{"id":44790,"date":"2026-02-06T19:12:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-rare-plants-sell-for-five-figures-the-business-helps-me-support-my-extended-family-but-i-work-about-100-hours-a-week\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T19:12:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:12:03","slug":"my-rare-plants-sell-for-five-figures-the-business-helps-me-support-my-extended-family-but-i-work-about-100-hours-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-rare-plants-sell-for-five-figures-the-business-helps-me-support-my-extended-family-but-i-work-about-100-hours-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"My rare plants sell for five figures. The business helps me support my extended family, but I work about 100 hours a week."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/697cfa9ad3c7faef0ecd4879?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Harry Luu headshot\"\/><figcaption>Harry Luu has sold rare plants for $16,000 and $26,000. a piece.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Harry Luu<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Harry Luu started growing rare plants as a hobby during grad school.<\/li>\n<li>During COVID, he opened a business and eventually left academia to pursue it.<\/li>\n<li>He works about 100 hours a week, including in greenhouses at his home, he says.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with <\/em>Harry Luu<em>, owner of<\/em> PlantZaddyTherapy<em>. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#039;ve always been a gardener and enjoyed being around plants. While I was in graduate school studying math, my collection of houseplants grew. There&#039;s an attention to detail and a hyperfocus that I found in both mathematics and plants, so my hobby complemented my academic career.<\/p>\n<p>During the pandemic, my interest in rare plants blew up. I started getting a bigger collection and trading up for more valuable plants.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, my hobby transformed into a business. I finished my graduate degree and started teaching math in California, but three years ago, I left academia to sell plants full-time.<\/p>\n<h2>My academic career was a safety net for my family of 8<\/h2>\n<p>I grew up in Vietnam, and I&#039;m the embodiment of the American dream for my family. They put all their eggs in my basket, which allowed me to come to America and study. Now, I feel it&#039;s fair to return their investment. I support not only myself and my husband, but also my parents, my brother, my sister-in-law, my niece, and my nephew.<\/p>\n<p>Leaving my job while supporting a family of eight in California might seem risky, but it was calculated. I had reached the point where I saw the potential for financial freedom from investments I had made during grad school that had very good returns. I had years of data on plant sales, and also knew I could return to academia if needed, so I had a safety net.<\/p>\n<h2>I price based on rarity and desirability, without going too high<\/h2>\n<p>I was already connected to the rare plant community, so selling increasingly expensive plants felt like a natural progression. I grew my platform on Palmstreet, an online marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>This year, I had two record-breaking sales in one day. I sold a $16,000 plant (an Anthurium Variegated Forgetii x Heinz, one of only two in the world), then a $26,000 plant (the only specimen of the True Variegated Lux Albo Mother Plant).<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/697cff51a645d11881885a03?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Man holding rare plant\"\/><figcaption>A $16,000 plant sold on Palmstreet by Harry Luu<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Palmstreet<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I&#039;m a math person, so I use a formula to price. I calculate rarity and desirability and compare them with price data from the previous three years. These plants were both very rare and highly desirable, which drove prices up. However, I didn&#039;t want to price them too high, because I&#039;m thinking about the long-term viability for my brand: people have to be able to purchase what I&#039;m selling. Given how rare the plants were, their five-figure prices weren&#039;t too big a splash.<\/p>\n<h2>I want to be able to connect with the community more<\/h2>\n<p>Despite those big numbers, the business&#039;s income fluctuates dramatically. My best single week was over $200,000 in sales, but other weeks I might have no sales. The market is seasonal, and winter is slow. I&#039;ve had to adapt to not having a steady, reliable income.<\/p>\n<p>The money comes and goes, but the work never stops. Right now, I spend about 100 hours a week on the business. We have plants in our home, and also a large greenhouse on our property. My brother does some of the maintenance care for the plants, but all the breeding decisions are made by me.<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;m on the cusp of the company being able to sustain itself without me working so much. I look forward to that \u2014 when I can step back from the business side and focus more on the joy of growing. I would like to share my knowledge about rare plants and take the plants on the road to connect with my community more, since that&#039;s what got me hooked on growing in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harry Luu has sold rare plants for $16,000 and $26,000. a piece. Courtesy of Harry Luu Harry Luu started growing rare plants as a hobby during grad school. During COVID, he opened a business and eventually left academia to pursue it. He works about 100 hours a week, including in greenhouses at his home, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}