Plants for adoption!

DPA

Andreas Fraedrich has so many enormous golden-ball cacti that he could provide seating for a whole army of unloved older women — the thorny plants are jocularly known as “mother-in-law’s cushion.”
The German also has a huge collection of other plants: queens of the night, ponytail palms, lemon and fig trees, yuccas, lantana, agave, weeping figs and rubber plants. Essentially, all the house plants that have become too big for their boots — or their pots — in living rooms, balconies and gardens.
The 46-year-old has been offering his plant-rescue service for a year; he picks the plants up for free, pampers them, then sells them or rents them out to people in Berlin and suburbs. “Sometimes the owners shed a tear,” says Fraedrich. But usually, he says, they’re pleased that their once-beloved plants aren’t going to end up in the rubbish bin.
“Often people have lived with them for years. It’s hard for them to give them up.” The trained landscape gardener and plant rescuer is hoping to make a contribution to the protection of the environment with his project.
“In Germany, everything’s recycled,” he says. “Just not yet plants.” And so far his singular service has met with great success in the capital, his telephone constantly ringing. So far he’s made around 400 trips to pick up plants, and there’s great rental demand for the former household shrubs on film sets, at events and at restaurants.For those that nobody wants any more, there’s a place in what Fraedrich calls “Eden,” his garden for retired plants. He also offers a winter-care service for plants. The idea of rescuing plants from the rubbish got its head start in other cities.
Two artists, Haike Rausch and Torsten Grosch, founded a company in the city of Frankfurt in 2009, providing a place where plant owners can take their unwanted shrubs and drop them off anonymously. It’s part of a project called “Botanoadopt,” in which the two artists find new owners for the plants, primarily now via a website and an app.
“We have adoption offices in two cities,” says Rausch. The artists give every plant a name and a biography. Those who adopt them promise not to sell the plants on, and look after them properly. “We’ve now found adoptive parents for more than 1,000 plants,” says Rausch.
Both plant rescue services have been given prizes for their work. Plant market expert Britta Troester of Germany’s Agricultural Market Information Company (AMI) says the projects are “exciting.” But they’re only serving a niche market, she says. Last year Germans spent 1.5 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars) on new houseplants.
“Projects like these don’t hurt the market at all,” adds Frank Feiler, director of the Association of the German Flower Wholesale and Import Trade e.V. (BGI). “A plant always has its own history. The more someone cares for it, the better,” he adds.
According to the AMI, purchases of house plants have fallen a bit in recent years — in 2010, Germans spent 1.6 billion euros. But Troester thinks the market could improve. “The foundations have been laid,’ she says.
Klaus Wagener, a florist and potplant-book author, says he’s seeing increased interest again in house plants. “Their value is growing. Plants help well-being and — together with the right container — add value to living space. That’s important to a lot of people nowadays.”
The “old-fashioned” types of plants that the rescuers are taking on have a good chance at a new life, he adds. “It’s exactly these ‘old’ classics that are coming back into fashion. Retro is on trend. Hanging baskets are also coming back into fashion,” says Wagener.
Igor Josifovic, an author of an Urban Jungle blog and book about his life with plants, has created a whole community of plant lovers. He has also observed the return of houseplants to German homes. “It’s the rediscovery of nature. Plants aren’t just decorative, they help create a healthy indoor environment,” he says. They also emit a certain calm, he says — especially important in today’s hectic world.