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nigella_gw

what's the most expensive plant you ever bought?

Nigella
21 years ago

The highest price I've paid was for a Lycaste virinalis. It was in bloom at the time, and although I had one already I simply couldn't let it get away from me. What is your's?

Comments (130)

  • berrygood1
    19 years ago

    I paid $49 for a Freya Climbing rose grown here in Alaska. Supposedly has no tip die back and can survive the winter in a pot!

  • manifest
    19 years ago

    I was chatting up the owner of a known cactus & succulent nursery here in the Bay Area a few months back.

    He told me about ten years ago he spent $1,000.00 on a 6" seedling of an Aloe polyphylla!

    YOWZA!

  • mystdragyn
    19 years ago

    ....and I thought the $25 each I paid for a Willaim Baffin and Henry Kelsey rose was outragous lol

  • irinah
    19 years ago

    It was $30 for rather large Wine-and-Roses weigela in Earl May nursery this Spring - I guess price you pay really depends on how bad you want the plant. I wish I waited a little, Home Depot had smaller ones for just $9...

    I usually cheap out on plants, so all relatives are informed that the best Christmas gift they can send me is gift certificate to Burpee or Shrieners Gardens or bulb catalog, etc. My December 26 is a garden planning and plants ordering kind of day - enjoying the best gifts a nutty gardener can have! :):)

  • viper168
    19 years ago

    8 years ago, I got my first white champaca in 15gal container for $150, unfortunately, after one day expose to 100+ degree sunlight, all leafs drop and died in few days. Then I learned I need to plant it in the ground ASAP and find a spot with 1/2 day shade so it will have better and balance water and not burn their leafs, since then, I never have a dead champaca. I recently purchase 2 white champacas from Mimosa in whitter for $20, the plants about 2-4ft tall, I have them in the 5 gal pot 'cos I haven't find a good spot to plant them and LA is hot in the past few weeks. They both are blooming and growing and they seems very healthy. Beside the $150 champaca, I always purchase tropical fruit tree, the most recent one was purchase from www.tropicalfruittree.com in Vista, I went to their place and select a 15gal wax jambu and 15gal longan and they cost $85 each, much much better price the the local nursery in LA, even I am 10min from temple garden, I still willing to drive 1.5hr to goto vista to buy from them 'cos a similar size tree in LA will cost $200+, even a 5gal will cost about $100-150 in local nursery.

  • glennkid
    18 years ago

    I spent $275 for a 8' Acer Palmatum 'Osakazuki' and would have paid a little more too!

  • carrie630
    18 years ago

    I spent, this spring, $65.00 for three blue plumbagos. I didn't realize they were tropicals (because there is another type that comes back). I planted them, they looked great, but it annoyed me every time I thought about how they were not going to come back. Then it hit me. Where I planted them, it was only getting four hours of sun and the rest of the afternoon was shade. Plumbags need full sun. (It's a new flower border which I started (I have several already established) and I didn't realize the lack of actual full sun there). Anyway, I quickly brought them back, got my money back and bought three endless summer hydrangeas - They look great there and they will come back. Thank goodness for keeping receipts!

  • southerngardengal
    18 years ago

    Several years ago, I bought a kousa dogwood that was about 18" tall and gave $28.00. My DGD thought it was a stick and broke it down at the ground. DS made her come in and tell me that she broke my plant but she was only four years old so what could I do but say that it was allright.

    Trees can be replaced....Granddaughters are young only once.

  • GrowHappy
    18 years ago

    This spring, I spent $34.99 for a small tree of Murraya Paniculata/Orange Jessamine or Lakeview Jasmine. I was lured by the scent and...and....and....well, you know. LOL I found the same in bush form at HD this past weekend for $20, in full bloom. Did I buy it? But, of course! I don't think I would spend more than $50 on any one plant, though.

    GH

  • ljrmiller
    18 years ago

    I'd say about 40 dollars--for a couple of different Japanese Maples ranging from 1 gallon to 5 gallon trees, about 40 dollars for a Musa basjoo that gave up the ghost this winter, about 40 dollars for a large Rhapis palm that got too big to drag back in the house after a couple of years, about 30 dollars a whack for peonies I craved, up to 20 dollars a bulb for antique tulips, up to about 30 dollars a plant for some perennials I just couldn't live without. Usually I try to stay under 20 dollars per perennial plant or shrub, though, and under 15 dollars per tender perennial/tropical/annual (in large pots).

