Making a plant wishlist can be very helpful, especially in spring. You start to see these new varieties of plants being released and old favorites coming back in stock.
You might have to choose between indoor gardening and outdoor gardening and all of the plant projects you really want to accomplish. With the accessibility and online shopping for plants, it can be incredibly difficult to stick to a budget, focus on projects, or even just stick to getting the plants we really want instead of buying all of them. A wishlist can really help with these issues.
Making a wishlist is really simple and only takes a few steps.
Step 1: Write Down Your Goal
What is your goal or goals for the year?
Do you have any outdoor projects? Are you planning on making a specific type of nursery bed? Are you growing an outdoor garden? How about a fruit tree orchard?
Do you have specific indoor plant collection goals? More philodendron or a specific rare antherium?
Are you planning to buy plants to chop and prop for a plant selling business?
Your wishlist goal is going to be a very personal thing unique to you. So take some time to really write down what you want to accomplish this year.
Step 2: Find Plants
Scroll around or look around and try to find some of these wishlist plants to meet your goals. This list can be as long or as short as you want.
Some ideas might be:
You are looking to buy and sell plants perhaps check out online some of the rare plants markets and pull plant names for your list from there.
If you are a collector of a specific species…syngonium for example…perhaps check out places like Etsy to see what is available for you now.
If you are planning on growing a garden or orchard perhaps check out local gardening pages and groups to see what grows best in your area and get some ideas from there.
And if you want to grow a nice ornamental garden bed perhaps look in your local nurseries’ outdoor section and get some ideas from there.
You can always check plant social media for those popular and new houseplants that just make you dream of a full plant room and add some of those to your wishlist.
Step 3: Eliminate The Unrealistic
Now you go through the entire list and remove any unrealistic plants. Remove from the list all the plants that will not grow in your environment. Remove all the plants you know you wouldn’t be able to keep alive.
An example of this would be cacti in the Pacific northwest. Without a very good grow light system and maintenance the cacti would not thrive. So if I was unwilling or unable to meet their needs in this way then I would remove them from the list.
Consider your plant budget or space for the year.. if you buy this one big plant would you have room or finances for the other smaller ones you want?
You can also move some of these sort of plants to a trades list which is a list of plants you would trade for vs go searching for and paying for. Some people prefer these lists to be one and the same. It is just whatever works best for you.
Step 4: Develop A Number
Go through and verify the number of plants. Do you have some of these plants already? If yes then do you have the number you need for your goals?
For example if you are making a garden bed and want 2 Boston ferns in that bed. You add Boston ferns to your list but already have one in your home. Do you just need one more Boston fern? Or you do you like that fern in its current location and need to get 2 more Boston ferns.
If you put a plant on there that you already have and you have the number you need already then you can cross it off the list.
Step 5: Keep And Use The List
By this point you should have a very narrowed down list of only plants you want and can use as well as a goal to focus on. The final step is to actually keep and use this list you have worked so diligently on.
Most people would probably prefer to keep it on their phones so there are many apps to help with this. Trellis, Google docs, Microsoft Word, or even just your phones natural note app can work for this.
If phones are not your thing perhaps a piece of paper kept in your back pocket. Whatever is going to work for you. This list is to help you keep from buying doubles or extra plants you don’t want and to help you focus on your goal.
Regardless of how you keep your wishlist hopefully this helps you stay on your chosen path and get the plants you truly want and not every single the plant available.
