I’ve always had a soft spot for living things. It’s one of the reasons I’ve fostered over 150 cats (in the past 12 years, not all at once!) and try to catch and release bugs that make their way into my home. While I’m pretty good at helping fauna thrive, I once couldn’t say the same thing about plants—that is, until I actually started buying ones that weren’t thriving. They were misfits, neglected, or simply not properly tended. And I wasn’t looking for them at retail shops.
My home currently has around 20 houseplants, all of which have been collected in various ways. The one I’ve had the longest was purchased at an estate sale for $15. I was attracted to the beautiful, cobalt blue of the oversized pot, but when I got home, there was no way that I could discard the pothos living inside. After over a decade with me, it is happily trailing along the beams in the dining room.
While buying greenery at a big box store certainly has its benefits, because they’re typically in peak condition, there’s something low-risk about managing a pre-owned plant. Since most of my collection wasn’t properly cared for in their early stages, being able to revive them and see them thrive has been rewarding. If you’re looking to build your own collection of salvaged castoffs, here are a few stories about how I’ve happened upon mine and am saving one plant at a time.
Scouring Yard Sales
One of my quirkiest plantings makes me chuckle every time I water it. I showed up on the second day of a Friday/Saturday yard sale, and the duo was sitting in a basket near the checkout stand. By basket, I mean the established plants—a Florida Beauty and a dwarf umbrella—were residing side by side in a shallow, handled market-style basket. I paid my $5 and left, so happy to take on a living thing that brought someone else joy. They were healthy, so I left things as is, and the basket now hangs on my screen porch alongside a few other garage-sale rescues.
Checking Facebook Marketplace
Whether someone is moving out of town or can’t keep up with their greens collection anymore, spider, monstera, and ZZ plants often end up on Facebook Marketplace. I liked one Glacier Pothos so much that I drove an hour away to get it (it was also an excuse to go to the thrift stores in that town). The $10 plant was lush and lovely, but the owner simply didn’t want it anymore. Unfortunately, it’s the one pot my cats love to dig in, so it has a bit of recovery to undergo. It’s now high up, hanging via a vintage macrame holder to keep it out of reach.
Scanning the Trash
My son-in-law is a FedEx driver and found snake plants (on two different occasions!) outside a local business’s dumpster. In their defense, the plants were doing poorly, but both my son-in-law and I thought I could give them the second chance they deserve. It’s taken two years, but after repotting, both are now mostly composed of newly formed shoots, giving each a completely new look. Reconditioning them has taken a bit of effort, but it’s well worth it. Different houseplants have varying light and water needs, and sometimes it’s just a matter of doing some research and putting the plant in the right conditions.
Shopping Estate Sales
Estate sales are where I purchased a majority of my collection, and most were looking pretty ragged when I bought them. One of my favorites was in a dark basement lacking windows, and I didn’t even know which species it was. After proper care, small, variegated leaf clusters began to poke up between the older drooping, dark-bladed leaves. It was a mature snake plant that hadn’t been cared for properly. It’s gotten so prolific that it’s on my to-do list to divide it into smaller sections. Often, plants are inexpensive at estate sales, or they are priced according to their container, which is a double score if it’s already in something beautiful.
Asking My Family
If I have one plant that rises above all others in my collection, it’s my grandmother’s Thanksgiving cactus. I originally thought it was a Christmas cactus (there’s also an Easter cactus), but the leaves are slightly different, and it blooms during the last half of November. I don’t know how she came upon them, but my grandmother had two scraggly-looking cacti on her windowsill. When she passed away, I took them home and combined them into one pot. It’s robust, and when it blooms at Thanksgiving, it feels like she’s present and lives on in my heart via the memories we made together.
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