[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm Megan, and I'm Sarah, we're two women in our 40s who live in different states and have a lot of different interests between us.
[SPEAKER_01]: On this show, we talk about all the midlife lady leisure pursuits we're enjoying at the stage of life, like travel, hobbies, food, wellness, style, and more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited today to chat about my house plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is something I honestly never bothered with until I was in my 40s, but I've had a lot of fun with the last few years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm excited about this because this is something I haven't really gotten into and I can't wait to be inspired.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today's episode is brought to you by our exclusive season sponsor and the longtime partner of ours, Vionic Shoes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sarah, I am sort of obsessed with my new palisades, Toposed Inkustrap Sandal, which I got in the gold cork color.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, thanks so much to Bionic for sponsoring this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's dive right in.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about houseplants today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Sarah, before we started, I thought it might be fun to banter a little bit about our relationship with houseplants.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because mine is like long and extremely anticlimactic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I'll just say that I grew up in a house that always had, I don't know, three, four, five houseplants.
[SPEAKER_01]: I always remember they're being a small pot of violets.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember point Sadia as I remember spider plants and then like some of their sort of like non-descript leafy thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I know the 70s and 80s were big for house plants.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see if you like flip through old magazines and stuff that they were just house plants everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a big thing in the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I also remember this very specific watering can that always was sitting on this one little sort of...
[SPEAKER_01]: It was kind of like a two-tiered, almost like a drink cart, but it was for plants.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It got a bar cart for meat plants.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stop plants, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this watering can was like this olive green kind of squarish, plastic watering can with a flower on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I found the exact one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will drop the photo in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of my memory, but I don't...
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't remember my mom making a big boss about them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just were there, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, I guess they got watered.
[SPEAKER_01]: I probably wanted to water them because I was a kid, but other than that, I don't really remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, as I've gotten older, while I've gotten really into outdoor plants, and have been interested in outdoor plants basically the entire time I've been in adults, I just kind of forgot about house plants.
[SPEAKER_01]: I literally walk past.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a few plants in our house.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a Jade plant that's Eric's, you know, left over from his life before me.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been out of a plant a couple of other just whatever plants they're wallpaper.
[SPEAKER_01]: I walk past them on my way to water my outdoor plants.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're kind of just nothing to me, but I feel like if I could get excited about them, we're like, work them into my routine, maybe they could become a really pleasurable hobby.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I can't wait to hear about your, you know, you're developing a split love and also how you got there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, this is, I have so much to say, I'm excited about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with you about the 80s, um, like the types of plants I remember, I also remember probably a little more in the late 80s, like a big palm type, like a palm frondy type, more almost like a tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember some larger house plants in my house growing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: that were like they'd they'd be in a corner and have big almost palm-like leaves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that was like a big like a large decorative fixture.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that probably is like late 80s early 90s kind of that look.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I also like the violets you're reminding me like my grandma always had a pot of or like a little table centerpiece of little violets to same same.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I never thought I had a green thumb for indoor house plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think my mother-in-law gifted it who actually does.
[SPEAKER_00]: She does really well with indoor house plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: She gifted Brian and I some kind of like easy low maintenance house plant when we were first married and I put it above our kitchen cabinets.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know how sometimes there's their space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling and so I put it up there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I ever watered it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe she did when she visited it, it grew.
[SPEAKER_00]: It like, so anyway, I had the, gave zero attention to indoor house plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until I was about 40, I feel like that kind of 70's, Boho aesthetic started to come back, like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, whenever pre-COVID, 2018, 2019, 2020, I feel like I was getting a lot of visual probably on Instagram, a lot of inspiration for a kind of like house plant heavy bojo indoor decor look.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just really liked it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just thought I would be more jungle or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of what I think of, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and do you remember like people were styling their bookshelves and they're always being like a cute little succulent here or a hanging plant I was not like not always but if this time I thought who a hanging plant is so cute and so I think Really my interest in houseplants started with home decor and design aesthetic much more than like I'd like to buy a plant and keep it alive and as I was preparing for this episode I realized that's actually the through line like my houseplants are similar to like
[SPEAKER_00]: a framed print or a throw pillow.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a home decor accent before like a gardening interest, which I don't know if I would have been able to articulate that till we were planning this episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're not until a terrian by nature, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a decorator to add visuals.
