In this end-of-year recap, I’m breaking down my 2025 plant gains vs. losses: how many plants left my collection, how many came in, and whether I actually met my “planty goals” for the year. I tried to keep this one shorter than last year (we’ll see), but I still wanted to give you the real story behind the numbers. In 2025 I acquired 33 new plants and purged 22, and I’m honestly proud of that because one of my goals was to not bring in a ton of new plants without also removing some. I’ll walk you through why certain plants had to go—most of my purges were sold or gifted (only one true casualty), and the common theme was maintenance. If a plant was constantly giving me runners, getting bald on top, needing pole upkeep, or just taking too much time to keep looking good, it wasn’t bringing me happiness anymore. That’s why things like plants-on-poles, fast crawlers, and runner-happy plants ended up on the chopping block. On the flip side, my buying habits were… very telling. I barely bought anything until late summer/fall, then I went a little wild—because yes, seasonal depression is real and apparently I cope by buying plants. The funniest part? Every single plant I personally bought this year was a Hoya, and honestly that tracks, because I’m fully in my “easy to maintain plant era” heading into 2026.