Simplest plants chosen when times get tough

This content is part of a paid partnership with Google to promote Google Trends. By ANDY WILSON Regional gardeners in Victoria have a healthy dose of water-sense when searching for nursery plants online. Search habits determined by Google Trends suggest succulents are well ahead of the pack when green thumbs hit the keyboard in search of foliar companionship. Which would make sense given the availability of water outside of the big cities, particularly during last year's drought, which aligned with a spike in the search for the more spikey. Indoor plants, fruit crops and natives came in next, and although all plants varieties peaked at the start of the Covid pandemic, succulents quite rose to the occasion, peaking in autumn and spring of 2020, a long way ahead of the pack. It seems lockdown resulted in a flurry of searching by regional folk (with Google searches of all plant types in many cases almost doubling), and highlighted further that despite needing some green leaves to confront the isolation doldrums, those needing the least care were the most sought. Euroa local Katie is a keen rose gardener and said that one of the Euroa Garden Club's winners of the over-the-fence competition was a garden entirely made up of succulents. "That is more the thing now, isn't it?" Katie said. "More and more, people want a garden that's easy to maintain and succulents really need no water and even native plants, once they are settled in, they barely need watering. "Fruit trees as well don't need a lot of water once they are established." The question over indoor plants coming second in the Google searches had two explanations. "Either indoor plants are looked for because they make an easy gift, despite needing water and attention," Katie said. "Or it could be people thinking that, sure they want the garden outside to care for itself but they are prepared to look after some plants if they stay close by." This content is part of a paid partnership with Google to promote Google Trends. It uses Google Trends data to explore search interest in buying plants. Google Trends data are aggregated and anonymous. Search interest is measured on a relative scale and does not represent total search volume.