Godwin Ugwu runs a small ornamental plant business beside the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. A short signboard, almost covered by leaf-coated hollow metalworks, displayed the business’s name: Perfect Pottery. Ugwu is a florist, and he represented a facet of the floral industry that had long dominated but was at risk of being unprofitable.
“The business is no longer giving us joy like it did when the naira was stronger. The naira is no longer strong for us. People do not worry about flowers; it is not their problem because they are looking for something to eat before purchasing flowers,” Ugwu remarked, lamenting the biting inflation that worsened between 2023 and early 2025.
He had just returned from a work trip and was packing up some flower pots to close for the day. The cost of planting ballooned, while his customer base shrank. A pot of plants gets more expensive as the cost of soil rises.
“I used to buy a pot of loamy soil for N30,000 when former President Muhammadu Buhari was in office. Now, we are buying it for N75,000 to N80,000,” Ugwu explained, as he finished packing and was set to go home. His business was booming in the past. Once, he could easily give a quotation of N1m or N2m for a job, but that has changed, because “you will not see anything that will make you happy when the price is a little low.”
The frequency of customers visiting florists or engaging the services of horticulturists for their gardens helps describe the loss of momentum in the ornamental plant business. Ugwu recalled seeing customers “almost every day, but now, it could be once or twice in a week.”
Ugwu’s flower business has managed to survive. He deals with governments and corporate clientele, since many of his private customers cannot afford him.
Floriculture in Nigeria
Emmanuel Usoro manages the garden of flowers and other ornamental plants at his Victoria Island-based florist employer. The garden is colourful, and multiple plants sprawl on a stretch of space behind the culverts at the Idowu Martins junction.
He tends to the plants and sells to customers, maintaining what may sometimes be a gruelling routine. According to Usoro, the gardener must be hardworking.
The flower business requires a high level of work ethic. The job meant that Usoro had to tend to the plants, preventing the dangers that come from people defecating or flinging trash in the garden and animals eating and defecating on the plants.
“To make your garden look good, so that you can get more customers, you have to work hard. To maintain your garden, you have to always fumigate and water, at least three or four times a day, under the hot sun. If you don’t do that, your plant will spoil,” the gardener stated.
Usoro explained that he spent years learning everything he could about the ornamental plants in the garden. As he moved around the plant beds with care, weeding the pots, he described each notable plant in detail, along with its pricing.
Unlike Ugwu on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Usoro’s biggest customers were expatriates on Lagos Island and an unlikely class of buyers: private residents for their homes. This class of buyers, according to Usoro, would “come in to buy one pot of plant for N60,000.” They are keeping the business alive.
“The main people who buy plants, like this one, which goes for N175,000, come and purchase them without haggling over the price too much,” he said, pointing to a cylindrical white vase. “But some people may just want to buy a pot and place it in their parlour.”
Mommies & daddies’ communities
Purchasing flowers for more intimate needs is growing in Lagos cities, and enthusiasts are the top buyers. Lagos often gets a bad rep for “lacking green spaces,” but the culture is turning around gradually.
Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency, for example, states that it maintains and monitors 373 green areas, in partnership with private sector organisations. These green spaces include the Infinity Park in Jibowu and the Peace Park in Ketu. These parks and “green spaces” maintained by public-private partnerships host an array of flowers and other ornamental plants.
Besides the public parks, the communities of plant mommies and daddies often organise themselves to promote environmentalism in Lagos state. A handful of floriculture events happened in 2025. On April 5 and 6, the Lagos Garden Club held its first Lagos Gardening Fair of 2025.
On April 27, the Garden Centre NG hosted its Sip and Swap event, featuring gardening lessons, expert meetups, plant swaps with fellow enthusiasts and networking.
Between August 1 and 3, organisers of the fourth edition of the Open Day for Gardeners, in partnership with Ecobank Nigeria, gathered vendors and plant enthusiasts in Lagos. Former Second Lady Dolapo Osinbajo described the event in an Instagram post as “an exciting gathering of all things plants and gardens, networking and learning in ‘Green community.’”
Being able to afford the plants is a key factor behind the rise of plant owners and small-scale gardening in these communities. According to florist Usoro, customers usually purchase the most affordable indoor plants between N8,000 and N20,000.
Some affordable plants are the Yellow and green snake plant, the normal green snake plant, the Elephant’s tongue and the Ladies’ plant.
Meanwhile, the most expensive ones are Joker, Filavendrum, Raffia palm and Hibiscus.
