How to be a successful plant mom

I know that plants are very on trend right now, but I have been trying to be successful at caring for plants for a while now. Growing up, my grandmother was my very first example of caring for plants. She was amazing at it and I consider her the OG plant lady! Not only did she care for her own plants, but people would bring their plants to her to revive them when they were on their last leaf. She knew exactly what each plant needed and how to care for it. Since I grew up around plants, I wanted to keep that tradition alive. Plants are not only beautiful but they give off oxygen. IDK how much of a difference it makes compared to a home without house plants, but it just sounds good so we’re going with it!

Anyway, I want to share some of the things I’ve learned along the way. I still feel like I have some learning to do, but I also feel like since I’ve been able to keep 7 plants alive in the last 7 months I can share what’s worked for me!

1. Do your research

My first tip is to do your research! It’s so easy to just go to the nursery at Lowe’s or a plant shop and go crazy! But it’s so important that you determine the best plants for you. Always go for the easy, hard-to-kill plants to start with; those would be your succulents. My first plant was an Aloe Vera that I’ve now had for about 3 years. She’s grown so much and there have been times when I completely forgot about her and she was fine. Look up best house plants for beginners and start with no more than two low maintenance plant babies. Don’t overdo it!

2. Get the necessary items to care for your plant

This comes from research, but you will want to make sure you have the necessary things for your plant care. This will include the pot, water can, spray bottle, light meter, fertilizer/plant food, etc. Basically after deciding which plants I would try to find in the store, I also looked up things I needed to care for the plants. Pots with a drain hole are typically recommended, but there are times when I find cute pots that don’t have drain holes. There are so many tips on what you can do about that, like putting rocks at the bottom of the pot. But we are beginners here, honey. So what I basically do is leave the plant in the plastic planter it comes in because that has the drain holes. Simple. In addition to this, you will also need a watering can and spray bottle for the watering needs, the necessary plant food/fertilizer for your plant, and a light/water meter which helps determine the light level in the room where you will place the plant and monitor the moisture level in the soil.

3. Use an app

There are many apps that you can use to help you with your plant care. I would highly recommend looking into an app! The app that I use is Planta. They do offer a free version, but of course it has limited features. I decided to get full access and paid $35 for the year subscription which is not bad at all! It has been so helpful and I love the weekly notifications to remind me to do something to care for my plant – water, mist, clean, fertilize, update progress. All of this has contributed greatly to the health of my plants and if you are trying to do better at caring for your plants, I would suggest using an app to help you along the way. I kind of feel like I’m cheating because my grandma had no app lol, but work smarter not harder right?! ??‍♀️

Meet my plant babies (pictured from left to right):

• Gloria, the Golden Pothos
• Missy, the mixed succulent
• Fran, the Fiddle leaf fig tree
• Jade, the Jade pothos (she was given to me as a gift after my miscarriage and the giver had no idea our daughter’s middle name was Jade?)
• Christine, the Chinese evergreen (Christine was my grandma’s name)
• Alice, the Aloe vera
• Susan, the Snake plant

I hope these tips are helpful to you if you are new to the plant mom life and wanting to better care for you plant babies!

Live well,