Cactus Lovers Paradise. Plant Fair in Bangkok

The annual Suan Luang Rama IX Floral Fair (Dec 1 - 10, 2023) has been opened in Rama 9 Park, Bangkok. I visited it yesterday, and hurrying to share my succulent finds from there.

Suang Luang Rama 9 Park is a huge and most adorable park in Bangkok. Every December, it hosts this event, and it means that dozens of shops will enter this green area to sell best Thai.... food. 😄 I mean, in Thailand, every event unavoidably becomes a big Thai food fair with endless rows of street kitchens, and hundreds of people eating here and there on benches and on the grass, and this is the most lovely thing since there is no better food in the world than the Thai cuisine, at least to me. This time, I enjoyed a plate of khao soi and iced honey-and-lime drink. 😋

Along with Thai food, the fair hosts plenty of shops selling plants. 😀 Fruit trees, orchids, water lilies, roses, tillandsias, hoyas, aroids... So many things to see and admire there but I'll focus on cacti in the post, one of my favorite plant types.

The cactus industry is large in Bangkok, there are many cactus lovers in the city, and you can find shops selling these plants in so many places. Chatuchak Plant Market is a great destination for cacti hunters. Plant fairs are also regular, I already posted about House and Garden Fair (บ้านเเละสวน) in BITEC. And now it’s time to cover one of the largest floral events, Suan Luang Rama IX Floral Fair 2023 which attracts farmers and plant retailers from all over Thailand.

Hoq it looks: in the middle of the park, in temporary stores, constructed from steel bars and fabrics, they sell all kinds of plants.

Yes, these are simple interiors and even with tourist tents in the background for workers to relax . Perhaps those sellers who came from afar even sleep there. I do not know exactly.

Prices for cactuses are very different. The most common plants cost below 1$.

Simple but cute guys for 20-40 baht each (0.6-1.1$)

Species, rare to the Thailand cactus retail, cost 40-60$ or higher.

But it doesn't mean that the most interesting cactuses are too expensive there. For example:

Those that behind the blooming one cost 1500 baht (42$). But if you don't want to spend that much, you can choose a baby cactus for 120 (3$):

Sometimes, you can find a plant looking absolutely alien for a reasonable price like this mysterious creature for 200 baht (5.5$):

Selling cactuses without pots is a way to make price more affordable for wider audience:

Lophophora is rare cactus in some countries but not in Thailand. They sell it just everywhere. Middle-sized plants can cost 2-3$:

Some cacti look not that much thrilling until they bloom:

Love this shade of orange!

100 baht (2.8$) for a blooming group of cactuses, sounds awesome to me.

Another example of a rather usual species:

But what a gorgeous bouquet!

No idea what this guy is:

Never seen anything like this. Probably, sort of expensive.

I didn't ask how much these "rocks" cost but I guess they cost 1500-2000 baht (40-55$):

If I had a collection (once I had when I was a child), I would like to have such a cool extraterrestrial rock.

Most cactuses have no price tags, alas. It's probably because sellers want to be flexible to to sell out most of the collection brought to the fair until the end of the fair. At the last day, prices can significantly drop. But some plants will be sold out to that time so you never know.

Another decent choice:

Small but cool, for 50 baht (1.4$) only.

There are many, many other plants at the fair but I don't want to make the post too long so I'll share the rest in the next post. 🙂 Thank you for stopping by, cheers! 😎

More images and stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.

I took the images with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G on Nikon D750 on December 3, 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand.