for their homes, he said, but they’re interested in more than home decor.

Business owners are buying plants, and he’s sold plants to teachers for their classrooms.

The demand for plants is tied to the events of the last two years.

“It’s a COVID thing,” he said.

Bailey is a decorator, as well as a small business owner, and he said the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how people think about decorating the spaces where they spend time.

For two years, people were encouraged to stay close to home, and many people, whether they lived in a house or apartment, started taking a closer look at their surroundings.

“People were changing the way they looked at their environment,” he said.

And, in turn, they wanted changes.

“COVID really created a thing for improving your environment,” he said.

Plants became an important part of an improvement project, at home and at work. Teachers who bought plants told him the plants helped soften the environment in the classroom, a boost for kids in stressful times.

Bailey said he saw how it worked in his own shop. All the windows in his corner shop are filled with plants.

“Having plants all over has kind of created a different atmosphere,” he said.

Bailey said he recommends having plants, or any collectible, out where it can be seen.

“You want this prize possession to be out where you see it every day. You don’t want it to be in a corner where you don’t see it,” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.