Business of ornamental plants
“Nigerians are gradually leaning towards more green spaces, greenery in general and an increased desire to grow what they eat,” said plant consultant Ebuka Okonkwo. Okonkwo, also known as Plantboy, is a social creator and showcases gardening and floriculture tips on his social media accounts.
He explained that planting and selling flowers or ornamental plants in Nigeria “is an expanding business and venture with many more untapped opportunities within it.”
Okonkwo noted that there is an increasing number of people venturing into gardening or those looking to decorate their homes with plants, as opposed to four years ago, when he started gardening and mostly people already invested in the hobby were driving the demand.
The plant consultant also noted that he was puzzled by the heavy buyers of flowers, usually for large-scale landscaping, who want to spend as little as possible on landscaping or greenery. “Why build a grand and so-called luxurious property and not incorporate the appropriate landscaping to further enhance it?”
He added, “In my experience, customers seeking to purchase potted plants for a small-scale installation or even just to decorate their indoor space tend to be more willing to spend the extra, and they make up the bulk of my sales.”
For Okonkwo, the most profitable part of his business comes from plants harvested within his own garden. He explained: “If one buys a mother plant for N10,000 and nurtures it to produce many pups, then each pup can be harvested and sold for N30,000 or even possibly more. Now, imagine if that one plant yields 50 of such pups quarterly and also has many of said plants growing. That can be a great investment and cash cow.
He noted that this was not always the case, “but when it does happen, it can be profitable for the grower.”
Meanwhile, the least profitable for the plant consultant was having to outsource plants from other growers due to increasingly limited stock and a lack of commercial availability. “It is one of the many challenges of this business,” he replied.
For Amanda and Stefanie, the owners of Flora Vista, a garden and nursery company, “the plant market is growing as more people are becoming wellness conscious and finding ways to integrate rituals into their everyday lives.”
Stefanie cautioned that although Nigerians are adopting flowers and plants in their homes though the growth is not exponential yet. “A lot of people are getting into herbs and fruiting plants, but the ornamental space is still growing,” she remarked. “I believe florists and gardeners need to actively create the market, helping consumers visualise how plants can transform their spaces. For many, seeing is believing.”
On which category makes for fast-growers, Stefanie explained that “while traditionally, greenery was mostly for landscaping (in homes and public or corporate spaces), there’s a stable-income class segment that values aesthetics, wellness, and indoor plants. Instagram and other social media aesthetics, and the ‘wellness/lifestyle’ movement are fuelling demand.”
She added, “I have a particular love for the individual potted plant segment, as it feels more niche and allows customers to express their personalities through unique plant choices. That said, both segments can be highly profitable when a business positions itself strategically.”
Speaking from her experience, Stefanie noted her preference for retail potted plants, which provide “steady cash flow, brand visibility, and the opportunity to create loyal customers” as opposed to “large-scale projects that are not as frequent as individual purchases”
Meanwhile, Amanda noted that in terms of volume of sales, both categories of individual and large-scale purchases can be good for a florist that is visible, has built trust, and is consistent with value offering.
For Stefanie, the most profitable part of the business is the plants grown from cuttings. She said, “Though they take time to establish, flowers are profitable, but they have the perishability aspect.”
Challenges facing floral industry
As flowers are delicate items, so is the business of selling them. Multiple challenges, including logistics and inflation, have weighed on the floral industry players.
For the plant consultant, Okonkwo, logistics is a challenge, “not only because of the astronomically high cost of transportation within Lagos but also because plants are very fragile.” He lamented that most logistics personnel are not trained to handle the plants.
Inflation and the higher cost of living are frustrating growers who want to increase their stock to remain competitive, and limiting those customers eager to purchase.
“Commercial availability is limited. By this, I mean if a client orders 50 pieces of a particular plant in a particular height, it can become really difficult to source, the Plantboy noted. “Ornamental plants need to be farmed to meet supply, the way tomatoes and peppers, etc, are also farmed. This requires land and space, and unfortunately, there are very few large-scale growers with such farms in Lagos, at least.”
Many growers have resorted to importing plants to meet increasing demand, especially for unique varieties, according to the consultant. “It will require a lot of capital, investment and space,” he advised.
Similarly, Amanda from Flora Vista highlighted logistics as a major challenge to the business. She said, “If outsourced to a third party, there are a lot of risks, especially with care. To be successful at this time, you either own the process or just manage it extremely well.”
On her part, Stefanie noted that the most common challenges are damage to stock due to transit or from environmental factors.
“Imported ornamentals are expensive due to forex volatility and customs charges. For some plants, locally grown alternatives are limited. Transporting delicate plants is difficult—roads, heat, and poor packaging can cause damage,” she bemoaned. “Even handling the flight option can be disappointing, and some exotic plants struggle in Nigeria’s tropical climate and have to be acclimatised or grown smartly (e.g. growing roses in patios vs in full sun).”
