Hilton Carter shares his journey from first houseplant to becoming a household name and experts share pro plant advice. This week on HGTV Obsessed, Marianne chats with the patron saint of houseplants, Hilton Carter, about his latest projects. He shares the experience of collaborating with Target on a collection and gives an overview of his new Magnolia Workshop series focused on plant knowledge and care. Hilton talks about the latest book in his trilogy, Wild Creations, and his personal favorite projects. Marianne and Hilton have a long discussion about how plant care has taught him to be intentional in his relationships and have prepared him for parenthood before giving his thoughts on what plants deserve the spotlight this year. Host of Bloom and Grow Radio, Maria Failla, reveals how she developed the four plant personalities and how you can find out yours. Maria shares the most common issues she sees with houseplants and her remedies for them. Boutique plant shop owner, Jade Adams, talks about the hottest plants at her shop and her favorite tropical plants to create a jungle-like feel in your space.
Hilton Carter shares his journey from first houseplant to becoming a household name and experts share pro plant advice. This week on HGTV Obsessed, Marianne chats with the patron saint of houseplants, Hilton Carter, about his latest projects. He shares the experience of collaborating with Target on a collection and gives an overview of his new Magnolia Workshop series focused on plant knowledge and care. Hilton talks about the latest book in his trilogy, Wild Creations, and his personal favorite projects. Marianne and Hilton have a long discussion about how plant care has taught him to be intentional in his relationships and have prepared him for parenthood before giving his thoughts on what plants deserve the spotlight this year. Host of Bloom and Grow Radio, Maria Failla, reveals how she developed the four plant personalities and how you can find out yours. Maria shares the most common issues she sees with houseplants and her remedies for them. Boutique plant shop owner, Jade Adams, talks about the hottest plants at her shop and her favorite tropical plants to create a jungle-like feel in your space.
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Find episode transcript here: https://hgtv-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/houseplant-therapy-with-hilton-carter-whats-your-plant-personality
MARIANNE CANADA: Hello, and welcome to HGTV Obsessed, your podcast for all things HGTV. Today's episode is all about creating and caring for your indoor jungle, at least that was our intention. That's the episode we set out to make, but it ended up being so much more than that. I learned more about myself in these conversations about houseplants than I ever could have predicted.
First up we have the patron saint of houseplants and honestly your new favorite person. If you don't already know who he is, Hilton Carter. Hilton was gracing us with his presence talking all about his latest book, Wild Creations, his sold-out target collaboration, his Magnolia workshops, I mean, my dude is busy. But we also like really dug deep into what taking care of something and keeping something alive says about you.
Then we kept that conversation moving and talked to the host of Bloom and Grow radio podcast, Maria Failla, about how you can figure out what your plant personality is and use that knowledge to stop killing plants. Guys, it's not cute. It's not cute to buy a plant and let it die. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to look at a sad dead houseplant again in the same way. I'm taking things very personally now.
Then to top it off, we have my friend and local owner and curator of Oglewood Avenue, a bohemian houseplant boutique. Jade Adams is here to tell us all about the hottest plants everyone wants right now. So just if you're a houseplant person, grab a pad and paper because we are dropping some serious knowledge this week. I'm your host, Marianne Canada, executive producer and hgtv.com lifestyle expert. And when I'm not watching HGTV, I might be buying another houseplant. I mean, I've got a couple on my list after this week's episode for sure.
I only have about 12 houseplants at this point, but this week's conversations really inspired me to not only bring some new plant friends into the house but maybe think beyond planters that you can buy at the store and make some of my own cool creations. I mean, Hilton's book, I think I'm going to make his book my weekend project. Well, I don't want to wait another minute for you guys to hear about how you can make your own plant creations from the plant doctor himself. Here is my chat with the extraordinary Hilton Carter.
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Hilton, welcome to HGTV Obsessed. We're so excited to have you here.
HILTON CARTER: Hi. It's good to be here. Thanks for having me.
MARIANNE CANADA: We couldn't be more excited. I think it's no secret that everyone at HGTV is a huge fan of yours, and it just so happens that you are like the man of the hour right now. You recently released your third book, you just launched your collection at Target, which is like selling out as we speak, your Magnolia workshop drops soon, you're doing a video for HGTV handmade, you're renovating your new home, and you're expecting a baby girl. Did I miss anything?
HILTON CARTER: No, I think you got everything. There's a lot of wonderful things that I'm very fortunate to have in my life.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, well you are juggling it all in high style. And speaking of style, I want to dive right into talking about your work as a professional plant stylist because that is maybe one of the coolest like LinkedIn resume, you know, bios ever. Where did it all begin?
HILTON CARTER: Where did it all begin? It began in my apartment here in Baltimore wanting to do what I did in my own home for those in the neighborhood. Honestly, I was working at an ad agency at the time and needed to find a way to push a little bit of my creativity somewhere else. I thought I needed a side hustle, so I decided I would start promoting myself as an interior stylist and showing people via Instagram the space that I created for myself and hopefully they would hire me to do that for themselves.
And in the process of putting that content out, a lot of individuals noticed the plants that were in my own home and what I did there, and a lot of individuals put requests that I do that for them, even if they already had their place styled, maybe their furnishings were already created, their walls were painted, et cetera, they just wanted to bring the outside in.
MARIANNE CANADA: I mean, I think a lot of people get very overwhelmed by houseplants and think they need to have all this knowledge. And you're not a botanist. You have a background in design and film and yet, you know, now you're this authority on these beautiful indoor jungle style homes. But I want to know, I want to go back to your background and design and film. Did you tap into those when you were working on creating your Target line or working on your books, and were you able to lean on those skill sets?
HILTON CARTER: Everything that I do creatively touches all of the skill sets that I was given through schooling. I spent many of years in art situations. I went to an art high school, got my BFA at an art college, Maryland Institute College of Art, and then I left there and went to get my master's in film out in California. So for me, every little aspect of what I do touches those little things that I learned while in school.
So photography, writing, understanding composition, understanding color, understanding space and moments and all of those things, I think I utilize those in every single thing that I do now. And I try to find as many moments when I can to continuously sharpen those tools, right? So I paint whenever I can, I draw whenever I can, take photos more a lot of things in nature, interiors, whatever it is that will allow me to understand a bit better how to be more of the artist that I want to be.
So I don't try to box myself in, and I don't allow anyone else to box me in. I'm finding my way through where I am now just because I just love greenery. I love spaces filled with greenery. I love talking about it. I love helping individuals bring that sort of look, that sort of vibe, that sort of energy into their own homes. But am I a plant stylist, interior stylist and that's it? No. I think all of these things will help me in every part of being an artist at the end of the day.
MARIANNE CANADA: I feel like sometimes this term gets overused, but you are truly like the definition of a renaissance man in terms of all the different ways you express your creativity. I do want to talk a little bit about Target. Your incredible first collection for Target, it's so beautiful. I feel like everyone I work with we've all been making our wish list. I want to know what it was like getting the call that it's happening. You're going to be creating a collection for Target. What was your reaction, and what was that process like?