  • alaskanamazon
    18 years ago

    Um... $30 for 3 Sarracenia at Portland Saturday Market, and that was 3 years ago.
    I know, I know, doesn't seem like much but for a college student on food stamps thats a mint. It's all relative. Now paying $5 would seem like a ton of money - and I'd have to stay home all week because there goes my bus money :-p But hay, for the right plant it's worth it.

  • dawgie
    18 years ago

    You guys must not be into Japanese maples. Many of them sell for hundreds of dollars at local nurseries where I live. The most I have paid was $110 for a nice-sized red dissectum (Garnet), which I considered a bargain for a 3' tall dwarf Japanese maple with nice form. I have paid only $15-20 for most of my JMs, bought as newly grafted or second year plants, but I don't mind watching them grow.

  • hgalindo
    18 years ago

    $75 a piece for 4 Alphonse Carr bamboos. If I'd know any better, I would have bought two and chopped them up. They have grown like gangbusters. I still want some black bamboo, the running kind, so I'd have to pot it. It's so beautiful and so expensive. Second would be my clivia for $30. Totally worth it if I can get it to keep blooming this year.

  • gardengirl_sd
    18 years ago

    Normally won't spend more than $5-10 for a plant, but I HAD to have a 3 ft pony tail palm I saw at Walter Andersons...that was $40, plus I spent another $20 for the pot. I had it outside on the deck for a while and the leaves were all sunburnt/faded, so I brought it back in the house. They are very slow growers...but they look so cool. Like I have a water fountain in my bedroom.

  • gardeniarose
    17 years ago

    The most expensive would have to be the palm my husband insisted on having even though we didn't have any window to put it in front of where it would get any light. It cost $22. Sadly, it passed away within 4 months due to light starvation. The second most expensive would be my Ming aralia at $17. Worth every penny! I water it about once a month and feed it maybe twice a year. Talk about drought tolerant! And it it growing and is healthy as ever. LOVE that plant.

  • ljrmiller
    17 years ago

    This year's highest-price buy is Fargesia rufa 'Green Panda'. I saw it, I wanted it, I bought it. I paid $50. My REAL extravagance has to be tulips--I've paid up to $26 for ONE bulb from Old House Gardens. I think my tulips are definitely worth it.

  • momofmany88
    17 years ago

    You people need to learn the fine art of RATIONALIZATION!
    So an amazing 6 foot, multi-stalked Black Bamboo from Monrovia (an awesome nursery somewhere in CA) might be $100. Look how long it took growers to get it to that size - probably a good five years. $20 a year isn't so bad.
    And you've got this instant impact on your porch! Of course an amazing black bamboo requires an equally amazing (in this case) metallic-sheen square pot, possibly another $40...It's good to support the local garden store....
    Oh well. We have said, only partly in jest, that we're spending our kids' inheritance on the gardens, but they'll gain SOMETHING from it. I guess.
    They do give a good backdrop for pictures when my teenage daughters are taking pictures of each other for their MySpace pages!

  • ljrmiller
    17 years ago

    Momofmany, I stopped rationalizing my expenditures because it takes time away from my shopping/planting/gardening time! I have to admit, though, that a single tulip bulb, probably about $20 for the bulb, is absolutely worth it this year: I have a double-flowered red tulip edged in bright yellow (antique variety--I'd have to go back to my databases and invoices to see what the name is). It's simply stunning. Now I know why Tulipomania got started in the Netherlands during the 17th century.

    I wonder what I won't be able to live without this year...

    Lisa

  • mmqchdygg
    17 years ago

    I guess I don't consider the expense too much if it lives. It becomes 'expensive' if it dies:

    $35 each on 2 Mt. Fuji Cherry trees that were 7' tall each. Didn't last a full season. I think they'd just been pot-bound too long.

    $159.99 on a 'lollipop' shaped boxwood last year. It was an impulse purchase. Too 'cute' to pass up.

