My condo started transitioning into an urban jungle when I brought my outdoor plants inside for the winter. Despite my indoor plant collection doubling in size, I continued rescuing sad tropicals from the basements of retail stores and stalked nurseries for chubby baby succulents to add to my thriving plant family.
But at 19 plants and counting, I wondered if I was referencing interior designer Justina Blakeney’s maximalist “Jungalow” style or showing early signs of a serious hoarding problem.
Igor Josifovic and Judith de Graff, the founders of Urban Jungle Bloggers, recognize my plant addiction and actually celebrate the lifestyle on their blog and social media accounts every day.
“We believe that in today’s fast-paced, digitalized world we need to reconnect with nature. Especially the urban dwellers,” says Josifovic, “We feel the need to surround ourselves with nature, we want a connection to something so basic yet so essential, that will remind us of the ‘natural pace of life’ beyond smartphones and social media.”
After years of running a successful plant blog, in January 2016 Josifovic and de Graff launched the Urban Jungle Bloggers Instagram account and were shocked by its rapid growth.
In just over a year, their Instagram had a whopping 270,000 followers, mostly women between the ages of 18 and 45. Josifovic suspects the enthusiasm for slow-growing, green spaces is a reaction to life in the fast-paced concrete jungle.
Lack of time and limited space can also explain millennials growing interest in houseplants. This segment of the population is working longer hours and a higher proportion are
living in condos that often regulate pet ownership, making plants a cheaper, easier alternative. Given the circumstances, a nursery for plants rather than for human or “fur” babies sounds perfectly logical.
“For me, they are definitely a sort of replacement as I can’t have a pet but I still want something living and thriving in my home,” says Josifovic, “By choosing the right plants, you can actually keep your lifestyle without being worried about your green roommates. Avid travellers will opt for low-maintenance plants that can survive without attention over weeks …. think of cacti, succulents, but also sturdy plants like snake plants etc.”
Plant World, Sheridan Nurseries and Valleyview Gardens have all seen a small but steady spike in millennial-aged gardeners purchasing houseplants.
Nelson French, an assistant manager at Plant World in Etobicoke echoes Josifovic.
“Plants are a great place to start if you’re not sure you’re ready to become a parent.” He advises the newest generation of gardeners, “Move from plants to pets and then, just maybe, to kids.”
French says that nine out of 10 millennial shoppers are searching for a six-foot-tall fiddle-leaf fig tree similar to the ones they have seen on Instagram and Pinterest.
“Millennials know that plants can ‘finish’ an otherwise cold or sterile room with a hint of life — the perfect accent or feature room highlight — not realizing that almost all plants will have their dormant and/or ugly stages … Just like kids they can fall victim to disease and pests that make them ‘difficult’ and sometimes far less pretty,” French says.
But unlike children, you can slowly kill your once beloved plants and dispose of them without any consequences, or even shame.
Jewelry designer Sonia Kang, 29, reassured me that if my plants were healthy, I was not a hoarder but rather, a proud plant parent or crazy plant lady. She should know.
Kang lives in a 409-square-foot bachelor apartment in Toronto’s west end with a dog, a guinea pig, and 140 plants, specializing in tropical foliage and citrus trees.
“I recently had to get curtains around my bed. I can’t sleep at night because I have grow lights on. My citrus trees require eight to nine hours of light to fruit,” she says.
But sacrificing sleep was worth the lemons, limes and calamondins Kang’s trees have produced.
“I feel happiness. Gardening caters to my more nurturing side,” she says, citing a study by the University College London and Bristol University that naturally occurring soil bacteria has a proven mood-boosting, antidepressant effect.
Kang suspects the growth of her urban jungle is directly related to her engagement with plant-related social media, particularly Bunz Planting Zone. The Toronto Facebook group, with nearly 5,000 members, not only enables plant trades but connects like-minded millennials who are thirsty for plant knowledge.
“Gardening was ingrained in me but it didn’t explode until recently, when I joined that group,” Kang says. “It opened the door to a whole new world of suppliers and people who could import things for you.”
Darryl Cheng, a Toronto-based business analyst who runs the House Plant Journal blog and the wildly popular Instagram account, cringes whenever he sees plants suffering in poor conditions.
On Instagram, where he has more than 100,000 followers, Cheng, 33, calls himself a “plant parent” and will refer to any one his 70 houseplants as a “long-term friend.” His goal is to improve human relationships with plants, shifting plants from trend to friend, which he does through innovative time lapsed instructional videos that demonstrate how to aerate soil and mist air plants.
“I’ve observed that people don’t expect their plants
to grow and when they do, they find them unattractive,” Cheng says, “I’m trying to promote a long-term hobby.”
As a man and a millennial, Cheng is also challenging
the stereotype that houseplant hobbyists are older women. Tena van Andel, a board member of Master Gardeners of Ontario, notes that the feminization of indoor gardening started during the Victorian era.
Houseplants were once reserved for upper class men
who competitively built elaborate greenhouses and conservatories out of newly industrialized glass, filling them with expensive exotic plants taken from Africa, Australia and South America.
“After a while, plants were permissible and something a woman could do that was ‘feminine’,” van Andel says, “Indoor gardening would give bored, wealthy housewives something to do to keep them happy and healthy…It also gave women who had to work, a job. Working at a flower shop was still seen as feminine but an advancement for women.”
Although Cheng notes that 80 per cent of his Instagram followers are women, he maintains “the joy of caring for a living
thing and watching it grow can be enjoyed by anyone.”
Tips from top Instagram plant parents
When Pantone announced the 2017 Color of the Year was “Greenery,” a zesty lime shade that evokes “flourishing foliage,” it signalled that plants would continue to dominate interior decorating design. We asked some of the most popular and inspiring urban jungle accounts on Instagram for insight into their favourite plant trends and care tips for 2017.
@urbanjungleblog
Igor Josifovic has 50 plants in a 345-square-foot apartment in Munich and Judith de Graaff has 200 plants in a 5,920-square-foot house in Paris.
“Well we try to keep our plants happy with a good and fun plant care routine. The easiest is to dedicate a certain day and time slot to plant care and then just make it as fun as you wish: put your favourite record on, brew a coffee, dance, sing, and dedicate a few minutes to each plant at home. See if they look happy, prune them, remove dead leaves, clean them, water them, feed them. Make it a great timeout for you and your plants.”
@houseplantjournal
Darryl Cheng has 70 plants in a 2,000-square-foot house in Toronto.
“If you are unsure whether your plant needs water, the best course of action is to not water because wilting (due to lack of water) is reversible and obvious. But the damage done by overwatering (root rot) is irreversible and by the time you notice something in the leaves/stems, the roots are already dead. Eventually, you will know the time to water before wilting occurs.”
@haarkon_
Magnus Edmondson and India Hobson have 100 plants in a 613-square-foot flat in Sheffield, England.
“Propagation. We like to take cuttings and that way we can pass on our plants to our friends and family so that they can enjoy them too. It’s hugely satisfying to grow new plants from a leaf or a section of another plant and of course a greater pleasure comes from sharing that with others.”
@still_____
Janneke Luursema has 150 plants in a 1,000-square-foot apartment in Amsterdam.
“To be honest I myself am not that into trends, but Alice Vincent @noughticulture wrote about ferns as a trend plant for 2017 and I just agree. To me they represent a Japanese Zen kind of style, tranquil, quiet, classic, simple, beautiful.”
@thejungalow
Justina Blakeney has 100 plants in 1,150-square-foot home in Los Angeles.
“I have been collecting vintage bentwood planters for years — they are timeless and modern and look incredible with any prayer plants or any trailing plants!”
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