HILTON CARTER: The idea that someone from Target would reach out to me and to ask if I wanted my own line at Target is one of those moments that you never forget. It's a jaw-dropping moment. When I had the initial conversation with them, I thought they were talking about me promoting some things that they had in their store.
And I'm a huge Target shopper. I probably hit Target at least once a week. When they started to tell me exactly what they were thinking, I just stood there in shock. I did not understand any words they were saying. I literally just sat there and I said, can you please say everything you just said over again because I have literally heard you, but I'm not hearing you. This was 10 months in the making.
There was a lot of back and forth between myself and the Target design team, and everyone at Target was just so supportive and excited about creating this line. I feel fortunate because even in the moments of what they call work, I feel like all I'm doing is having fun and playing around and getting excited for every single moment that comes up. So it was very relaxed, very easy, a lot of fun.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love that you were just like, wait, excuse me? I feel like I should be taking notes.
HILTON CARTER: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it literally was a moment where I was just like this can't be right. I think I'm hearing you wrong, clearly, because what you're saying is you get to do the thing you've always wanted to do. Here it is. This is a thing where you can go-- people will go into Target and have the opportunity to purchase something that has your name on it, has your face on it. All of your family members will see this--
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh my gosh.
HILTON CARTER: --your friends. I was just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. But I mean, you can see the smile on my face now.
MARIANNE CANADA: I know. You guys, I wish you could see. He is just beaming. It is like a ray of sunshine coming out of my computer screen. For those of you listening, if you want to see our HGTV garden editor's favorite picks from Hilton's new line at Target, we'll have those in the show notes at hgtv.com/podcast. But good luck because they are selling fast.
And you're not kidding. If you go to Target right now, it is like your face. I mean, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm talking to him. And that is not the only dream collaboration that you have right now. I think literally any day now around when this podcast comes out, you have a Magnolia workshop coming, which is a brand new thing with the new Magnolia Network headed up by Chip and Joanna Gaines. Can you talk a little bit about Magnolia workshops?
HILTON CARTER: This situation for me is fun because I got the opportunity to share all of my favorite notes on plant care. So it is a seven-episode workshop that will basically be available on Discovery Plus through the app on Magnolia Network's part of that app. And you can watch I believe starting July 15.
And I go through best ways to water your plants or how to think about watering plants, how to propagate your plants thinking about those moments of repotting, troubleshooting, all of these things that I believe matter to a novice plant parent or someone who's already deep in the soil, got their every single finger every single toe deep down in the soil and just trying to get a bit more I would say encouragement, inspiration from the things that I have to say.
So I'm excited to have this for people to see because I think it's right for the moment. And now the reason I say that is because there are so many people over the pandemic who found themselves at home wanting to bring in greenery, wanting to fill their homes with life. And I know from many messages that I receive from individuals that yes, that's what they did, but then they struggled because they weren't sure exactly how to properly care for a plant.
So I hope that these chapters will help guide a lot of individuals down the right path so that if they are taking themselves, which I like to call this on their journey in greenery that they're able to keep these living things alive and find all of that genuine happiness that we all seek when it comes to bringing the outdoors in.
MARIANNE CANADA: I think so many people need this kind of content because people get very excited about buying new plants, and they shop with their eyes. They just see something beautiful, and they want it in their home, and they want it to thrive, but they don't maybe know as much or educate themselves on the front end. You just are like I want that, so I'm really excited about this.
HILTON CARTER: For sure. I hope the one thing that comes across out of the gate when they first sit to watch one of the episodes they hear me say something like I understand the want to lead with your eyes, lead with your emotions as far as, oh, that plant is so gorgeous. I'm going to bring it into my home because I just want it. I understand that, but I hope everyone can lead with the idea that they are bringing a living thing into their home and that it's going to require the proper type of care to actually live.
So regardless if you have all of the money in the world and you can buy as many plants as you want, it's not cool to bring a plant in and kill it and go buy another one. I hope that everyone can bring plants in and have them thrive then be excited to bring more in, maybe, so that they can then have those thrive as well. I'm not trying to take money away from plant shops, right? But--
MARIANNE CANADA: No, no.
HILTON CARTER: --what I'm saying is we want to make sure people are tending to their plant babies, as people like to call them, properly versus just stumbling across trying to find their way through it and struggling before they get it right.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah. Well, and you know, if people really can't seem to keep a real plant alive, there are great high-quality faux plants out there now like the ones in your own Target line.
HILTON CARTER: I see where you're going.
MARIANNE CANADA: Do you see what I did there?
HILTON CARTER: I see exactly what you did. We're talking about like they're like the same spot, faux real styling where you're dealing with faux plants. I got so many messages about faux plants. I don't know if that's-- is that you, Hilton? Are you someone who is OK with faux plants? And I'm thinking, of course I'm OK with faux plants.
I grew up surrounded by faux plants. I understand the want and the need to have faux plants out there. Not everyone, like you just said, has a green thumb, has the knowledge, has the light, has the space, has the time, the idea of a plant filling the moment where you're trying to create shape or color or elevate a corner, right?
There's many people who want that same sort of look and feel but know that they don't have the light, they don't have the time, and they need that reminder of life. And faux plants, while you don't need to tend to them at all, you might need to wipe them down and make sure that they're not getting really dusty. It's that it reminds you of the outdoors, even if it's a faux plant or if it's a mural that's just tropical plants.
Those things spark little things in your brain to make you go, oh, I remember when I was away on vacation and I was hanging around these sort of green leaves. And you kind of feel more relaxed, maybe feel a bit more creative in that moment. And I think you want everyone to be able to feel excited for the space that they're in to have that feeling of peace, of relaxation. I think the one thing that I stress when it comes to the faux plants in the Target collection was that they feel as real as possible--
MARIANNE CANADA: They do.
HILTON CARTER: --like they have a real look. You know, like maybe have some of the pieces look as though they're starting to bloom. Have some leaves-- some foliage unfurling, maybe, I don't know. I think that'd be cool. I think get it as close to the real plant as possible, not to trick people. I don't want people watering your faux plants.
MARIANNE CANADA: Don't water the faux plants, everyone.
HILTON CARTER: But I do want people to feel like, you know, they can keep these plants around for a really long time and get those benefits from them.
MARIANNE CANADA: See, guys, the plant legend himself says no shame in your faux plant game, like live your-- live your life.
HILTON CARTER: I'd rather you bring faux plants in all the time, every single time versus you killing a plant.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes.
HILTON CARTER: If you're. Killing plants like that-- because we all kill plants. I've killed plants. I don't want to make someone feel like if you kill a plant you're an awful person, no. What I'm saying is if your only thing is you bring plants and you don't really do the research on how to care for them and you're always killing plants, I'd rather you just replace that living plant with a faux plant that can then exist in that space given that you're not ready to take the time to understand how to care for a plant. So that's what I think is important.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah. Set yourself up for success.