    It kills me to spend money on something that dies (or rots in my refridgerator.) Money down the toilet. Like I said, I'm still good with the $159 Lollipop tree.

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    17 years ago

    I read what I wrote several years ago on this thread...how naive I was. I should have bought the small hinoki for 30 bucks at HD at the rate it has grown. And the most expensive plants to date have to be all those "ordinary" plants that I tossed to be replaced with "interesting" ones. (wheelbarrows full of stellas that I gave away) No liriope for me anymore and certainly no impatiens hanging baskets. Now its huge moss lined baskets with at least half a dozen intermingled plants. Not cheap!

    Roses, iris, clematis (and ever heard of clematis wilt?= $$$) have replaced junipers, barberries and other boring plants.

  • hoe_hoe_hoe
    17 years ago

    Large and high impact trees and shrubs aside,
    my most outrageous indulgence was probably Rohdea japonica 'Yattazu Yan Jaku'- a variegated Sacred Lily.

    Oh, and I recently sent my mother a double flowering hellebore for Mother's Day. She has no clue as to the cost, but she WILL be getting some seed saving instructions soon.

  • gemmayardley
    17 years ago

    What's the most expensive plant in the world?

  • hoe_hoe_hoe
    17 years ago

    Well, I've just "discovered" daylilies and topped my own perennial expense record with a couple of $50 selections. And I understand how you can pay $100 now. I encountered 'Primal Scream at the daylily farm and LOVED it! I also understand how you can pay 2 or 3 times that MUCH for a DL, but I REALLY don't want to go there!

  • rose4mom
    17 years ago

    Paid $80 for avacodo tree, my gardener forced me to get one. After a week he said I need another one if I want
    fruit. This was 22 years ago.LOL....Sue

  • sunslight
    17 years ago

    I paid $78 for a daylily--can't even remember the name now, but it was stunning. I saw it in catalogs at $150, so I got a bargan. --wonder what it $$ now? If I could only remember the name.

    But alas, being a novice day lily grower, I planted it and a few others that I bought, in spot where they got Utah's Hot, dry, summer sun--all day; then being in the open, sub-zero on winter nights.

    If I had put them in good soil (which I don't have), against something that keeps off the western sun; then maybe I'd still have it and the other top, named varieties.

    It was some sort of irridesant pink color, with many blooms or you could let it put all it's energy into one, giant blooms==what a flower.

  • katefisher
    17 years ago

    Have to check in on this one. Silver Lace Vine. Fifty dollars. It was a good size plant that did well for the latter half of the season after I bought it. Sadly we had a very cold winter that year and I left it in a planter for the cold season. It died and DH has been a bit suspect of spending that much on another plant ever since.

    But I'm always on the lookout for another one.

    Kate

  • trini1trini
    17 years ago

    gemmayardley

    I don't know about the most expensive plant but the most expensive seed is for the coco de mer/double coconut AKA Lodoicea maldivica. Last I heard, if you could get one to purchase, it would be several hundred dollars for it.

  • blue_velvet_elvis
    17 years ago

    50.00 for a silver lace vine???? I bought two for ten dollars yesterday :) The most expensive plants I've bought to date are the five endless summer hydrengeas (29.95) that are going in the front of my house with the bazillion little boxwood that go in front of them.

  • onewomanbiz
    17 years ago

    Question re: coco de mer (Trini1's post above)

    I recently viewed a NOVA program (first aired in 2000) on PBS about island biospheres and the coco de mer was one of the palm trees included. I fell in love with this unusual palm tree so have been performing hours of internet research trying to learn if and where seeds can be purchased. The coco de mer only grows in one grove on one small island 1000 miles from anywhere between Africa and Madagascar--and is protected by UNESCO/World Heritage. The extraordinary coco de mer holds the record for the largest leaf and the biggest seed in the entire plant kingdom.

