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A variegated monstera sold for $ 6,551 on Trade Me, breaking the auction site’s record for sales of this coveted species of houseplant.
The mature delicious monstera albo variegata, which had more than 300 bids, was sold on Tuesday after a fierce bidding war between four bidders that saw them outbid each other in $ 50 lots. The auction ended with a final bid of $ 50 from a fifth buyer.
While the sale falls short of the record set by the variegated lows that sold for $ 8,150 in August, it leaves the $ 6,500 hoya sold in June and the $ 5,000 variegated monstera sold in January on the ground.
EXCHANGE ME
A variegated monstera has broken the Trade Me record for the species.
The sale makes her the most expensive monstera ever sold on Trade Me. A 2006 Lexus on the site could be purchased for roughly the same price.
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The Auckland-based buyer also sells propagated plants, including monsteras and houseplant accessories.
EXCHANGE ME
A variegated monstera that sold for $ 6551 Tuesday night.
They are offering cuttings with variegated monstera roots and established plants for around $ 800.
The plant that was sold on Tuesday has several variegated leaves with knots, which can be taken as cuttings and made into new plants.
Variegated specimens of this plant are rare and difficult to propagate, contributing to the prices they get online. However, the white shift often means that the plant cannot photosynthesize and grows slowly. It can also turn green again as it grows.
The sales listing describes the plant as having a “very strong variety” on the largest stem.
“Most of the sheets are more than 50 percent white,” wrote seller Hurley88 on the listing.
”The second stem is mainly green with white splashes on the leaves. There are 6 leaves on this stem. “
Approximately $ 1000 of the proceeds from the sale will go to two charities, Auckland City Mission and Kids Can, per the listing description.
Indoor plants remain a national obsession. In the past seven days, Trade Me has viewed 67,000 searches for indoor plants, an increase from the previous week. The monsteras are the second most sought after plant in the place, after the Hoyas.
“We believe that the enclosure has played an important role in this new love for indoor plants,” says Trade Me’s Logan Mudge.
“People spent a lot of time at home and many will have realized that they could make that space more beautiful during that time.”
The trend is almost certainly also driven by Instagram, which has more than 1.8 million posts on its #monstera hashtag, and the difficulty of accessing some plant species in New Zealand, which has strict restrictions on the import of certain types. of plants.
The popularity, rarity, and rising prices of variegated plants have led to unreliable behavior on the part of plant fanatics.
In September, a large and established plant, estimated in the thousands on the black market, was stolen from the Christchurch Botanical Gardens.
Gail Church / Things
Some species of monstera can grow well outdoors in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, two listings for two variegated monstera were removed from the auction site when plant clocks who suspected the listings were fake made bogus offers of $ 99 million.
A spokeswoman said at the time that “it would be an idiot to try something unreliable at Trade Me.”
“We have a team of people based in New Zealand working seven days a week to keep our site safe and secure.”
Potential buyers are advised to report any advertisement they suspect to be malicious or false and to “not bid on it at all.”
Offers are binding and bogus offers may cause Trade Me to ban the bogus bidder from the site.
“Our Community Watch button is the best way to alert us to anything that may be of concern in any way and our team will investigate further. You can find the Community Watch button at the bottom of each listing, ”the spokeswoman said.
Monstera was hard to find in New Zealand stores until recently, when more conventional garden stores sold them for between $ 40 and $ 100, depending on the size of the plant. The tropical plant, which was popular in the 1970s and 1980s, grows wild in some warmer parts of the country.