HILTON CARTER: 100%.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right, Hilton. We've talked about your Target line. We've talked about your Magnolia workshop. You also have just released your third incredibly beautiful book, Wild Creations. I mean, do you ever sleep? We'll come back to that later. I really have a lot of questions.
HILTON CARTER: Yeah, well, sleep, I don't know. I've been trying to sleep more now since I'm on the clock of baby coming and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, no more sleep for me for a while. But yeah, the book, Wild Creations, the trifecta has been finished. It wasn't a three-book deal. It was a single book deal every single time, but I knew that I wanted to create a theme throughout, Wild at Home, Wild Interiors, Wild Creations.
I think Wild Creations is one of my favorite books because it does a lot of what I find now as deeply preachy when it comes to plant care and trying to share my feelings, my history, my deep stories on what I've learned and what I've gone through and my trials and tribulations and what's important when it comes to plant care. And I put that all in a nice section called plant rants.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes. I was understanding plant rants is my favorite section.
HILTON CARTER: But I do think it was important to make sure that the book had a lot of I would say focused care and tips or instructions, whatever you want to call them. But the meat and the potatoes of the book are the DIY projects. And I think the DIY projects in there will help people elevate their space when it comes to styling plants and things of that nature.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, it is so beautiful. And I have all three of your books, and they are just--
HILTON CARTER: Thank you.
MARIANNE CANADA: --they're so beautiful together. I really-- I have to say, it is really worth having all three books because they're so beautiful all together. And as a crafty person myself, I love all of the DIY projects. I know it's hard to choose-- to pick favorites, but is there a project in the book that is one of your favorites?
HILTON CARTER: Honestly, it's the only one that doesn't involve like utilizing your real plants. I will say jungle by numbers is probably my favorite project in the book. It's what the cover of the book is. It's a paint by numbers project that, again, is for every single individual. I love it because I got to work with some of my close friends on the project. I love it because it allows you to regardless of the type of light, like I said earlier, light care, all the things, you're able to liven up a space.
You're giving life to a space, whatever it is, how dark it is, how bright it is, if it's your home, your office, could be your nursery, could be your living room. You're then putting this jungle scene up on your wall. And anyone can do it. You just need to understand how to trace a line and figure out what color you want to make the room itself.
And what I love about it is that through the process of working on it, we learned that it's not just fun for just one individual. You can bring the whole family in. If you understand paint by numbers, I can grab five, six, and one, you can grab two, four, and eight, someone else can grab 10 and 11 and then we just get to painting.
And you can just work on a piece of art together and have fun and really bring that space to life. So I think that project to me is one of my-- is one of my favorites because it can be for every single individual regardless of your care level, the space that you have, your talent, how crafty you are. You're just filling in-- filling in the blocks that you just trace. And I believe everyone has, at some point in their lives, colored in something.
You know, I think we've all colored in a coloring book, and I think basically that's what it is. It's like trace it out on your wall and get to work and have fun. Big shout out to Drury, his full name Drury Bynum for being the designer who helped come up with the look of the jungle by numbers mural. I told him what I wanted it to feel like, told him types of plants I wanted to see there, I gave him the palette that I wanted to go with and he whipped it up and put it together.
MARIANNE CANADA: It is so beautiful. I really recommend it. Even if you feel like intimidated by the idea of painting a large mural, you break it down so clearly. You make it feel so approachable. And I also want to point out to everyone listening, if you want to see Hilton at work, he is going to be on HGTV Handmade DIY-ing the moss wall project from his book. So we will make sure to link to that in the show notes at hgtv.com/podcast as well.
HILTON CARTER: I love it. I love it. And that project to me too is another one. Again, that's another project that helps individuals create that sort of life in their homes without dealing with living plants, right? But you still can make a space feel alive through the process of using preserved moss. So I'm looking forward to that as well.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, I can't wait to see it. So you mentioned before that you and your wife, Fiona, are expecting a baby girl soon.
HILTON CARTER: We are.
MARIANNE CANADA: I have to ask, how do you feel about going from plant dad to human dad?
HILTON CARTER: I feel incredible. I have been thinking about what it would be like to be a father since I graduated college. I spent a lot of time thinking about my future and planning out my future and wanting the moment when I had a kid to be the right moment and to be settled in the space where I could give my future children or whatever it is a life that I feel like I had as a kid.
I had a wonderful life, but there were moments where if I would have had a bit more financial security-- my family would've had a bit more financial security, I could have seen other things come my way. And a kid from Baltimore trying to find that path for himself, for me like that was my goal. And I told myself like until I'm ready, that's when I'll have kids. And as I got older, the ready part kind of just fell to the wayside, I guess, because it didn't really feel like there was a time when I would be ready.
Everything just keeps moving. Life just keeps happening, and I realized there is no perfect time for children. To me, it was all about just making sure at this point like I can do all the things that I want to do with my children. I think about the time I put into plants and the time I put into the pets that we have and just the time I put into the love that I have from my wife and I wonder like how is it even possible to focus on those other things when this little human is going to be in the world?
And I don't know what's going to happen to me, but I think about it and it tears me apart because I'm just like, how do you go back to work? How do you go back to life? How do you not do any-- how do you do any other thing but just look at that little person and do everything at that moment? I find myself thinking about that a lot, especially when world-- worldly stress comes into my space, I just go, there's a little human that's going to be here soon, and that is the focus. That is everything.
I just feel this immense energy. And maybe that's just the way it works, all right? Like when you're becoming a parent, something in your brain starts to push out all of these things to make you feel like you're going to do everything possible to make sure that that baby is given what it needs to survive in this world. So I'm so excited. I've never been more excited about anything in my entire life.
I feel like this is what I've been working up for. I've been training through my pets. I've been training through my plants. A lot about this in Wild Creations is that this idea that my life completely changed for me once I started to bring plants into my world because not only did it slow me down a bit, it made me understand paying attention to the small things, the small details and to notice them or take care of them in the moments, not let them slide in there.
And those are the tangible benefits people can get from plant care or if it's pet care. They say like whenever people are-- like a couple's together and they're thinking about maybe bringing a baby into the world, they'll get an animal, right? They'll get a pet together and raise that pet. I think for me, it helped me not only care for my pets better, when it comes to care for plants, it helped me understand how to be a better boyfriend at the time, it helped me understand how to be a better husband.
And I feel like it's going to really focus me in on how to be a better parent. There are real benefits of plant care. You'll see your body and mind change because you're going through what I call like my moments of meditation throughout the week, whether it's watering plants, wiping leaves down, you zone in.
When I'm caring for a plant, that's like there's nothing else for me to do but to look at the soil, check the moisture level, look at the leaves, stress out because what is happening right now? I thought I did this right, you know. I think those are the things I'm pulling and putting into my notepad on. These are the things you should think about when you're tending to your daughter's needs, to your wife's needs. Pay attention to those small details, those small nuances because they matter.
