A love for plants can take hold at any stage in life, but for some, it starts very early – as was the case for Rachel Grahovac, local houseplant enthusiast and winner of our recent Houseplant Photo Contest. Rachel grew up around her grandparents’ love for plants, and as an adult, she discovered her own passion for houseplants – especially those hard-to-find ones. Rachel now shares that passion with fellow plant parents too, sharing photos and building the conversation through her Instagram account, @plantedinomaha.
Recently, we had a chance to chat with Rachel about her love for plants, what draws her to her favorite hoyas and aroids, and how a not-so-common growing method makes sense for her and her extensive collection.
A Family Tradition
Born and raised in Omaha, Rachel’s love for plants started as a kid spending time with her grandparents and watching as they cultivated plants in a number of different ways. While her grandfather tended their impressive vegetable garden, her grandmother collected houseplants and planted annual flowers in pots and beds around their outdoor spaces. As an adult, Rachel spent some time in Denver, but eventually made her way back home, and three or four years ago, a friend reintroduced her to the world of rare and unusual houseplants. The tradition continued.
An Impressive Collection
As you can see in her winning photo, Rachel collects houseplants – around two hundred at last count – and she has a special affinity for rare and hard-to-find varieties you won’t find in everyone’s collection. Rachel’s plant family is always evolving – plants come in, plants go out – resulting in a mix that depends in part on her mood and in part on the arrival of snips and cuttings that friends bring to trade with her. She also likes to give plants away – but not without saving a piece to start again for herself.
Hoya and members of the Aroid group – things like monstera, philodendron, pothos, and aglaonema – are her favorites. Rachel likes hoyas and aroids because of the wide variety of species and cultivars that make up the two groups. She loves how you never have to stop collecting them – there’s always a new one to grab. They’re also relatively easy to care for – a plus when your collection numbers in the hundreds.
Aside from these two groups, Rachel also enjoys terrarium plants, string of hearts and its close relatives, and jewel orchids. Her Rhiphalis ‘Paradoxa’ – a succulent with fascinating chain-like foliage that hangs down over the sides of its pot – is a particular favorite. Rachel gathers new additions for her collection from several sources. Our Greenhouse is a frequent stop for interesting new cultivars, but she also finds things as she travels, on Instagram, and by swapping with like-minded plant enthusiasts. Rachel even has her own import license which makes it easier to bring in exciting new cultivars too.
To support this impressive collection, Rachel says she’s blessed with a kitchen that has windows on both the south and west sides – lots of beautiful light streams in there. Her other space for plants is quite different. It’s a north-facing spare bedroom – so the plants in that location enjoy support from supplemental grow lights. It’s there that Rachel nurtures many of her propagation projects complete with propagation trays and heat mats.
Propagation + Hydroponics
Another great attribute of hoya and aroids that Rachel enjoys is how easy they are to propagate. Her success at growing so many new plants from cuttings is supported by the way she cultivates about 75% of her collection – passive hydroponics. Passive hydroponics is a way to grow plants that doesn’t use potting soil or other typical growth mediums like moss or bark. Instead, many of Rachel’s plants grow in containers filled with compressed clay beads called hydroton. The hydroton beads have no nutritive value of their own, but they absorb water and nutrients from a reservoir below and transport them to the roots in exactly the right amount needed by the plants. Rachel says that growing plants in hydroton beads dramatically reduces pest problems for plants, increases healthy air flow around the roots, and decreases the amount of time she spends watering her extensive collection.
Pets in the Mix
When she’s not busy with her plants, Rachel can often be found running around with her two Weimaraner dogs, Hoyt and Bonnie. Rachel considers herself lucky since Hoyt and Bonnie don’t seem to share her interest in plants – at all. She says they’re pretty smart though, so they may simply be aware that she wouldn’t be too happy if they suddenly got curious and started inspecting things. The trio loves to go hiking or take walks around their Dundee neighborhood, and Rachel likes to travel too.
Rachel’s other interests take her right back to her love of plants. She volunteers for the Benson Plant Rescue and is working on putting together an Omaha Plant Swap too.
We Love Seeing Your Plants
We enjoyed all the photos so many of you submitted for this year’s Houseplant Photo Contest. It’s exciting to see all the beautiful plants you share your lives with. Thank you again to Rachel from @plantedinomaha and everyone who participated. We’d also like to congratulate Mandi Barker of @flora_et_lapis and Alycia Cooper of @thebunnyandthebear, our second and third place winners. Want to see all the amazing entries from this year’s contest? Head on over to Instagram and check out #mulhallsplantcontest.
