TL;DR
Get garden gear delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
The Floral Marketing Fund has released its 2025 Consumer Houseplant Purchasing Report, comparing consumer habits with studies from 2019 and 2021. Surveyed buyers reported owning more plants and spending more across comparable categories, despite buying less frequently; the report also found potential customers among non-purchasers and continued influence from social media.
The Floral Marketing Fund has released its 2025 Consumer Houseplant Purchasing Report, finding that surveyed buyers owned more plants and spent more across comparable categories than respondents in earlier studies, even as they purchased less frequently. The findings offer growers and retailers updated data on consumer habits after the pandemic, including potential customers who do not currently buy houseplants.
The report is the third installment in a research series examining houseplant purchasing before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It builds on studies from 2019 and 2021 and examines ownership, buying frequency, spending, price expectations, retail preferences, social media, gifting and consumers’ perceptions of wellbeing.
Researchers reported that people surveyed in 2025 owned more plants and spent more across categories comparable with the earlier studies, while buying less often. Respondents also anticipated spending more in all 10 plant categories covered by the survey in 2026. That figure represents consumers’ expectations, not confirmed future spending.
The study was conducted by Melinda Knuth of North Carolina State University, Hayk Khachatryan of the University of Florida, and Charlie Hall and Marco Palma of Texas A&M University. The Floral Marketing Fund coordinated the research, supported by Bell Nursery, Costa Farms, Metrolina Greenhouses and the Demaree Family Floriculture Advancement Fund.
What Buyers’ Habits Mean for Retailers
The findings suggest that purchase frequency alone may not show the full picture of demand: surveyed buyers bought less often but reported owning more plants and spending more across comparable categories. For retailers and growers, that combination may affect decisions about product ranges, pricing, merchandising and how often to reach customers. The report provides industry businesses with survey evidence to inform those choices, though it does not establish what any individual business should do.
The research also points to possible routes for reaching people who are not currently buying. Seventy-seven percent of surveyed non-purchasers said they would or might consider buying a houseplant in the future. Their stated concerns included pets, keeping plants alive and competing spending priorities, giving businesses specific barriers to address in customer information and product presentation.
Social media remains a reported point of influence: 73% of surveyed purchasers said they had bought from a houseplant business after seeing its social media content. That result describes respondents’ reported experience; it does not show how much social media caused purchases or how the effect varies by business.
Products Worth Considering
iRobot Roomba Max 715 Pet Robot Vacuum with AutoEmpty Dock
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen) and Indoor Cam Plus Bundle, Nickel Silver and White
Ring Battery Doorbell (2nd Gen), Indoor Cam Plus, and Chime (3rd Gen) Bundle
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Three Surveys Track Pandemic-Era Changes
The report compares a new survey with research conducted in 2019 and 2021, giving the series a pre-pandemic reference point and a later comparison from during the pandemic. The latest installment focuses on how purchasing habits have changed since then and which consumer preferences may have persisted. The supplied report summary does not provide the survey’s sample size, field dates or detailed methodology, so the comparisons should be understood as findings from the study rather than a complete measure of every houseplant buyer.
Several other findings address the role houseplants play for respondents. Nearly all surveyed purchasers, 96.6%, agreed to some extent that plants made them feel happier; 80.6% agreed or strongly agreed. Respondents surveyed in 2025 were also more likely than those in 2019 to view houseplants as suitable gifts for occasions such as get-well wishes, thank-you gifts and personal enjoyment. These are reported attitudes, not clinical findings about health effects.
The full report includes further information on preferred varieties, demographics, shopping outlets, acceptable prices and barriers to online purchasing. The earlier 2021 study is also available for comparison, according to the source report.
“Consumers are buying less frequently but spending more.”
— Floral Marketing Fund report summary
Survey Limits and Open Questions
The source material does not state the number of respondents, survey dates, sampling approach or margin of error. Without those details, readers cannot assess how closely the survey represents the wider population or how precise the reported percentages are. The summary also does not give category-by-category spending amounts or explain how spending was adjusted for price changes.
Respondents’ plans to spend more in 2026 are expectations, not observed purchases. It remains unclear whether those plans will be fulfilled, how results differ across demographic groups, and whether the changes reflect prices, larger collections, changing product choices or other factors. The report summary also does not quantify how much social media contributed to sales.
Webinar to Review Findings
The Floral Marketing Fund is scheduled to host a free webinar at 1 p.m. ET on November 5, 2026, to discuss the report’s results and their implications for the houseplant market. The source material does not name the webinar speakers or provide registration details. Industry readers can also consult the full report for findings beyond the summary, including information on product preferences, price ranges and shopping channels.
Key Questions
What is the 2025 Consumer Houseplant Purchasing Report?
It is the third study in the Floral Marketing Fund’s series on consumer houseplant habits, following reports from 2019 and 2021.
What did the report find about how often people buy plants?
Surveyed buyers reported purchasing less frequently than respondents in the earlier studies, while owning more plants and spending more across comparable categories.
What share of non-purchasers might consider buying a plant?
Seventy-seven percent of surveyed people who were not currently purchasing houseplants said they would or might consider doing so in the future.
When is the report webinar?
The Floral Marketing Fund scheduled a free webinar for 1 p.m. ET on November 5, 2026, to review findings and discuss their implications.
Source: greenhousemag.com
