When you visit our greenhouse, you might notice that certain houseplants seem to call out to you. Maybe it’s the shape of their foliage, the twist of their stems, or their easy-going personality that appeals to you. Our team is no different. Everyone has a “pet” plant, and for a variety of reasons we find those special plants jumping into our own shopping carts again and again. Here, we share a few of the reasons our team members – from all over the store choose the plants they do for their own homes.
The Stranger the Better
For some plant parents, a plant’s appeal lies in the fact that not everyone has one like it. As Director of Specialty Maintenance, Ann Wickenhauser leads the team that installs and cares for foliage houseplants in the office spaces and homes of their clients. So, at work she gets to interact with beautiful plants that thrive in all kinds of situations – like dracaena, sansevieria, ficus, and pothos. But, if you visit Ann at home, you’re more likely to find plants you don’t see quite as often. For instance, Ann estimates she has around twenty odd and richly patterned begonias. And until recently, she also had a huge collection – over fifty plants – of miniature and variegated specialty geraniums. Not something you see every day. But, the rains this summer did many of them in, so she’s working on rebuilding that group.
Throughout the day, one of Jose Chagolla’s responsibilities is to keep our store displays stocked with beautiful products. Jose’s job takes him from one end of the store to the other, so he gets to interact with everything from garden pruners to cactus soil to Christmas ornaments. His day is filled with all kinds of visual interest. Maybe that’s why at home, Jose prefers plants with strange structures and textures that are just as interesting. One of his favorites is a ming fern – an unusual, free-form fern covered with spherical, feathery fronds. He also keeps two money trees with their oddly braided trunks and exotic palmate foliage.
Customer Service team member Anna Volenec loves houseplants – and fortunately, so does her college roommate. In their apartment-style dorm, Anna and her friend keep a collection of about thirty houseplants, including a big bamboo palm, several cacti and succulents, ferns, spider plants, and a bromeliad. But, like Jose, one of Anna’s favorites is her money tree because of its exquisitely braided trunk. Plus, Anna loves trees, so having a miniature version sitting on her desk makes studying for finals a lot more enjoyable.
The Way They Grow
Sometimes, it’s the way a plant lives and grows that makes it a perfect fit for a plant parent. Operations team member Memo Monarrez likes cacti and succulents because they’re so easy to care for. Although his home has lower light, that doesn’t stop Memo from keeping these sun-loving plants because he’s happy to accommodate their needs. First, he treats his collection of sixteen cacti and succulents to a yearly vacation on the patio where they spend the summer soaking in the bright light. Then, when it’s time to move inside in the fall, Memo sets up a space in the basement with grow lights that keep his plants happy and thriving until warm weather returns.
Visual team captain Chad Olsen spends his days creating new things. He constructs the Visual team’s plans for the beautiful displays throughout the store, and in the evenings, he’s creating new paintings in his in-home studio. When it comes to plants, he likes bringing about new plants through propagation. In his collection of houseplants, he has a favorite jade that he started as a small cutting. He also has a pothos which he takes cuttings from so he can produce more of that appealing heart-shaped foliage.
The Impact They Make
Plants are more than green foliage – they make important impacts on the spaces and the people around them. Working in the greenhouse, Sue Balkovec would love to take home one of every houseplant that comes through our door. But she lives in a townhome where space is limited, so her plants must do double duty as important contributors to her overall decor. Sue takes a very selective approach – with each plant having a predetermined space to live before it ever comes home. Her curated collection includes small, rosette-shaped sansevieria, a prayer plant, a jade, a devil’s backbone succulent, and an aloe – all plants that pack a lot of visual appeal into a relatively small package.
In the Nursery Yard, Karen Martin is well-known for her extensive knowledge of all aspects of garden roses, but inside the house, she has a thing for a different type of bloom. Karen keeps orchids. She loves orchids because they’re easy to care for and when they bloom, they bring color and beautiful forms to her home for months at a time. And her orchids love her back – they thrive in the bright and steady light coming from her big south window.
Receiving and Distribution team’s Elizabeth Parker shares her home with her mom, and the inspiration that drives her plant choices is “whatever will make mom smile.” So she likes plants with interesting textures and color patterns – plants that will quickly switch Mom’s reaction from “You brought home another plant?” to “Ooh, that one’s pretty…” Elizabeth’s plant room is bathed in light, and in her collection, she has Swedish and English ivies, sansevieria, rubber plant, spider plant, and draping pothos too.
Which Plant Speaks to You?
Whether you’re attracted to a certain plant for its pattern, its shape, or the strange way it grows, there’s more than enough variety in the houseplant world to supply any plant parent with a collection that fits their personality and home. Come talk with our team – whatever reason a houseplant appeals to you, we’d love to help you find the perfect match.