MARIANNE CANADA: I could listen to you talk for hours, but I know we are almost out of time. And we could not let you leave without taking part in one of our favorite segments, defend the trend.
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All right, now, this time, instead of usually we would be giving you a trend and getting your hot take on it, but we're going to kind of flip the script a little bit and have you forecast the next trend. So we have seen the fiddle-leaf fig and the Monstera get their 15 minutes of plant fame over the years, right? Those were the hot plants everybody had to have or it was a snake plant or succulents. What house plant do you think deserves the spotlight next?
HILTON CARTER: I do think every plant has a place in many different types of homes. Like you said, the fiddle-leaf fig, Monstera, the Pilea plant, that Chinese money plant had its time. Variegated plants are really hot at the moment. I can see the transition from a lot of people wanting variegated plants but also understanding what is a bit easier to care for, let's say. So I do see people getting the Birkin philodendron. While you might not be able to get a Birkin bag, you can get yourself a Birkin philodendron plant.
MARIANNE CANADA: OK.
HILTON CARTER: I think that plant is ready for its moment. Other than that, there are many other-- and I said this in Wild Interiors and I believe it's still is ready to bubble is the Audrey ficus, cousin to the fiddle-leaf fig, beautiful soft foliage, tree-like so it can grow into this nice big-sized tree in your home, so I would say those two.
If I'm going to replace one for one or replacing one philodendron, the Monstera with the Birkin and then we're replacing one Ficus for another. So we're coming from the fiddle-leaf fig and we're replacing that with a Audrey ficus, so you're going to see a lot in your plants-- in your plant stores. Because like you said, like once the fiddle-leaf fig and the Monstera became the it plants, you then saw them in every store--
MARIANNE CANADA: Everywhere.
HILTON CARTER: --hardware stores, grocery stores. I found the Monstera at a grocery store and I was like, this plant is only $15 here? Like this local plant shop is charging $100 for this same plant. It makes you wonder where the grocery store got their plant from.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes.
HILTON CARTER: But it is one of those things where you're just like I think people want what they can't have a lot. So once these plants become a bit more popular, then they'll start seeking other plants out there. And I do think the Birkin and the Audrey will find their way.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, there you go. You heard it here first, people. And you know what's funny? Last year, I tried to find an Audrey ficus, and my nursery was like, we don't have those yet, like we don't--
HILTON CARTER: Not yet. Not yet.
MARIANNE CANADA: You're the first person to ask for those. So I feel very proud of myself--
HILTON CARTER: I love it. I love it.
MARIANNE CANADA: --although I've never heard of a Birkin philodendron, but it does sound a lot more affordable than a Birkin bag.
HILTON CARTER: Yes. After this-- after we get off air, go look it up. Go look at it. I have one on my Instagram page now. I think I did a care tip video on it a few days ago. Check it out. Beautiful foliage, grows fairly large in your home, not difficult to care for, easy to propagate, these are beautiful plants, so.
MARIANNE CANADA: Adding it to my list. Well, Hilton, before you go, tell all the people listening where we can find you online, where we can follow all of your different projects on social media, and where we can buy all of your books.
HILTON CARTER: Whoa. Yes. Thank you so much for allowing me to have this space to talk about this. Yes, anyone can-- if they are on social media, Instagram is where I do have the most fun. So I'm on Instagram at Hilton Carter. That's where you can find me sharing some plant tips, some styling tips, a lot of my favorite interior pieces that I'm really into or just plant care in general.
And if you are buying books, books you can find wherever books are sold. The first thing I would say to those who are interested in my books, Wild at Home, Wild Creations, Wild Interiors is if you could possibly go to your local bookstore and see if they have it first. If they don't, ask if they could get it because they can get these books, and then you can support your local bookstore, bookshop, plant shop, coffee shop, whatever it is. A lot of these places are starting to carry more books.
MARIANNE CANADA: If you want even more of Hilton-- and who wouldn't-- his Magnolia workshop should be dropping right about now, so you can go buy yourself your Birkin philodendron and then you can go watch his Magnolia workshop to learn how to take care of it. This has been so wonderful. I'm so excited about all the goodness that's coming your way. It's so deserved, and it's so fun to follow along. I can't wait to see the nursery. I can't wait to see your home renovations. We didn't even get to talk about that, so you're clearly just going to have to come back.
HILTON CARTER: Yeah, whenever you want me back, I'll be back.
MARIANNE CANADA: Hilton, thank you so much. Come back any time.
HILTON CARTER: I really appreciate it. You guys, take care of yourselves, and please be safe out there.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, the Birkin philodendron. I have never heard of that one. And, you know, I guess I'll just put off getting a Birkin bag and get a Birkin plant instead. I don't know if Brad knows what a Birkin bag is. It's like a $20,000 handbag, Bradley.
MADELEINE: It's just one of those bags everyone that we all know what it is. I was just looking up the most expensive houseplant, though. Is there like a houseplant that's like thousands of dollars?
MARIANNE CANADA: School us, Madeleine. I bet it's some weird orchid.
MADELEINE: There are some very expensive orchids. It looks like potentially it's this really crazy gorgeous variegated Monstera that has-- it looks like, I don't know, albino characteristics, so like half of it's white, and it's just this like fully rooted very large houseplant. It's $10,000.
BRADLEY: Jeez.
MARIANNE CANADA: There's also this new trend, and this could be something we talk about in an entirely different episode where people are-- extremely wealthy people are paying people to source these very old exotic unique trees, and they're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to have like, you know, an ancient gnarled olive tree placed in their atrium. So add that to your job wish list. You could be a tree scout.
MADELEINE: Oh yeah. It looks like bonsai. It's like really old ancient bonsais are also, yeah, a little more than a Birkin bag it looks like so.
MARIANNE CANADA: A little bit.
MADELEINE: One of us will get there one day.
BRADLEY: There is a whole new world out there that I didn't know existed.
MARIANNE CANADA: Honestly, Brad, it's probably-- you're probably better off. But anyway, I digress. Next up, we are-- we're going to keep this houseplant therapy train rolling because we are talking to Maria Failla, host of the incredible podcast, Bloom and Grow Radio. And Maria is here to talk to us about learning your plant personality and using what you can learn about yourself to keep your plants alive. Who knew that it was so much more than just a little sunlight and a little water. We get deep. It's all about who you are inside. So here's my chat with Maria.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, Maria. I'm such a huge fan of yours. I'm so excited to be talking to you.
MARIA FAILLA: Well, gee, thanks. And I really love HGTV Obsessed and what you guys are doing, so I'm honored to be here and also on Hilton's episode, so proud of him. Hilton was on my podcast years ago, so it's so fun to see how the plant space and everybody in it is just growing, you know, in the last couple of years. It's just been a super exciting space to be a part of.
MARIANNE CANADA: It is. But, Maria, you are a self-proclaimed plant killer turned plant lady and the host of one of my favorite podcasts, Bloom and Grow Radio and also a YouTube channel by the same name. I want to ask-- I want to go back to like your roots, pun intended. Do you remember your first houseplant?