    I hoped, after reading your post, that you may have information I have not been able to find. If you do, I'd appreciate your sharing it. I would like to learn more about them. (The link below is to a transcript of that program if anyone else would like to learn more about the coco de mer palm.)
    ********************************

    My most expensive plant purchase was an ornamental cherry tree (Lowe's, 1990, $39.95 for a 6-foot tree) which was the very first plant/tree purchased after we bought our home almost 17 years ago. That cherry tree did not last its first year. In the long run, it was a blessing since I acquired my beloved horses two years later. Cherry trees produce arsenic which would have been death to a horse that was foolish enough to eat the bark or leaves--and they will. I have Houdini horses that can open gate latches, climb over and through fences--and sometimes just seem to "beam" themselves to places they should not be.

    Losing that tree did not hurt anywhere close to the pain of losing one of my four-legged babies.

    ps: I am disabled, facing multiple spinal surgeries in the near future--but am planning my yard/garden projects (deck, patio, walkways, etc.) for a much anticipated "enabled" spring 2007. I've just joined this forum and look forward to all the experience and knowledge sharing.

    Cat

    Here is a link that might be useful: NOVA/PBS transcripts re: coco de mer palm

  • angelfairy
    17 years ago

    Hubby bought me a 6' tall Butia palm with a massive root system six years ago and it is now 12' tall or taller. That was 75.00 (yes, I know, a great deal!) And I bought a large corm of Alocasia 'Borneo Giant' three years ago for 65.00. It was well worth it as I now have four huge ones and more growing all the time.

    Now I am on the hunt for a Podophilium Pleianthum (Chinese May Apple) if anyone knows a source...please email me as I would be forever greatful!

  • kal2769
    17 years ago

    I have enjoyed perusing the extravagant purchases of my fellow gardeners. I have to admit that I am very greatful to have not acquired the daylilly, tulip or peony-mania I have been reading about. (I really don't mind my stella's!) As a young gardener on a very strained budget my choices are somewhat limited. The most expensive plant purchased to date was a very nice 6ft tall weeping blue atlas cedar with branches hanging as far down as its 10 gallon container. I thought it was a very good deal at 80 dollars. This was an extravagant purchase for me, but my addiction doesn't stop at the plant itself. I have been known to spend 200 dollars in a weekend on decorative planters and containers. It's a curse, but a necessary evil for those of us who rent and love to garden, but can't bear to part with our beloved plants.

    ---Keith

  • momofmany88
    17 years ago

    I'm with you, Keith, on the containers! (Re my $40 square pot for the $100 black bamboo mentioned above, May '06). My husband was with me on the bamboo...I bought first and told later on the pot.) Last month my local SC friend had to go back home to NY for a family funeral. When her mom was marveling at the ceramic container I'd requested when I wired them a little plant garden, my friend laughed and said, "Oh, yeah. Judith's not just a plant freak, she's also a plant CONTAINER snob!"
    We're in the same zone. I could mail you some free seeds! My friend grows her
    7-ft. swamp hisbiscus in containers every summer!

  • spiritualcipher
    16 years ago

    I bought a $35 Spath. Went to WalMart a few days later and found the same plant (smaller though) and cost $13.46.

    I must say I love the size and form of the larger one.

    I was considering buying a Bird of Paradise for $170. What a beauty! But I decided to grow it from scratch, costing $1.95 for 10 seeds. I live in an apartment so im on no rush.

    I try to save $$ by buying small plants. And i root cutting for fun.

  • natalie4b
    16 years ago

    Wow people! My most expencive plant was close to $20. I spend more on garden architectural details, like statue, birdhouses, benches, arbor, bricking and making the flower beds, patio firniture. We bought this house as almost new with "naked" lot, just few standard tees around, and grass, grass, grass.

  • microfarmer_grower
    16 years ago

    Last spring I paid $56 for an 'Ogdon' dawn redwood. Then in the fall my 2-year-old "pruned" it. LOL ie. broke it in half.
    A 12" stump was what was left. This spring it is sending out tiny leaves.:)

  • ohgirl
    16 years ago

    I paid $5.00 for an Orinoco banana plant, and $20.00 to ship it!

  • vinmeadows
    16 years ago

    Hmmm. Most palms from New Zealand are worth it if I have the perfect greenhouse conditions. They're REALLY expensive if I have to replace them... sigh.

