Indeed, as your own window sill may evidence, plants — both alive and otherwise — have experienced a surge in popularity, especially among millennials . An oft-cited 2016 survey from the National Gardening Association notes that of the six million Americans who took up gardening that year (apparently, occasionally remembering to water a succulent counts as gardening!) five million were between the ages of 18 and 34. Generational identity notwithstanding, houseplants can be finicky, time-consuming, and expensive. Thankfully, where there’s a trend, there’s somebody figuring out a way to get the look for less. Enter: the return of the artificial houseplant.