MARIA FAILLA: Well, yeah. I mean, I feel like I remember my first houseplant that I killed, and then I also remember my first houseplant that I didn't kill because I feel like you nailed it. I have two very specific chapters of my life, my plant killer days and my plant lady days. I have about like a trail of maybe 20 dead plants in my wake from the plant killer days.
I come from a line of Italian gardeners like farmers, and the gene just skipped me. So back in the day when I was a working musical theater performer, I was rather transient, I was always traveling, I had two plants that I brought home and killed almost immediately, which I think we can talk about why a little bit later. But I had succulents that I killed in super, super rough ways by potting them up in like cute little votive candle holders and essentially drowning them--
MARIANNE CANADA: Of course.
MARIA FAILLA: --putting them in low light situations. And then I also had a beautiful Tradescantia zebrina, but that plant also succumbed. And then the first plants that I successfully cared for were in a different apartment, and it was a really sweet and simple jade plant that I bought at a local box store.
I had huge southern facing windows, and I got really lucky because that jade is a definitely high light tolerant plant that I was lucky enough to have high light because I think a lot of people bring those home and put them in low light. In that apartment, I had 160 plants in the peak of my crazy plant ladyness. So I filled about 500 square feet of a New York City apartment with 160 plants. So it was definitely jungle vibes for sure.
MARIANNE CANADA: I do like how you literally went like zero-- like from killing plants to just like-- that's a staggering number of plants.
MARIA FAILLA: I say that I went from 0 to 60 literally and figuratively because I accumulated probably-- once I figured out I could stop killing plants, I accumulated about 60 plants in three months.
MARIANNE CANADA: Wow.
MARIA FAILLA: It was definitely extreme. But I'm kind of an extreme intense person, so it made sense for my personality.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love it. You just dive in. Speaking of personality, oh my gosh, you just set me up for the segue. I love your plant personality quiz. We all took it here, and we all-- what's funny is my entire team, we all have the same exact plant personality, which is not surprising.
MARIA FAILLA: Who are you?
MARIANNE CANADA: We're all the designer, like we're all the person who looks for aesthetics before anything.
MARIA FAILLA: Interesting.
MARIANNE CANADA: We all work for HGTV, so we are going to think most about--
MARIA FAILLA: Of course.
MARIANNE CANADA: --about a plant as like a sculptural addition to your space. But I want you to tell everyone a little bit about your plant personality quiz, which you can find on bloomandgrowradio.com. It tells people what their personality is and then gives you tips on how to be the best plant person based on your personality. So what's your plant personality?
MARIA FAILLA: Well, my plant personality-- so I think that you can fluctuate. There's a little bit of every personality inside all of us, and I feel like if you take any type of personality test, you can kind of resonate with a little bit of everything. I'm a huge believer in the Enneagram. I'm a 3w4.
MARIANNE CANADA: I'm a 3w2.
MARIA FAILLA: Oh my God, really? See? We knew.
MARIANNE CANADA: Madeleine is also a fellow three, so.
MARIA FAILLA: Shout out to the Enneagram, I think one of probably the most unbelievable tools for getting to know yourself and actually the inspiration for the plant parent personality test. The biggest question that I always get is what's the right plant for me? I can't keep any plant alive. What's the best starter plant? And my answer is always there isn't the right starter plant for everyone because different personality types need different types of plants that require different care.
There are five different personality types in my test, and over four years podcasting over at Bloom and Grow Radio, I've gotten to know like thousands of my listeners around the world. And no matter how many I met, there were always these personality archetypes that would show up. Over and over I was like, OK, there's something going on here. There is a reason why these personality tests are so instrumental in other areas of the world. Why can't there be one for us plant people, right?
And maybe I could make some sort of tool that helps people, beginners kind of get on the right path because when we were just talking about those plants that I killed, you know, I had a low light environment, and I really wanted to kind of care for plants a lot. I'm a mind-- so I'm 80% mindful plant parent, 20% low key plant parent depending on what season of life I'm in. A mindful plant parent is someone who wants to really spend time with their plants, engage with them, likely water them, care with them like on a daily basis.
I was watering those succulents, which don't need a lot of water-- succulents need to be kind of left alone way too much. And so I over watered them and killed them. For my personality, a plant that is a little bit more forgiving of overwatering or even likes to be in more moist of a medium is a better situation for me. So I think a little bit of each plant parent personality lives within you.
I'm actually the design is probably the one that I resonate the least with because I've actually-- I need shows on HGTV to help me understand design because that's never come to me naturally. But as I move into my first home next year, I know that I'm all of a sudden going to be like all about designing with plants and how I can incorporate grow lights and bookshelves and green walls and all that kind of stuff. So it's very interesting how you can fluctuate.
But yeah, just like you said, so the personality test, it's free. You get your personality, and there's the pros and cons to each because like the Enneagram, like the most instrumental part is like learning your shadows or kind of the negative aspects of your personality, suggested plants, suggested DIY projects because I do a lot of fun plant DIY projects on my YouTube channel and podcasts to listen to.
MARIANNE CANADA: See? Amazing. It's such an amazing resource, and I really identified. And I have also killed many a succulent because, again, just like you said, I love the way they look. I find them very aesthetically pleasing. And so I always wanted to have them, but I always wanted to have them in a place where I could really show them off and see them but not the best place for them. So they were not getting enough light, or I would put them in a planter that didn't have drainage. I have killed many succulents in my day. I feel very guilty.
MARIA FAILLA: I think succulents-- it's kind of fake news out there. And I've talked about this before that everyone says succulents are so easy. You can't kill a succulent. For some reason, that's some sort of weird myth that everybody believes.
MARIANNE CANADA: It's like propaganda.
MARIA FAILLA: Everyone kills succulents. Like everyone has killed a succulent, and then everybody feels bad about it. And that was kind of my experience. Like I tried to bring these succulents home, I killed them, and then I thought I was a plant killer and labeled myself as a plant killer for like the first decade of my adult life. And I wasn't able to experience like the unbelievable emotional benefits of having plants in your space because I just didn't have the education and I didn't know any better.
Succulents are not easy to care for. You need very specific conditions. You need super duper sun, quick draining soil, holes in the bottom of your pots and the ability to not water them as much as you probably want to in order for them to thrive, you know. And if you're on the West Coast, maybe you're also probably a little bit more set up for success than if you're on the East Coast.
MARIANNE CANADA: That's exactly what I was going to say. I kind of just made a decision to leave the succulents and the cacti to my good friends that live in Southern California where they just grow in the ground. You mentioned already that one of your-- that the number one questions you get is like what plant to start with. But say we've moved on, we've got plants. What's the question you most often get asked about indoor plant care?
MARIA FAILLA: I think a lot of the questions come from how often I should actually be watering this plant or what is my light situation because I think that the more I dive into plant care, the more classes I take, the more episodes and interviews I do, the more I realize everybody's homes, especially when it comes to house plants are so unique.