She agreed with Okonkwo on personnel, adding, “Customers often lack plant care knowledge, leading to dissatisfaction when plants die.
She recommended building good, trusted relationships with logistics providers and creating systems for caring for the plants.
Flower exports are big business
In the first nine months of 2025, Nigeria exported ‘Cut flowers & flower buds, fresh, dried, dyed,’ worth N79.64bn, placing these ornamental plants among the country’s top agricultural exports each quarter.
Between January 2023 and June 2025, the value of export of cut flowers and flower buds totalled N291.76bn.
Floriculture is hardly delineated from horticulture in Nigeria’s growth data. The government also lumps all subsectors together when discussing its designs to improve the sector and its practitioners.
According to a review by the Produce Export Development Alliance, Nigeria’s horticultural export sector was nearing an estimated $248m in 2023.
A report by The Nation quoted: “PEDA’s analysis of export trends paints a promising picture, with experts predicting that Nigeria’s horticultural exports could potentially soar to $500 million by 2030 if key challenges are effectively addressed.”
The PUNCH reported in September that the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, while publicly appraising the HortiNigeria programme, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and implemented between 2021 and 2025, identified horticulture as a powerful driver of food security, women’s empowerment, and youth employment.
Private sector groups react
Chairman of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Agricultural and Allied Group, Tunde Banjoko, flagged the process of preserving most horticultural products. “They require cold chain storage. Until now, we have used crude methods to convey and preserve products. That is why some of our products are still being rejected at the export market.”
He noted that other constraints to the export of flowers from Nigeria are regulatory issues and the cost of airlifting the items. Banjoko also decried that most horticulturists practise in the open field. He urged moving into greenhouses.
On his part, Director of Technical Programmes at the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Adedamola Ogunsesan, said the NCF’s business of ornamental plants presents opportunities both for livelihoods and for improving urban and peri-urban ecosystems.
He noted that the foundation’s emphasis has consistently been on the use of native and naturalised species, which are better adapted to local climatic conditions and support biodiversity.
He called on Nigerians to integrate more plants into their living and working spaces to reduce the urban heat effect, improve air quality, and promote mental well-being. “Importantly, when indigenous plants are prioritised, they provide food and habitat for pollinators, birds, and other species critical to ecosystem balance. Thus, the ornamental plant sector has environmental potential if aligned with conservation priorities,” he stressed.
Ogunsesan hailed the increasing number of plant fairs that have played an important role in energising the ornamental plant industry. He explained that the firms have helped to “create platforms for entrepreneurship and knowledge exchange, where small businesses can showcase plant innovations and enthusiasts can learn sustainable practices and build a sense of community around urban greening and environmental appreciation, particularly among young Nigerians who identify as ‘plant mommies and daddies.’
He added, “NCF has demonstrated this through its orchid garden established in honour of the late Professor Emmanuel Obot, which educates visitors on the beauty and ecological importance of native orchids. Similar showcases at fairs can encourage participants to select plants that are both aesthetically pleasing and ecologically valuable.”
How government can boost floriculture
The Assistant Director of Research, National Horticultural Research Institute, Dr Gbenga Adebayo, speaking on behalf of the Horticultural Society of Nigeria, said that NIHORT has worked to extend the lifespan of flowers in Nigeria.
“If perhaps the flower could only be sustained for two or three days, we are working to elongate its shelf life to about 10 or 12 days. If you are exporting, that means you can take it to your country of destination, and you can still be able to sell the flowers that you want,” Adebayo noted.
The NIHORT director added that the institute is working on hastening the production of crops, stating, “We are trying to increase our germ presence and the number of plants that can be used for decorative purposes. It may include adapting to some that we may not be native to Nigeria, or looking to domesticate those that are in the wild. For example, we have our own local roses, and there are some that we import to adapt to the Nigerian system.
NIHORT noted that it is working to create awareness among citizens about what can improve the environment. “We champion the mitigation of climate change, and we also encourage that, even in cities, like in Lagos, to have ornamental plants on the road, creating lawns along streets and all those things.”
Adebayo urged the government to fund more research at NIHORT and provide legislation that ensures builders plant hedges and create a beautiful environment, for example, at petrol stations and homes.
“You don’t just build a house and let the house consume the whole of one plot that you have bought. There should be a specific area that you should leave for ornamentals, where you can plant hedges, or spot plants that will create shade,” he added.
Leave a comment