Picture this – you are a big fan of creating an urban jungle at your home, but after your move to Switzerland, you have to start all over as you could not move your plants. Great loss, or great opportunity? Regardless, it can be challenging to leave your go-to plant stores behind and find the best spots to calm your cravings for new green friends in Switzerland. But do not despair, I went through the exact journey last year and will give you tips below on the best places to buy house plants in Switzerland.
Important to mention that if you are moving from an EU country, you should be allowed to bring your plants with you. However, we decided to not do this to avoid any issues at the border control for our moving company.
Local plant and flower boutiques
When in doubt – of course buy local. If you have just moved to a new area, start exploring and see if there are any flower boutiques around that also sell house plants. While buying a plant here might be a bit expensive than buying one in a big home improvement store, smaller shops will be able to give you great advice based on your home and the greenness of your fingers! Additionally, you support a small business in your new neighbourhood, which helps it thrive!
Not sure where to find plant shops where you live? The search query ‘Plant shop’ in English works surprisingly well on Google maps – for our area in Luzern at least!
Don’t be afraid of the supermarket!
Your local Migros or Coop supermarket might not be the first thing you think of when you are on the lookout for house plants. But think again! Many supermarkets of especially Migros and Coop have surprisingly large flower- and plant sections where you can find healthy and affordable house plants in all shapes and sizes. Discounter as Lidl and Aldi sometimes also have true green gems available at their store, but those are often only for sale for a short period of time.
For deals on house plants from Aldi & Lidl, it is best to check out their weekly brochure or prospekt, available on their respective websites.
Our beloved bird of paradise plant was adopted from Aldi at a truly unbelievable price and 8 months later, it’s still living its best life!
An added benefit to buying plants in your local supermarket is that it is only a short walk home with your new green companion.
Facebook groups
Nowadays, social networks can be used for everything. From finding new friends to learning new languages and yes – even finding new plant babies! Many cities have dedicated Facebook groups for selling unused items or gifting items for free. Many of these however also facilitate the exchanging of plant cuttings! If you are interested to see if your new Swiss city has such group, simply hop on Facebook and look among groups for your city.
Can not find any plant exchange groups for your area in Switzerland? Try out the 2nd hand website www.ricardo.ch. On here, many people offer their plant cutting meant for propagation for low prices. The German word for (propagation) cutting is Steckling, for the French part of Switzerland you can use Bouture as a key word. Many sellers are willing to send the cuttings domestically by mail.
Landi
Here, we are coming into the territory of large home improvement and garden stores. While our city of Luzern has relatively modest Landi stores with small plant departments, there are larger Landi stores elsewhere in Switzerland.
You can find all the Landi stores in Switzerland on their website
Hornbach
One of my favorite destinations to buy house plants in Switzerland! Hornbach is a large international home improvement store with 8 shops in Switzerland. Hornbach also has large departments for both garden/balcony plants and indoor plants. The store in Luzern (Littau to be exact) where we shop has a huge collection of houseplants for very reasonable prices! From succulents to peace lilies and from the classic Monstera to Birds of Paradise: they have it all!
Important to note is that Hornbach shops are generally located outside of the cities. You might need a car to get there. In the case of Luzern specifically, there is both a bus stop and a train station nearby in case you do not have a car!
You can find all the Hornbach stores in Switzerland on their website.
There you have it; my tips to buy your favorite house plants here in Switzerland! Do you have any other go-to places to find nice plants here? Share them in the comments or message TheSwisspath on Instagram!
