Rare plant collector profits from her hobby

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Being a collector of a variety of plants, mainly rare ones, has been a dream come true for Nuraini Eni Haryanti. But it never crossed her mind that her hobby would also generate income for her family.

"I realized later that if you take care of the plants well, it produces a financial return," said the 41-year-old woman, better known as Eni.

Citing an example, she said she once bought a plant, zamio kurkes, for Rp 150,000 and then, after propagating it, sold it again, this time at Rp 1.5 million apiece.

The collector of some 500 pots of different plant types, mostly decorative, developed her love for planting from the time she was very little, growing up in a house surrounded by yards full of plants.

At the age of 25, she has already became a plant "maniac," going anywhere -- mostly plant exhibitions, to hunt for her desired plants. For example, she has visited exhibitions in major cities in Java, excluding Jakarta, like Surabaya, Semarang and Bandung.

"Sometimes I just look around at exhibitions, keeping an eye open in case there's something I'd like to buy," Eni said.

Some of the plants in her collection are rare, so rare they are priced based on a single stem of leaves. For instance, a rare plant, ence phalartos from Africa sells at up to Rp 25 million for a single stem of leaves.

"It's really rare. I had to wait for at least six to 18 months to see it grow into a stem of leaves," said Eni, who bought the plant from another collector after some hard bargaining.

"The previous owner made me promise not to sell the plant to other collector, and that I would keep it," said Eni, who lives in Nogotirto housing complex, Gamping subdistrict, Sleman, in the western outskirts of Yogyakarta.

At a glance, ence phalartos does not seem that special, much less a very rare and expensive plant. It has no flowers but dozens of stiff and prickly green leaves on each of the stems, which grow right from the bottom of the plant.

"The rarity of a plant changes from time to time. At a particular time, a plant is considered rare, but if it's easy to grow then it's no longer considered rare. But ence phalartos is an example of a rare plant as it's hard to grow," Eni said.

Eni, however, said she did not begin smoothly. At first she had to lie to her husband about the real amount of money she spent on plants. She had to do it to forestall protests from her husband and their two children.

"Often I would say that I had bought a particular plant for just Rp 50,000 or Rp 100,000, whereas the real price was Rp 500,000 or even Rp 1 million," said Eni.

But everything came out into the open when people started visiting her house to buy her plants.

"At that time, I was forced to tell the truth, but to my surprise, my husband had also developed the same love of plants just like me," said Eni, a member of the Central Java chapter of the Association of Decorative Plant Lovers (PPTH).

Her hobby, according to Eni, did not require special talent, just patience and perseverance. Growing rare plants, she said, was just like looking after ordinary plants.

But in pursuing her hobby, not everything ran smoothly for her. Once she found 30 plants just vanished without trace due to attacks by mice. On another occasion she found her collection of orchids died for no apparent reason.

"Just a couple of months ago I could not save my plants when a hut that I had built to house my rare plant collection collapsed and fell onto them," said Eni, who prefers to use manure rather than factory-made fertilizers for her plants.

But problems like these did not deter Eni from her hobby, which has now become a profitable business for her, especially at a time when most housing complexes and residential estates are developed on confined sites.

"Decorative plants have become the preferred choice to make the environment around houses greener," said Eni.

The woman, however, declined to reveal her monthly income from selling her decorative plants, but said that when business was good, a single purchase could earn her up to Rp 5 million.

"But basically, I don't sell anything from my collection of rare plants. If I were to do so, it would mostly be to fellow collectors by way of exchange for something from their collection."