Bloom boom: Malaysians get passionate about pot plants

Collectors searching out specimens with intricate patterns, sharing them on social media

Published: March 13, 2021 18:58 AFP and Compiled by Nathaniel Lacsina, Senior Web Editor

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Kuala Lumpur: Learning to tell your elephant ears from your flamingo flowers has become the latest virus lockdown escape in Malaysia, where houseplants are very much in season. Image Credit: AFP

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Collectors are searching out specimens with intricate patterns in a dazzling array of reds, yellows and greens, and sharing their best on social media. Image Credit: AFP

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"It's like looking at a painting," collector Leiister Soon told AFP, admiring the broad-leaf caladium - elephant ear plants - at his Kuala Lumpur home. Image Credit: AFP

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"Taking care of plants meant that I can divert my attention - (it is) better than watching the number of Covid cases going up." Image Credit: AFP

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The plants are known as "keladi" in the local Malay language, but the trend has grown to encompass other species, such as anthuriums - known as flamingo flower, or laceleaf - and alocasias, whose varieties include the silver dragon. Image Credit: AFP

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Once relatively cheap, prices surged last year when lockdowns confined Malaysians to their homes, and many collectors started posting images of their favourite plants on social media. Image Credit: AFP

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While some still cost as little as 20 ringgit ($4.80), the rarest can now fetch up to 6,000 ringgit each. Image Credit: AFP

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Soon says he spent more than 20,000 ringgit on plants in the past year alone. Image Credit: AFP

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"During the lockdown, people were at home thinking about how to beautify their homes," nursery owner Daud Kasim told AFP in Sungai Besar, 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Kuala Lumpur. Image Credit: AFP

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"They could look at these plants - and their stress would go away." Image Credit: AFP

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An avid collector himself, Daud said he started selling keladi plants in late 2018 but demand exploded during the pandemic. Image Credit: AFP

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Nearly half of his nursery's inventory is now made up of such plants, with foreign varieties from countries such as Thailand, China, the United States and the Netherlands. Image Credit: AFP

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A caladium plant for sale at a nursery in Sungai Besar, outside Kuala Lumpur. Image Credit: AFP

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Zalina Bakar watering her private collection of caladium plants at her nursery in Sungai Besar, outside Kuala Lumpur. Image Credit: AFP

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