Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care

How can we use flowers to further connect with nature and with the world? My mom once photocopied an entire flower dictionary for me from the thick pages of The Language of Flowers. I loved that she did it, but then I never really used it because it was too dense and there were a lot of meanings nobody says out loud anymore. But then I’ve thought deeply about it. I've grown dahlias my whole life. I have four hibiscus in my front lawn now. What if those choices were saying something? So I sat down with Mary Ke...

What if the fewer the plants, the bigger the impact? Right now my house is a construction zone, and my plants are on their own. I have an eight-week-old baby, a '70s house we gutted mid-pregnancy, and a carpeted garage. So yes, a few plants have died. But something else is happening too! My taste is changing. I'm letting go of a lot of little plants, and I want one big beautiful plant for my bathroom instead. In fact, my friend Samantha Hermann of @houseplusplant and I are both in a transitional season of life. She’s moving in...

When I got engaged, I figured choosing wedding flowers would be the easy part. I'm a plant person, right? Wrong. Wedding florals are an entire world of their own, and I was lucky to have a florist who walked me through all of it and built the floral landscape of my dreams.

That florist is Corina of The Botaniste, and in this Best of Growing Joy episode, she's sharing the wedding flower crash course I wish I'd had from day one.

We get into how to choose blooms that actually hold up and don't wilt...

Is it possible to tell time with your garden? Apparently, birds and plants can tell us what time of day it is! When we recorded this episode, I was in my third trimester, so sometimes I would be up at 2 AM whether I liked it or not. Which was how I found out that the birds in my Florida backyard start up around 4! For a while, I'd check my phone to see how close we were to sunrise. Now I learned to listen. That's the idea behind The Fullness of Time by Cathy Haynes. It's a book I read...

We're going back to basics today on how to propagate pothos, plant friends! It's one of the simplest things you can do as a plant parent. And pothos is probably the easiest plant to propagate, which is exactly why it's where you should start. I just want you to do it right the first time because one success is what turns this into a lifelong habit. So I brought propagation expert Lindsay Sisti back on the podcast to walk through pothos propagation from the very beginning. Join us as we talk beginner-friendly propagation tips, how to root pothos cuttings...

When it comes to killing plants, it's not a matter of if... it's a matter of when.

And killing a plant doesn't mean you're bad at plants. It just means you're a plant parent. But so many of us carry real shame around plant death. One loss, and we decide we're a plant killer and quit for good.

In this Best of Growing Joy series episode, I'm bringing back my conversation with Cassidy from Succulents and Sunshine about the guilt that comes with plant death, especially with succulents. They get sold as easy care plants...

We often talk about garden-to-table, but what about garden-to-glass? AKA how to grow plants for garden inspired cocktails, and all the ways to turn a harvest into something delicious, regardless if you drink alcohol or not. I spent a full year not drinking, first through fertility treatments and then through pregnancy. And I learned that the mocktail section of most menus is a trap. Everything is so sweet that you finish it in about 90 seconds. And then I met Belinda and Venise at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. They're sisters, they're plant ladies, and they run a garden-to-glass...

If you're looking for a large, tree-like plant, a pop of color, or a cool, structural statement piece for your home, might I suggest the rubber plant? Ficus elastica is one of the most underrated houseplants out there, and today we're giving it the hype it deserves!

In this Best of Growing Joy series, I pulled my conversation with Raffaele of Ohio Tropics, a fellow rubber plant lover, where we talk about everything you need to know about rubber plant care: how to help your rubber plant truly grow, how to stop it from dropping its leaves...

Propagation is your best friend as a plant parent. It's a free way to make more of the plants you already have, and watching new roots grow is so much fun! But there's more to it than sticking a pothos in a glass of water, not to mention that if you get the humidity wrong, you’ll get mold. So I invited over my go-to propagation nerd, Lindsay Sisti, to guide us through the different ways you can propagate successfully. She’s a propagation expert, plant breeder, and author of The Ultimate Guide to Houseplant Propagation. She’s been in the...

Have you ever thought about growing your own luffa? Someone sent me a packet of luffa seeds about four years ago. I think I won them in a giveaway, and they just... sat there. I never planted it because something about luffa felt kinda different. It's not your classic garden edible, and I couldn't picture how it worked. So I invited Janice Cox over to talk about growing luffa! Janice is a garden and natural beauty expert, and she's written a whole workbook on this plant. Now I can't stop thinking about growing luffa, harvesting it, and figuring out...