And everybody wants to know how often they should water their snake plant, but the snake plant in my house in super low light conditions in a general potting mix is going to dry out and need so much less water than the snake plant in your house in a sunny window in super aerated mix in a terracotta planter.
So I think I get a lot of those general care guides because everybody gets those cute little plant care cards when you buy a plant at a nice plant shop, at least, and they say like, water once every two weeks, water this, water that. And those are great rules of thumb, but I think people get really confused about watering and light for sure.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah. And I mean, I think something that we're learning in this episode in general that's something that Hilton really talked about is nothing is one-size-fits-all.
MARIA FAILLA: Oh my God, yes.
MARIANNE CANADA: No plant is going to respond the exact same way in every different environment with every different person. And this idea that there is a one-stop like this is how you take care of house plants, it's just-- it's impossible. Plants are like people. They are going to thrive under different conditions.
I would like to hear, though, as such a plant expert with so many of them, you've talked a little bit about watering being a huge issue and about light. What are some other common issues with indoor plants, and how do you address them? I know at HGTV, we get a lot of questions about some pests that sometimes hitchhike into your home on a plant.
MARIA FAILLA: Hitchhiking is a great word. I would definitely recommend if you are in that moment of life where you're all of a sudden turned on by plants and you can't stop collecting them and you're going from 0 to 60 the way I did-- everybody hits that moment-- I think it's really important when you're bringing a lot of plants home and when you already kind of have an established collection to something we've all gotten so good at this last year, quarantine.
So I think it's really important to quarantine your plants for up to two weeks before you kind of put them next to your collection because if you think about it, these plants are coming from a nursery. They're coming from stress conditions, which can often kind of trigger and kind of invite pests to show up.
And to our eye, a lot of the times, we can't necessarily see the pests so well. They're kind of good at hiding. So if you have mealy bugs, those you can see on a plant really easy. They're like little white cotton balls like rolling around the plant. But spider mites that like are tiny little microscopic pests that like hide under your leaves, like they might take a couple of days to kind of present themselves to you, especially if you don't have a lens or anything like that.
If you bring one plant home with spider mites, your whole collection could go down. And that's kind of a tough pest-- a common and tough pest to kind of bounce back from. Another tip that I would have that I see a lot-- and I only say this because it was my big issue when I was still a plant killer was using pots with no drainage holes. So--
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, yes. That's like my number one.
MARIA FAILLA: --having a hole at the bottom of your pot where extra water can exit and not sit and rot out your plants is super helpful. If you think about it, you're mimicking rainfall. You're giving your plant to throw water. You want the water to drain out of the bottom of the pot. You can let that pot sit with a saucer with a little bit of water for like a few hours because it might wick the water back up but then dump that water out.
If you want to set yourself up for success, using pots with holes at the bottom I just think is a much better way to get to know your plant, right? Because when you bring plants home, you kind of enter this relationship with it. And the first couple of times, you're not going to do it perfectly. You're going to forget one week and underwater. You're going to have a moment when you over water. You're going to figure out, oh, you know what? I've been watering every seven days. Let me stretch to 10 days and see how that feels.
Or all of a sudden it's the winter, so you're going to have to learn how to kind of scale your watering back. Like it's this ongoing conversation with your plant having the easiest way to kind of really notice what's going on with it. And for me personally in my collection, that's been having holes in the bottom of the pots I think is just like a no brainer for beginners.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah. I totally agree. I don't even think they should make planters that don't have drainage holes. I just feel like it's such a bad idea.
MARIA FAILLA: So the other thing is so say you're at CB2 or Anthropologie or all those other stores that I love to buy planters at and it doesn't have a hole, what you can do is a method called cachepot, which I think in French translates to like literally hiding the pot. But basically, keep your plant in its nursery pot that it comes from the nursery with or even pot it into a different nursery pot you have laying around and upcycle it, and then slide that pot into the fancy planter with no drainage so then you can still do the watering that you need to do letting the water run out the bottom of the hole.
MARIANNE CANADA: That's a great tip.
MARIA FAILLA: Yeah, and for also design-based plant parents, what I'll say is the only thing about my collection that I do kind of like put my foot down about, I keep all of my planters in terracotta--
MARIANNE CANADA: Me too.
MARIA FAILLA: --for the most part.
MARIANNE CANADA: Me too.
MARIA FAILLA: Yeah?
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah.
MARIA FAILLA: With the exception of like a few special planters and a few older planters. But number one, as you know, terracotta is a wicking material. If you are a mindful plant parent, if you do give an overwater, the terracotta will actually absorb some of it and kind of help your-- help your roots out. It's super affordable, and it looks gorgeous.
And the more they kind of get weathered and get that kind of patina look to them, it's so cool. And there are amazing artists too that are doing all of these amazing things with terracotta and planters, so like unifying your planter situation will also immediately elevate your plant collection in terms of design aesthetic.
MARIANNE CANADA: Before we let you go, I have one more question because you've given so much great advice that's such a good advice about keeping the plant in the nursery pot if you have a pot without drainage. But I do want to talk a little bit more about light. I see that behind you, you have some grow lights, and I think that's something that people find intimidating or they don't know when they need them or when they don't and what's the right kind of buy. So tell us a little bit-- give us a good beginner strategy for grow lights.
MARIA FAILLA: When I started my podcast, literally had no idea because I started my podcast as a true novice, so I interview experts, learn alongside my listener, truly had no idea that there were even grow light, that was even a thing that there were light bulbs that could mimic the sun and help you grow plants. Like how cool is that?
Cut to me now, I have seven grow lights in my home. So for those who don't know, a grow light is literally a light bulb. You can get them as T5s or LEDs that like mimic the sun with a photosynthetic spectrum that basically acts like the sun for your plants. So I have grow lights in my bookshelves because my bookshelves are super low, but I think it looks really cool to have a shelf full of plants tumbling out instead of a shelf full of books, and so I've installed grow lights there.
If you go to my YouTube channel, I've-- I've installed grow lights in lots of weird places in my home. A few rule of thumbs-- and I have three deep dive episodes on like what the red light does versus the blue and why your plants are purple and all of that. We don't have to dive into that right now. That's like next level.
But some great tips for people looking to start to maybe buy their first grow light is you want to look for a full spectrum white light that gets all of the different colors because that's what the sun does. Those purple lights, like you can get lights like those purple lights. Some of them are orange because it just pumps one type of light that helps with growing leaves or flowering or that kind of stuff. But like don't mess with that. Just get a nice white light.
Timers are super helpful because you need to trigger these lights to go on for different periods of time throughout the day. And those periods of time might not sync up with your life, so having a set it and forget it timer situation really helps because then your lights just turn on and they turn off. Most of our grow lights run from like 7:00 AM to like 8:00 or 9:00 PM, and they actually wake me up in the morning.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh wow.