[SPEAKER_00]: and clear I guess exactly exactly so I can really pinpoint you know I've said this before but I turned 40 then COVID hit then we moved to a new house in a new city and so something about having in the middle of COVID a blank slate to start decorating and our walls are all white we have a lot of windows and it's a bigger home than we had before I think I just had a really blank slate in terms of
[SPEAKER_00]: Setting up a new home and decorating and I didn't have a big budget We were filling it with our old furniture and I was like thrifting stuff So I went from honestly I would occasionally buy like a little trader Joe's succulent and put it on my kitchen table But that was it like nothing to six years ago Which is exactly six years ago like I really love my indoor house plants and I've done a really good job of
[SPEAKER_00]: keeping them alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is very, very specific point in time when we moved into this house, and very motivated by wanting to have variety and greenery and interesting textures and colors in my home decor, much more than, yeah, like, oh, I want this certain type of plant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I have some questions for you, but before that, I do want to share when you started talking about this big plant, a very specific memory came back to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not even like one memory,
[SPEAKER_01]: of my childhood related to plants.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm wondering if this resonates with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember they're always being a lot of drama about our cats chewing on plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, I remember, in particular, we have this black cap.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just called her black kitty.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'd walk in, should we do in that, that thing cats do, like, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, and kind of chond on the side of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really my biggest plant memory was like, we have to move this plant because the cat won't leave it alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or now we have to like get rid of this plant because the cat won't leave it alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: So does that factor into your memories or your current life?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, my current life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do have some things to say about cats and plants a little later.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't remember it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we did have cats and we did have plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember a growing number.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do deal with it a little bit now, but I've managed to have two cats and several plants and their coexistence.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there hasn't been any disaster.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, well, we'll get to that in a bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to start by hearing about what specifically, what plants you have in your house.
[SPEAKER_00]: it will be helpful for you to describe them yeah in some detail because sometimes those like leafy plants they all just kind of blend together oh yeah and I honestly I am speaking as if I'm an expert but I knew none of this five years ago and I'm still just like learning as I go okay um and I'll put some photos in the show notes too
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have some monstera plants, monstera have the giant leaves that look tropical and they get like a little Swiss cheesy they get when they're when the leaves are big and healthy they also get these pretty little holes almost like eyelet or lace.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, holes within the leaves, but the leaves, I mean, the big leaves are the size of like a bike tire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Huge, huge leaves.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these are plants that can they'll grow to fill a room if you let them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have more to say about that and how I've kept them in check.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I have a few of those.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a ZZ plant, which is a great starter plant.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't need a lot of water.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got it as a gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a pretty, um, it was already potted and I've kept that alive for like five years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a few snake plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those have the long, I would say like they're adjacent to more of the succulent family, but they have long tall Sort of yeah, succulent like leaves that stick straight up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they get a lot of height.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, like we'll put, you can Google or we'll put photos in the show notes, but snake plants are, again, pretty forgiving.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have one fikestry that is big because I bought it big, not because I've grown it big.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that just looks, I don't know what that looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a mini tree in the corner of your room.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have it in a larger pot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's one that I don't know the name of that started out as a hanging plant in my office and it has kind of so like the leaves will kind of Druped down, which looks pretty but then I propagated it and I have another version of it in my dining room and it is more I don't know like a little softer more feminine looking where like the tendrils will spill over like that kind of thing
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like the ficus tree is like biblical.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like that it's somehow, it's Mediterranean or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's, I actually think it's in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't tell you what, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe, maybe Zikias climbs up one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just like, it's like cut me back to my next Sunday school growing up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it, like, as an aside, I love how these plants have been
[SPEAKER_01]: even the plants inside your house.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes we forget they're just plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they're related to plants that have lived outdoors and been part of the mythology and folklore and history going way, way, way, way back, which I think is a way that I can kind of connect to them a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: The ficus, I just googled it to see what comes up first.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of them are, I'm sure they're pruned this way, but the sort of trunk, if you will, of the tree, is like braided.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: several stems that kind of are trained to wind together so they can have a very pretty like yeah like a braided trunk that then it's like a miniature tree in the corner of your of your indoor space and you're right there I mean there's lots of ficus trees that are outside too so these are all just
