A couple recently purchased a plant from B&Q and made the remarkable discovery that its leaves could sell for more than a hundred pounds a leaf.
Lucky Couple Purchased A £12 Plant Which They Later Found Was 'Rare' - And Its Leaves Are Worth £170 Each.
By
Zainab Pervez in
Amazing
On 19th February 2022
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Harry Langstaff and Amy Briffa picked up the plant at their local DIY story for £12 - they later found that the plant's leaves' could sell for a remarkable £170 each. The pair even bought the "extremely rare plant" for a discounted price after they managed to get a whopping fifty percent off as it was initially priced at £24.
The couple believes the plant had been discounted as B&Q workers mistakenly thought its yellow leaves meant the plant was sick - but it was actually the extremely rare monstera Aurea marmorata.
Specimens with perfect half white and half green leaves can sell up to a whopping £2,000 ($2,700).
He said: "When we first saw the plant sitting there, we kind of just looked at each other and really couldn’t believe what we were seeing. It was reduced to £12 because it had a yellow leaf that B&Q must have assumed meant it was sick."
"For people who collect houseplants, it's like winning the lottery, so you can imagine what we were feeling at the time. "
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"We hastily checked the stem for any colour, we then immediately just snatched it up and strapped it in the back seat with a seatbelt like it was our child. The first thing we tend to do is repot them into more rich, well draining soil and really give it enough humidity and light to thrive and hope for the best," Harry said.
"We didn’t realise it was so rare until it produced a new leaf a few weeks later, it just kept getting better and better and we just couldn't believe it. Our one wasn't in amazing condition so we were so nervous it would die."
"The odds on finding this of a plant quite like this are extremely slim though, one in a million. But if the stem shows signs of striping, then it's variegated (showing different colours) which will increase its value significantly.
"Beware though, as people often mistake virus on the foliage for variegation when it's actually just sick."
A B&Q spokesperson told The Sun: “At B&Q we’re pretty proud of the quality of our house plants so we can see why it’s been reported that our plants could be worth up to £4,000."
"Whilst we don’t sell the extremely rare plants in question, we do sell top quality houseplants that our customers are more familiar with and that are more purse-friendly!”