  • Katrinawitch
    16 years ago

    Sheesh, I spend @ $350 per year for annuals alone! My garden came pre-planted with tons of perennials, when we bought it 5 years ago. I've just recently started dividing, replanting, and changing things. I haven't spent too much one perennials, etc. However, we're planning on making a major flowering tree purchase this year, so we'll see.

    My parents spent a coupla hundred bucks on a corkscrew willow tree, that was so pretty! It was prettiest in winter, when coated with ice. It lasted @ 10 years, and then died. My dad also spent a heft amount for a supposedly pink dogwood, only to find, when it finally bloomed, that it was a regular white one.

  • terrene
    16 years ago

    Quite the range here for what people spend on their plants! For me, gardening is one of few splurges. For the past 4 years, I've spent at least $4-500 a year on plants each year, not to mention yard/gardening supplies. One year I spent $450 on 8 good-sized Arborvitae alone.

    A few years ago when I started the gardens here, I had to have Ornamental grasses. Went out and spent $135 on 5 ornamental grasses in large pots, including two Miscanthus 'Adagio' that were $30 each. They were gorgeous that first year. The next Spring, they were dead as a door nail. Apparently, they aren't hardy to zone 5...(at least the other 3 grasses have thrived)

    Last April, I decided the weird old Burning Bush in the front garden had to go and wanted a Serviceberry (Amelanchier) instead. Native, pretty flowers, delicious blue berries, nice fall color. This was a very prominent location, I wanted a good-sized tree, and wanted it before it flowered. Spent $125 for a 6-foot specimen in a 15 gallon pot! Could have probably spent a lot less but I had to have it and it's a beauty...

    This year, I ordered 10 Serviceberry seedlings for $10. I'm also winter-sowing. Seeds and seedlings are a lot less expensive! :)

  • organic_kamper
    14 years ago

    About a week ago I spent $150 on a 4' specimen of Henry Lauder's Walking Stick.

  • hardin
    14 years ago

    I paid $25 for a Crystal Fountain clematis which shocked me as I tended to be thrifty. I have always loved gardening, but when younger and raising kids, I got by on the cheap with people donating what they had too much of and clippings from the neighbors yards. I still have many, many of those plants, but the clematis is still wonderful. It will be moved to its permanent home soon.

  • oklahomanovice
    14 years ago

    My most expensive was a $68 Weeping Cherry tree-which the dog ate 3 months later...so technically I guess it was a $68 lesson on dog proofing my backyard. Hard lesson to learn, that one!

  • Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
    13 years ago

    I love ya'll! Thank you for keeping my nursery in business!

  • tkhooper
    13 years ago

    Fruit trees, but I really, really wanted them and I figure I'll make the money back quickly if I can one good season.

  • rhodie_chick
    12 years ago

    nearly 300 big ones for 2 evergreen pale yellow rhodies that I lost in the heat of summer and the wet of fall...north central NJ is harsh and has lousy drainage...looking to buy swamp azaleas for this part of the garden or maybe some kinda hardy viburnum.. b/w deer and clay I miss LI gardening.

  • jalapas41
    11 years ago

    I bought a black bamboo..paid 125.00!! It is beautiful and thriving (contained of course) and we use the canes for various projects.

  • LullabyF360
    11 years ago

    $90 a piece for 4 weeping cherry trees :P but I could not find them anywhere else, so I gritted my teeth & paid the man lol

  • PTLandscape
    10 years ago

    There are many bonsai trees bought/sold for prices in excess of one million dollars. In other countries, patrons purchase the trees as investments and entrust them to the care of their favorite (bonsai) master. It's very common for the trees winning their category at bonsai shows in Europe & Asia, especially Asia, to never have been touched (worked on) by the owner - only the master or perhaps one of his favored apprentices, depending on the value of the tree.

  • soniabhardwaj
    10 years ago

    yes you are right i also I've paid was for a Lycaste virinalis. It was in bloom at the time, and although I had one already I simply couldn't let it get away from me.

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  • PanhandleLady_6b
    9 years ago

    $125 for a thumb sized division of a Miss Lily Pons water lily the year they debuted. Raccoon walked my pots to that one, chewed it up and left it float. Three days after I planted it. I replanted it, raccoon came back two days later and did it again. Came in for ICU in the living room in a huge sterilite container and didn't make it.

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