It's not industrial medicine; it's natural medicine...

People keep asking where to get cheaper stuff (cheaper herbs, hydrosols, etc.). Some people have been miffed to find out that there's a limited supply of any one plant.

There is no cheaper anymore. All this (waves hand) has become quite popular. Popular = expensive. There are lots of people now buying plants just to make products to sell and that has really impacted the price of dried herbs. More people are just using herbs, too.

Cheaper does not equal better. You want that really nice hydrosol? Those gorgeous smelling dried herbs that retain lots of color? Cheap isn't going to get you that. Those things take a lot of care. Care is expensive.

And, lastly, once we're all out of X herb, we're out until the next harvest season. Cross your fingers, too, that the weather and growing conditions are good for that particular plant. It's not industrial medicine; it's natural medicine and Nature has her say.

Sorry y'all.

This begs the question of how much do I use herbs and where do I get my herbs?

I drink herbal tea, usually made from very available herbs like chamomile, dried ginger, hibiscus, rose hips, etc. I make up pointed formulas for my health issues, namely a tea for achy joints, and that's about it unless I have some other acute issue come up that I don't already have a remedy for. These are the herbs I buy from reputable herb suppliers. Some herbs have gone up exponentially in price recently and I'm simply (and sometimes sadly) doing without them.

Aside from my usual tea herbs, I've mostly been making medicines from my own garden plants and from an herb CSA. I had enough elderberries of my own this year for household use and didn't have to buy any (!). Likewise with calendula and St. John's wort. I had enough for household use.

This may be the way to go in the future. Most of us making our own medicines, sharing or trading what we have and maybe selling the extra rather than making whole businesses based on selling herbal remedies.