Philodendron might just be the most underrated genus in the houseplant world, and plant friends, it's completely beginner-friendly! This isn't a plant you bring home from the garden center only to watch it shrivel, brown, and die within a week. It gives you trailing vines, climbing drama, bold pops of color, and incredible leaf shapes. It's one of my all-time favorites, and it's the star of today's episode of our Best of Growing Joy series.

We're breaking down everything you need to know about philodendron care, aka this iconic houseplant genus that's been beloved for decades and...

What if your backyard could feed you for decades with way less work than a tomato patch? You can achieve this with fruit trees! I met arborist Allen Taylor at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show earlier this year. He's the founder of Conservation Tree Care, and he shares how to grow fruit trees in your own backyard with confidence and patience. I'm a homeowner now, and I am so excited to finally have fruit trees of my own!

In this episode, we learn:

Did you know plants for your home office can do more than just look nice? Office or work from home, they can boost your focus, spark creativity, lift your mood, and cut your stress. It's been proven over and over.

So today, for the Best of Growing Joy series, I'm digging into the archives and refreshing an old solo episode from the middle of the pandemic. Fair warning, you'll hear me talk about work from home a lot, since that's all we were doing back then. Our community got really creative with their setups too.

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What if the most relaxing time for you in your garden isn't during the day, but after dark? In those cool summer nights when garden chores aren't practical because you can't see very well, we have a unique opportunity to ease burnout, support mental health, and deepen your connection to plants and nature. So I'm joined by a friend, Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago, a repeat guest and the author of Verdura, to talk about her new take on garden breaks after dark. And we discuss how to create simple, mindful rituals that help plant parents unwind, reset, and find joy...

What if herbs go beyond the small, contained, and kitchen-window plants we use them for? Herbs could do so, so much more! In this episode, I sit down with Sue Goetz, a garden designer, author, and herb obsessive, to explore the many different ways we can use our favorite herbs in our garden landscape. She has a five-foot rosemary hedge in her backyard and uses chamomile between her stepping stones. She also grows lavender, sage, and catmint as full-on landscape plants that feed her, scent her garden, attract pollinators, and keep deer out. So not only do herbs have...

Ferns are some of the most gorgeous houseplants you can grow... and one of the oldest plants on the planet. They're basically living dinosaurs. But if you've ever watched a maidenhair fern grow in a sidewalk crack, only to crumble the second you bring it indoors, you know exactly why ferns have a reputation for being impossible to keep alive.

Most people aren't failing at ferns. They're just growing the wrong fern for their home.

In this episode, I'm bringing back one of my favorite interviews from the archives with my friend Lisa from The...

What if we don't design or control our gardens, but instead collaborate with them? I moved from the lush woods of Zone 5B to a front yard full of sand in Zone 10B Florida and felt like I had no control over my garden design. It was frustrating! So I sat down with Evan Meyer of Bloedel Reserve, a 140-acre garden and wild lands complex on Bainbridge Island just outside of Seattle, to help me feel more grounded in my new garden. Evan has spent his career working across the states studying restoration ecology, native plants, and conservation horticulture...

We’ve likely all had some run-in with a carnivorous plant. I brought one of those little Venus flytraps home from the hardware store, even though I had no idea how to care for it. Maybe you have marveled at the wide array of these plants at your local botanical garden. Or maybe you just know the man-eating Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors! However you found them, you have probably figured out that these plants are in a league of their own. Proper carnivorous plant care is incredibly specific. They are a whole subsect of plants, and th...

If you are just starting out as a plant parent, there comes a moment when you realize your plant has outgrown its pot and you need to figure out how to repot it. And in learning how to repot plants, you might feel like you are doing it wrong, or you end up being way too careful and precious about the whole thing.

Repotting is actually a very simple process, and it can even become a really fun and meditative part of caring for your plants.

Today, I am bringing back a solo episode from...

Aren't flowers just the perfect little pockets of joy? I have been following Claudia from In the Garden with Claudia on Instagram for over a year now, and I live for her cut flower garden stories! I’ve been feeling a little humbled by my own garden setbacks in South Florida recently. So when I finally got her on the podcast, I thought we were going to do a straight-up how-to on growing flowers. And we did, kind of. But this conversation turned into what flowers can actually do for you! Claudia has turned her space into a garden wi...

If you're looking for your garden to be a little more curated, calm, and cohesive (put together in a way that just feels right) what if you've been looking for advice in the wrong places? What if you shouldn't be looking at a garden designer at all, but instead at an interior designer to give you garden design tips that help pull everything together?