MARIA FAILLA: So especially in the winter when in the Northeast at least where I live like the sun-- it's dark out at 6:00 and 7:00 AM in the morning, the grow lights are a great way to wake up kind of quote unquote, "naturally" with the sun but not. There are just so many companies now that make like amazingly stylish grow lights.
Like we have really super modern solar tech solutions like fixtures that just look like a super sleek modern light, and no one really knows the difference. So there are a lot of great grow lights on the market that you can buy if you want to install, or even like if you have a desk lamp, you can buy like a grow bulb that you can just screw into any normal desk lamp just in order to like up your light in your desk area.
I personally think it's really important to have plants surrounding your desk to give yourself some breaks throughout your workday, especially we're all like on these computer screens all the time. They're like a nice way to kind of reconnect with nature. And the other thing I would say is if you're on the fence about getting a grow light, in my experience, I find that most people overestimate how bright their indoor environment is rather than underestimate.
Even if you have huge southern windowsills, two feet from that windowsill is pretty low light. Like the light really dissipates as you move within your home. And there are probably in anybody's home a lot of low light areas. And I would also say with light like lighting basics is to be aware of your corners of your house. So especially for people who are design-based, we all see in all of the magazines these huge structural fiddle-leaf fig trees like styled--
MARIANNE CANADA: In a dark corner.
MARIA FAILLA: Those corners-- if you think about it, corners actually tend to be like the darkest area of our home because the light kind of passes right through it when the corner is next to a window. So we in our old apartment had huge southern facing windowsills, right? The corners on either side of those windows were completely dark.
So we actually installed these pendant-style grow lights in our corners because we wanted to fill the corners with plants but like didn't have the light to supplement it. So we had a fiddle-leaf fig, but it was under a grow light knowing that that fiddle-leaf fig would be super pissed if it was just in that setting.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah. That is literally a fight I had with my best friend this week because she bought a tree and for this corner that she wanted something-- she wanted height, and she was like, well, I mean, it's near the window. And I was like, that is the darkest corner in your room.
MARIA FAILLA: There's such an investment too. Like if you buy a big fiddle-leaf fig, sometimes those are like $200 to $300, you know. And I've had so many people like write me being like, why isn't my fiddle-leaf fig doing well? I spent so much money and-- money on it. And I'm like because plants eat light, and it needs its food.
You got to give it some sunshine, you know. But for people who are interested in like figuring out their indoor lighting environment, I do have a free download on my website that takes you through tracking the light in your house for a week. And it gives you a step by step guide how to understand your indoor light and then some suggestions because I do think it's super confusing.
MARIANNE CANADA: You clearly, Maria, are such a wealth of information. And we will make sure to put all the links to Maria's website in the show notes at hgtv.com/podcast. I want you to tell everyone where we can find you on social media, where we can listen to your podcast, and where everyone can learn their own plant personalities.
MARIA FAILLA: Yay. I want to hear what everyone's personalities are. Let me know on social media. So the podcast is called Bloom And Grow Radio, bloom and grow like from the song Edelweiss. And I'm pretty much Bloom and Grow Radio on Instagram, TikTok, all the social medias except for Twitter I'm on. You can take the personality test on my website, bloomandgrowradio.com.
It's free. It'll give you a couple of suggested podcasts to start with. We have 140 episodes ranging from soil science to grow lights 101 to a whole series on like plants and wellness. There's truly something for everyone, so I'd love for you guys to hop on over after you're done bingeing this podcast. And I'm so thankful for you to have me on.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well. We're thrilled. And maybe we'll have you on next time and you can tell us more about windows because now I'm eyeing all of mine wondering if I have everything in the right spot.
MARIA FAILLA: Yeah, we can do a lighting crash course.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love it.
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I highly encourage you guys to head over to bloomandgrowradio.com to figure out your own personal plant personality. Wow, personal plant personality is hard to say, but it's really given me some self-realization for sure. And everyone on my team with the exception of Brad, we're all design-based, which makes sense knowing us all. Brad is anxiety-based plant parent.
BRADLEY: Yeah. I was the mindful plant parent where I'm kind of like a helicopter parent where I'm just very concerned 24 hours a day for my plant.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah. You'll definitely-- you would kill a succulent by overwatering. You have it written all over your face.
BRADLEY: And I would cry.
MARIANNE CANADA: Brad is so sensitive you guys. Well, I have one more treat up for you guys. Our next guest, Jade Adams, owner of Oglewood Avenue Plant Boutique is here to talk more about knowing yourself through plant care and also, I mean, what you can buy. I'd like to wrap things up. It's been a lot of feelings talk. I want to go shopping. Here's my chat with Jade. All right, Jade, hi. I'm so excited to have you on. I feel like I know you, but I know we have not technically met.
JADE ADAMS: I'm excited to be here.
MARIANNE CANADA: So, Jade, you are the creator and owner of Oglewood Avenue, a houseplant boutique here in Knoxville, Tennessee. If someone came into your store right now and said I want to make my home feel like a jungle, what plants would you recommend?
JADE ADAMS: Oh, OK. So trying to think of what's in my home because my house feels like a jungle. And the first plant I'd probably recommend would be if they have the light for it because it's a very sunny plant would be a bird of paradise. It's a plant that has like really large, large kind of immaculate leaves. Each leaf that kind of unfurls is bigger than the next leaf. They can get up to-- we have one at the store right now that is no kidding maybe 9 feet tall.
MARIANNE CANADA: Whoa.
JADE ADAMS: She's in the corner. She's maybe 9 or 10 feet, and she definitely fills up a room. So I would probably suggest that one for sure. It's super easy. You only water like every other week and give it a good mist, but it definitely gives you jungle interior kind of an aesthetic really, really quickly. That would be my first choice. My second choice would be a plant that probably everyone kind of knows and loves and is seen everywhere, but it's really, really big and it's a quick grower. So it's called the Monstera deliciosa.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh yes.
JADE ADAMS: Yes. Yes. This statement plant of the year. But it's a really good plant to kind of emulate some jungle vibes because of how fast it grows. So you might get it, and it might be like a wee little baby, and then by the spring and the summer, it might double and triple in size. So it just makes you feel like a good plant parent because it grows just so quick.
So that'd be my second one. The third plant probably would be just like a standard good old pothos, just a basic beginner friendly plant only because it's probably one that's not going to die quickly on you, so you can neglect it just a tad bit more than the other two.
MARIANNE CANADA: They are. They're pretty forgiving. They kind of take a beating, and they can be so-- they can trail so pretty. You can kind of train them like up over windows or put them up on a ledge. I have a pothos and I have a huge Monstera and in fact earlier in this episode was telling our previous guest, Maria, that it was destroyed down to-- it had no leaves.
It was just like three little nubs sticking out of the ground. And that was a year ago. And it is now-- I mean, you would never know that this plant had no leaves. It is huge and trying to take over my office, so definitely agree with that. And you mentioned with the bird of paradise, you know, misting and watering. Do these kind of jungly tropical plants typically require more water or humidity?
