Tesco has reported a “major revival” of house plants, with demand soaring in its stores by more than 130 per cent since 2019.

Plant buyer for the supermarket Vicki l’Anson said they first noticed the trend during the early months of lockdown and speculated it was caused as a direct result of people having to stay at home and not being able to visit parks and other open spaces.

“But the trend caught on very quickly with people keen to show off on social media how they were adorning their homes with houseplants,” l’Anson said. “Importantly, it’s also good news for our partnerships with UK growers, as we’ve been working together to meet the increased demand with brilliant British-grown plants.”

To meet the soaring demands for perennials over flowers, Tesco plant supplier Bury Lane – which had been mainly dealing in cut flowers, such as lilies, peonies, and agapanthus – said it completely switched its indoor production facilities to just producing house plants and now produces more than 500,000 a year.

“The big consumer focus in home plants right now is the leaf rather than the flower, with younger people, especially, being interested in building their own indoor gardens with evergreen plants,” said Bury Lane managing director Will Clayton. “Not everyone has an outdoor garden and with interest rates high right now we’re seeing younger people who are waiting to get on the housing ladder wanting to make their accommodation as appealing and interesting as possible.”

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