I'm bringing this one back as part of the Best of Growing Joy series a conversation I had a couple of years ago with Kelly Wilkniss, an interior designer, avid gardener, and co-host...

Have you ever heard of the hügelkultur gardening method? I first heard the word ‘hügelkultur’ a couple of years ago while visiting The Lodge at Woodloch's organic farm. They had this beautiful setup where they grew the food that the spa guests would eat. And in the middle of it all was this raised bed that looked like it was mid-construction. It was a hügelkultur bed. Since then, I kept hearing that word, especially among organic growers! So for this episode, I sat down with Sarah Wagstaff of SUOT Farm (Small Units of Time). Sarah is a full...

Calathea is one of the most gorgeous and often most disappointing houseplants a new plant parent can bring home. If you've ever taken a beginner plant shopping, you already know: they walk straight to the calatheas. Can you blame them? These plants look like they were literally hand-painted by Mother Nature.

But calathea care is pretty tricky. The leaves curl. The edges go crispy and brown. The humidity demands feel impossible. Suddenly, your most beautiful plant becomes your most dramatic one.

That's why I brought Mark Hachadourian, Director of Glasshouse Horticulture at the New York...

Does this design decision bring me closer to nature? When I started renovating our new home a few months ago, I wasn’t going to make a single design choice without asking this question. This lens is called biophilic design, and I actually had an episode about it before! But to talk about it more, I’ve invited Oliver Heath, an architect, designer, and thought leader in biophilic design. Oliver is based in England, studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, runs his own biophilic design consultancy, and has spent decades translating this science from large-scale commercial buildings into some...

What if your houseplants are doing so much more than just looking pretty on your windowsill? What if they’re actually communicating, sensing their environment, and responding in ways we’re only beginning to understand?

In this Best of Growing Joy replay, I sit down with Paco Calvo and Natalie Lawrence, co-authors of Planta Sapiens, to explore plant intelligence, plant behavior, and the big question: do plants have feelings and some form of plant consciousness?

We talk about how plants sense their surroundings, how they “decide” where to grow, and what our human-plant connection can teach us...

Do you have the guts to release beneficial insects in your home? I recently invited Jamie, the co-founder of DMV Beneficials, into my studio to do exactly that. We spent the afternoon performing a professional consultation on my green wall. We examined my alocasia, philodendron, hoya, and more under a microscope to see what was really going on. We found broad mites, spider mite eggs, and a possible infestation starting on my rabbit's foot fern. It was a little scary, but probably the best way to recreate nature right in our living rooms is to release these beneficial insects.<...

To me, a hedge of hydrangea is one of the most iconic things you can do for your garden. They're epic, gorgeous, and yes, they have a reputation for being a little high maintenance. But once you set them up for success, hydrangeas can be one of the easiest flowering shrubs to grow.

In this Best of Growing Joy replay, I'm sitting down with Ryan McEnaney aka @ryanplantsplants a fifth-generation member of Bailey Nurseries and the face behind the best-selling Endless Summer Hydrangeas collection. Ryan breaks down everything from the 4 main hydrangea varieties and the number one...

Don't sweet peas have the most amazing floral scent? I remember them as a scent before I ever knew them as a flower, like the Bath & Body Works body spray that no other brands can seem to replicate. Then I realized I had never actually done an episode on these before, so there’s no better time than to invite my dear plant friend, Marryn Mathis, the Sweet Pea Queen, to share her story! Marryn quit a 21-year IT career, moved her family onto raw land in a 28-foot travel trailer, and built The Farmhouse Flower Farm from the gr...

If you knew where most grocery store lettuce comes from and what it goes through before it lands in that plastic box, you’d never look at bagged salad the same way again.

In this Best of Growing Joy episode, I’m sharing a practical, beginner-friendly guide on how to grow lettuce from seed so you can harvest fresh, crunchy salad greens right outside your door with my friend and garden coach, Nicole Burke of Gardener. We talk about simple ways to grow lettuce in raised beds, containers, grow bags, and even tiny balconies, so you can enjo...

Why are monarch butterflies so special? If you follow me on Instagram, you already know my answer. The monarch butterfly has completely taken over my heart. I literally dressed up as one for Halloween this year, and I have zero regrets! Ever since my husband and I moved to Florida, I started planting milkweed just to watch them hatch in my own yard. And wow. Seeing their life cycle happen right in front of me made me think deeply about gardening. It also made me realize I had a lot to learn. So I called up my favorite wildlife...

