Terrarium bars cater to plant-loving millennials. Derek Woodruff, AIFD, PFCI, CF, will show how to set one up during SAF Palm Springs 2018.
Eager to attract millennials, a demographic with an estimated $200 billion spending power — the greatest of any generation? Stock up on succulents, anthurium, fiddle leaf figs and monstera. Over the past few years, plants have achieved an esteemed status, particularly with urban dwellers in their twenties and thirties who crave a piece of nature in their lives.
Millennials’ affection for plants has appeared in numerous news outlets around the world, most recently in The Wall Street Journal, which last week ran a front-page feature story, “Forget the Cat Ladies, Meet the Plant Parents,” that detailed the duteous routines of the truly obsessed.
“People are pouring their hearts and wallets into houseplants, forming emotional bonds with ferns and Philodendron,” the article reads. It includes anecdotes from a man who owns more than 280 plants and struggled mightily to find a sitter before his honeymoon (“too much pressure,” many of his friends declared), a woman who sleeps next to her collection of pathos, rubber trees and ivy (so they are the first things she sees each day) and bathes them in her shower, and a couple whose first major spat occurred when he accidentally killed one of her plants by opening a window on a chilly night.
These plant lovers are extreme examples, but they are indicative of a large trend. According to the 2016 National Gardening Report, five million Americans, aged 18 to 34, took up gardening the previous year, 37 percent of millennials grow plants and herbs indoors and countless numbers own succulents. Florists who’ve built a loyal plant-loving following shared their tips in Floral Management last summer.
New this year, the Society of American Florists’ 134th annual convention, Sept. 12-15 in Rancho Mirage, California, will feature experience zones, mini demonstrations between programs that offer extra doses of inspiration and education — one of which, “Terrariums Made Easy,” taps into consumers’ insatiable love of plants.
Derek Woodruff, AIFD, PFCI, CF, of Floral Underground in Traverse City, Michigan will lead the terrarium demonstration, showing convention attendees how to replicate one of his shop’s most popular promotions.
For more information and to register for SAF Palm Springs 2018, click here. To receive an early bird discount, register by Friday, August 17.
