mmmmyeah, still not buying it. Apparently nobody remembers the "lucky bamboo" explosion of the oughts: I cannot remember a period of time across my chequered existence in which houseplants weren't common and readily available everywhere.
Yo! Shut the fuck up and everyone can be happy here. Older people can roll their eyes at the millennials and their precious houseplants... The Star can get it's millennial click bait... And the millennials can look at their plants and know that they have something all to themselves... Don't let reality or memories of all the places you've ever been get in the way. Just forget the lawn and garden section of every K Mart you ever got drug through or any of the nurseries, or the plants in every office and restaurant. It may be Fake News but it's got a reason for being. Don't forget Chia Pets...
Another thought. The slummiest house I ever lived in, where I was paying $117.50 to live in Cambridge Ma., twenty years ago, sharing one bathroom with eight other people had house plants. We might have thrown out sink fulls of dishes and replaced them with 'new' salvation army dishes rather than wash them moldy platters, but we had a few plants.
The one time I didn't have plants was when a heroin addict moved into the house and stole my shit. And my roommates stopped paying for heat. Actually I don't have plants now but I've got a 40sqft green wall and enough yard that I had to chip 8 bags worth last weekend. and I'm thinking of setting up a damn terrarium because that's the kind of idiot I am.