Did you know your “regular” herb garden can double as a medicinal herb garden, and that the mint you grab for mojitos can actually calm your nerves and your digestion? I used to think herbalism meant mysterious tincture bottles and complicated formulas… until I started turning the basil, mint, and lemon balm I grow into simple herbal teas I actually drink every night.

In this Best of Growing Joy episode, I’m revisiting a conversation with Juliet from the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, botanist, herbalist, and author of The Healing Garden. If you’re a gardener, tea lover...

I’ve always wanted to make gardening a lifelong hobby because I plan to have dirt under my nails well into my 80s or 90s, but I never really thought through HOW to make that happen. Because as much as we love our plants, gardening as you age is not about doing the same thing forever. I see it with my mom who’s an incredible gardener. She has that true plant parent energy, but even she has to change how she gardens. So what if the secret to longevity is just learning how to garden differently? To help me w...

Did you know mushrooms aren’t actually plants, but a completely different kingdom that plays a huge role in soil health, plant health, and the success of your indoor and outdoor garden?

This is the third episode in our Mushroom Mini Series, and this week we’re having a high-level conversation all about what mushrooms are, how fungi and mycelium work, and why they matter so much for plant parents and anyone interested in holistic plant care.

Louis from North Spore joins me and my husband Billy for a really fun conversation about the underground “wood w...

Did you know that your bulb garden doesn't have to be high-maintenance? One of my earliest memories is my mom planting what felt like endless tulip bulbs—500 of them, in fact. She was a young mom with three kids, no spare time, and definitely not a person who could fuss over plants every day, but somehow, she always had color! Bulbs showed up for her, and she did not have to slave over her garden to get them. That’s why I know it is possible to create a low‑maintenance garden with bulbs. So I invited Jenny Rose Carey...

Did you know that you can actually grow edible gourmet mushrooms in your garden right alongside your tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, herbs, and veggies?

You can! And by doing that, you can improve your soil health, support your garden ecosystem, and add another delicious crop to harvest and enjoy throughout the growing season.

This is the second episode in our Mushroom Mini Series. Last week, we re-released our episode on growing mushrooms indoors, and this week, we’re talking all about how to grow mushrooms outdoors in your garden.

Louis from North Spore joins me...

My goal this year is to find more ease and joy in my garden! I love my plants, but I don’t want my yard to feel like another job. And when I realized that was a theme that was gonna keep coming up, I knew I needed to do an episode on permaculture. So I invited my plant friend, Brandy Hall. She’s a permaculture designer and has helped me see it as a simple, practical way to garden. She calls herself a garden editor for homeowners, which means she helps people like us turn regular lawns into rege...

What if your next houseplant could double in size overnight and end up on your dinner plate?

Today we’re talking about how to grow mushrooms indoors and why it might be one of the most fun, beginner-friendly ways to grow edible mushrooms at home.

A couple of years ago, I recorded a Mushroom Miniseries with my husband and mushroom expert Louis from North Spore, and we talked about everything from growing mushrooms indoors to outdoor cultivation and harvesting your own mushrooms at home.

This episode is all about growing mushrooms indoors, including be...

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the sea of information about indoor plants, wondering which tips to trust? You're not alone! Join me on this enlightening episode of "Growing Joy with Plants," where I chat with Tanner, the creative mind behind Tanner the Planter. Tanner's journey into the world of plants began in his childhood in Oregon, and he’s here to share his passion for plant care and how he navigates the challenges of caring for indoor plants in the age of social media. 

As Tanner recounts his transition from Oregon to Texas, he reveals how his...

2026 is the year of ease, joy, and low-maintenance plant care! It’s time that plants make us feel good instead of dread every time we walk past them. Something’s off if plants are stressing you out. So I invited my friend Cassidy Tuttle from Succulents and Sunshine back on the podcast because if there’s anyone who embodies easy plant care, it’s her! We talked about what’s actually happening in our plant lives right now: having too many plants, letting some go, and redefining what our collections look like. Listen in!

In this episod...

If you ask me, the secret to being everyone’s favorite neighbor or friend is always having a handful of blooms ready to share. And the best way to do that is to grow your own cut flower garden so you can step outside, snip a few stems, and instantly make someone’s day.

In this Best of Growing Joy replay, I’m bringing back one of my favorite conversations with flower farmer and friend Brooklyn Sherri, a Denver-based urban flower farmer and founder of the Cool Choice Plant Studio for kids. We break down cut flower garden...