Miniature Water Lily Market Questions

[Sofi Ares]

Hello UKAPS!


I would greatly appreciate your help on a school project. 🙂

I am doing a project on the commercialization of exotic miniature water lilies for my Masters Program. I was wondering if anyone by chance knows a little bit of the miniature water lily market in the UK and would like to help me out. My questions mostly refer to supply and customer preferences.

To start, by what I saw on the online market, there seems to be only certain species of water lilies for online sale. I've notices Nymphaea Pygmaea Helvola AGM and Nymphaea Pygmaea Rubra in almost every store online. Is there a specific reason for their popularity? Are these common because they are the only miniatures that interest the market or because there just isn’t high production of other species?

My project is focusing on potentially bring endangered/nearly extinct plants into the market. Would mass availability deter lovers from buying them?

Would the market be interested in new species? If so, what would you be willing to pay for an exclusive lily? £30, 50 or 100?

How would you like to see these plants sold? For example, one of our potential species that we would like to make a business plan for is the Nymphaea Thermarum. I know there is a lot of work needed to mass-produce a species like this due to the specific growing needs and its rarity. However, I was wondering if the plant would be preferred sold in a vase, tank or ready for home pond use. Would you buy this plant? Which way would you buy it? Does the exoticness of the plant change how you would buy it? Below are some links to the style on how I was thinking of packaging in the business plan. I don’t own these photos nor taking credit for them. I am just using them as an example on what type of packaging would work well for the UK market.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the project or questions in general. I would really love a discussion on this top and get a good understanding about miniature water lilies in the UK. If you have any ideas at all regarding the topic I would love to hear them. 🙂


Thanks for your help!

Glass Cup Idea:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/2f/2c/fb/2f2cfbdc6e0b58321fcb0c5a87dbf114.jpg

Personal Pond:
http://www.bluelotusfarm.com.au/Waterlily_lily_flowers_buy_plants/growing lilies pot.jpg

Vase:
http://ext.homedepot.com/community/blog/wp-content/wpuploads/MarthaLilyPond.jpg

 

[tam]

I didn't know there was a UK market, other than people buying them for small outdoor ponds. I imagine the 'popularity' of those varieties is probably down to the fact most shops source from the same supplier and that's the varieties they offer.

I could see people liking the ones in the glasses if they really grow like that. I'm a little sceptical of one neat plant producing one leaf and two flowers.

 

[Sofi Ares]

What makes the one plant skeptical?

I've seen online that there are some wholesalers. I don't know the exact logistics on how the market is in the UK either. But I know some suppliers in France and they get the seeds and grow at these large nurseries. Is there a regulation by any chance? I was looking around and I did not see anything that wasn't out of the ordinary for seed sales, basic don't expose it to wild life and stuff like that. It would be really cool if it just hasn't been introduced and if a new species enters it can add variety to the market.

 

[Rahms]

Knew I'd heard of nymphaea thermarum before...:

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/oct/28/-sp-plant-crime-of-the-century

From the article:

Legally moving plants such as Nymphaea thermarum, which are extinct in the wild, requires a lot of bureaucratic legwork and expensive permits under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

So there's your answer on regulation. Can't really help you with preference, I don't find lillies that appealing. They look nice on the surface, but the sub-surface matters for aquariums too, and stalks don't really appeal to me...

Also, the fact that the professionals struggled to grow them tells me that its probably not suitable for the general public

 

[Sofi Ares]

Yeah.. I see that being a big problem too. They aren't an easy nor wildly bought plants (for the general public) and the species we were given for the project is difficult.
However, the professor said that we can assume we hired someone already who can go them and that we have some seeds to start. Ideally we will set up an operation in the UK to avoid too many pre transaction costs just to get the plant market ready for the UK market.

However, the issue is pricing and getting response from consumers to like and buy plant. If there isn't much difference in having the smallest lily in the world as to maybe having another rare species, my group needs to really think hard on how to market this plant. We see ahead that this will probably sell only to water lily and pond plant enthusiasts (maybe even get more people to love the plants too.. who knows). But it would be interesting to really understand how the plant will be viewed if we do 'hypothetically" bring the plant to market.

We were thinking of in the plan to bring it to shows to have some legitimacy to it as well.
But really the idea is if it will sell in the UK and why or why not.