JADE ADAMS: Oh, for sure. Humidity is probably key for keeping all of these tropical plants alive. At the store, we kind of specialize in the rainforest-y tropical plants. And our secret sauce is definitely how humid we keep the store. It's people come in, and if they wear glasses, they immediately fog up because of how humid it is. I wouldn't say that it's like the number one necessity, so like number one will always be watering, will always be sunlight. But that third thing that keeps that plant healthy, happy, and pushing out new leaves is definitely the humidity.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love it. It's like part store, part spa treatment. And your shop is so beautiful. Everyone listening, you need to go and check out Oglewood Avenue on Instagram so you can get a little peek if you're not here in Knoxville. What is the most popular plant that you're selling at the store right now?
JADE ADAMS: We do keep a variety of plants, but the most popular, the one that flies out actually surprised me. They're called Alocasias. You normally think it'd be more like a Monstera or a fiddle-leaf fig, something just a little bit more common. But I've seen a upward trend in people trying to find some of the more unique plants. Any type of Alocasia or they call them like jewel Alocasia types, they're plants that kind of pop up and grow really, really quick in the spring and the summer, and sometimes, they go dormant and die off in the winter.
But they are a houseplant. They have these really just unique leaf shapes that people gravitate towards, and you can find them in all different types of sizes and shapes. So that would probably be right now and this spring season the most popular thing. But the most bulk plant is a snake plant, actually. Yeah the plant that people buy the most is the Sansevieria, it's the snake plant.
MARIANNE CANADA: Can't beat a snake plant. I have one that's almost as big as my 12-year-old. It's very happy. And I love a snake plant too because you can just forget about it. I once forgot that I had left it in the garage for six weeks and it was fine. It was no worse for-- I was a little like are you a real plant?
And I just looked up the Alocasia and realized I have some of these in my yard. And they come up, like you said, every spring. They're in a really kind of damp shady area of my yard where I keep a lot-- I have a lot of shade plants growing over there. And yeah, these come up. And they can even produce a flower, which is so so crazy. It must be happy there, right?
JADE ADAMS: Yeah. If it's producing some flowers for you, it's definitely happy in its spot for sure.
MARIANNE CANADA: So when someone is buying plants, you know, we've talked about this throughout this episode. We've talked to Hilton Carter and Maria Failla. And all of us talk about this problem where you walk into a store and you see all these beautiful plants. And what you know about your space and your ability to take care of a plant just flies out the window and you just want all the pretty things. But when someone is shopping for a plant, what are a few key things they should keep an eye out for to figure out if a plant is right for them and their space?
JADE ADAMS: So the first thing I would keep in mind is just your light levels and your environment. So even if you want that gorgeous fiddle-leaf fig but you know that your house is shaded or you don't have a lot of light in your space then that's definitely not the point for you. So just I would say the first thing would be being realistic with your lighting levels when it comes to putting new plants in your collection.
There has even been times where I gravitate towards a plant from my personal collection, and I know I don't have the light for it and I take it home and it struggles just because I didn't take the time to really think about my household and if that plant was going to do great there. So maybe my first thing is just being realistic with your house conditions no matter if it's lighting, if you have a dry home, if your house is really humid because there might be odor, keeping just realistic expectations would be the first one.
The second one I would say is thinking about your lifestyle. If you're an on-the-go person, a plant that you might have to water twice a week might not be the right one for you, or if you find that you're a person who over loves their plants and you water all of the time, a snake plant, a plant that you don't have to water barely any, you'd kill it really quickly.
So just being-- knowing your lifestyle, knowing just some small details if you're overwater, if you're underwater, if you're always traveling, if you're always home would be probably the second thing I would keep in mind. And the third is that a lot of our customers might buy 10 or 12 plants in one setting.
And I always-- I'm always kind of reminding them that you're bringing 12 new extra things to care for a home. So even though everything in the store looks beautiful and pretty and happy, kind of keeping in mind that they're also going to be your responsibility after you leave the store and that 12 or 13 plants might be a lot to take care of in that quick-- in that quick time span. So that'd probably be the last thing I'd say keep in mind when shopping.
MARIANNE CANADA: Just pace yourself a little. That seems to be a recurring theme throughout this episode, though, is really-- something I love is how much buying plants is actually about knowing yourself. I just never would have thought that that would have been the overarching theme from an episode about house plants. But it really-- it does come back to knowing yourself and knowing your environment and your lifestyle. So it's given me a lot to think about.
All right, Jade, I have one more burning question for you. And this is your opportunity to kind shine a light maybe on a less popular or less common or less well-known plant. If you could encourage someone to buy one houseplant today and you wanted-- you wanted them to branch out a little bit, you wanted them to branch out beyond the snake plant, the Monstera, the pothos, what would it be?
JADE ADAMS: The plant that I have been obsessed with lately that I did not think that I would like as much as I actually do is actually a strawberry begonia. It's one that surprised me, or like even begonias in general have been something that I've been loving to care for lately.
The strawberry one in particular is one that's been fun to watch grow this last month or two. It seems kind of intimidating at first because you have to water it weekly, but it's really a hearty plant. They kind of throw out these little runners with small little leaves on them. So they look like a trailing plant, but it's a begonia. And they're beautiful when they get bigger. They are a little unique.
MARIANNE CANADA: These are extremely cute. I don't think I've ever seen this kind of begonia. And they are-- they're very charming.
JADE ADAMS: Yeah. Yeah. I've been watching them grow for the last two months here, and I think I've kind of fallen for them hard. So I always recommend them for people looking for-- some people just come in and maybe be like, show me a plant you like. And I'm like, oh, that's a great question. And so I've been showing them that plant lately. But it always changes, for sure.
MARIANNE CANADA: Jade, this has been so fun. I think we definitely need to have you on again to talk about what your newest plant obsession is. If everyone wants to follow along and see your shop or come visit if you're in town, where can we find you on social?
JADE ADAMS: Yeah. So on Instagram and Facebook is just @oglewoodave. So the nue is dropped, so just @oglewoodave.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right, well, thank you so much.
JADE ADAMS: Yeah, no, thank you for having me.
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MARIANNE CANADA: Thank you so much for joining us and listening to our plant therapy session. Was this a feelings podcast about house plants, or was it a houseplant podcast about feelings? I would love it if you guys headed over to Apple Podcasts and let me know down in the reviews what you thought about today's episode.
I want to give a special thanks to the busiest man in the plant industry, Hilton Carter, Maria Failla from bloom and grow radio and Jade Adams from Oglewood Avenue for joining us and giving us all of that hot houseplant insight we never knew we needed. You can learn more about all of our guests by checking out our show notes at hgtv.com/podcast.
And as usual, if you love today's episode, I would love it if you headed over to Apple Podcasts to rate and review HGTV Obsessed. A couple of you guys listened to me a few episodes ago and told me your favorite colors in the reviews. I'm not kidding. I rode that high for a solid week. Don't forget to follow HGTV Obsessed wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode, and we will see you next Thursday.
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