Houseplants are having a moment. A 2018 National Gardening Survey found that 77 percent of American households are now gardening — and young people are behind the latest uptick. Younger millennials and older members of Generation Z, aged 18-34, occupy twenty-nine percent of all gardening households.
Indoor gardening, in particular, is on the rise, with thirty percent of all household buying at least one houseplant.
The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino is one of them. Here’s what she said about her love affair with indoor flora:
“There’s something mesmerizing about this chronicle of “plant parents,” in which you’ll see a string of lovely, cheerful millennial plant owners attempt to bring a spirit of slow caregiving to the digital systems that make us sad and twitchy enough to crave this very spirit—ideally in a form that can be contained in a nice ceramic pot.”
Kate Wagner is another proud plant parent. She writes for The Baffler:
“I like to talk to my plants and run my hands across their leaves, pruning them, watering and aerating them, misting them, and repotting them. This caring isn’t an inconvenience of houseplants, it is the very reason for having them. When you care for your plants, they reward you by thriving and growing, which is, in some respects, the plants’ way of saying they love you back.”
As houseplant ownership becomes more popular, so does the need for tips to keep those new, leafy roommates healthy. Blogger and author Darryl Cheng says we can start by looking beyond what may be going wrong with the leaves and embracing our plants’ imperfections (https://www.houseplantjournal.com/home/2019/5/7/what-hope-do-we-have). He joins us to discuss holistic approaches to plant care and more.
Produced by Jonquilyn Hill
GUESTS
Amanda McClements, Founder and creative director, Little Leaf; @AmandaLovesSalt
Ryan Lee, Co-founder and CEO, Rooted; @rleesays
Darryl Cheng, Creator, House Plant Journal; author, The New Plant Parent; @houseplantjrnl
Matthew Boyle, Reporter, Bloomberg; @bizboyle
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