[SPEAKER_00]: indoor cultivated versions of what exists outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I don't have as I did a quick Google is the finale figs were really really popular like you know five to ten years ago that was when I was starting to pay attention to like oh hey house plants really make a room looks so interesting and it's different than just adding another you know lamp on a shelf or a picture on a wall
[SPEAKER_00]: The Fiddly Fig I feel like was sort of the cute girl boho aesthetic plant.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were a lot of fake ones and I have never had a Fiddly Fig.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I somehow skipped right over that to the monster when I got started.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a Fiddly Fig or a Furn?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Fiddly Fig is the one I'm thinking of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, big.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even know that because we have Fiddly Furns everywhere up here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I never even heard of a Fiddly Fig.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, oh, and that's so interesting or maybe, okay, clearly we're doing a podcast, so that's something we don't have that expertise, but the fiddle leaf F*** you guys, there is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so that's so funny because I'm looking out now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Googling and I'm looking at this and I'm like When you said fiddle leaf, immediately my mind went to a very
[SPEAKER_01]: like a very, uh, abundant fur on that pair, which obviously looks nothing like a fig, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm wondering, it also looks nothing like this, really.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm wondering, like, what's the connection?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, what makes something a fiddle leaf?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or they got the same sort of colloquial common name, but that's nothing to do with each other, because Fiddles were objected every way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And is it literally fig an actual, like, would it fruit?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have it, it probably is a non-fruiting fig, but from the same family.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a lot of those types of, like we have olive trees that don't fruit and pear trees that don't fruit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's probably a,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably engineered to non-fruit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, this is a good place to ask you my next question, which is where do you buy the plans and the pots for your plants and the other stuff?
[SPEAKER_01]: But I guess I also have like an adjacent question, which is why did you buy these plants?
[SPEAKER_01]: Were you like at the store and you thought, that's cute or like I like the pot?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to take this whole thing home.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell me, like, walk me through that process.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, kind of like I was saying earlier, I didn't realize this is how it happened, but it was really a part of setting up home in this new house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it happened as I was looking for furniture and decor and art.
[SPEAKER_00]: I on Facebook Marketplace stumbled two different times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone was selling a pair of
[SPEAKER_00]: two mature plants that matched in matching pots.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was like a ready to ready to eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to do nothing and I did it twice.
[SPEAKER_00]: One was two snake plants and they're on my front porch.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these are actually technically outside, although it's shaded all the time and I could move them inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: So those are two snake plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is six years ago and they're still doing great.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still on my front porch and the pots they were in.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're matching and we have this kind of very symmetrical front porch.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it made sense to just have one and one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it just like made the front porch look welcoming and complete.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, done.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to say it was, I don't know, maybe 60 bucks for the pair.
[SPEAKER_00]: 80 bucks for the pair.
[SPEAKER_00]: But none of the work.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't, I didn't pour in any soil.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't start anything from baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I didn't have it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I did that with those and then I did it with the monsters as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Same thing, two matching big like I don't know there may be up to my thigh kind of a tall a tall slimmer pot.
[SPEAKER_00]: But large, and Monceras get enormous.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were kind of mid-size when I got them, but same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those two, they matched.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't end up putting those two in a place where they needed to match.
[SPEAKER_00]: I kind of put one in one room and one in another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that original Monceras has like 20 grand babies, which I'll talk about propagating in a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that was my start, honestly.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was looking, looking in the same way I might look for a second hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: dresser or a piece of art on Facebook Marketplace.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was buying mature plants already potted, looked cute, ready to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was a great entry point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this is the same year that you bought an entire front porch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ready to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, but you have still goes down in history in my mind is like one of the smartest things you ever did.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Halloween, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the Halloween, yeah, that was somebody's front porch Halloween decorations and she was selling all the different things and I was like, yes, I will take that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a few years in, but yeah, yeah, I mean, you started to go make it easy on yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone else already did the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, someone else curated this look.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then after the Facebook Marketplace, I
[SPEAKER_00]: I have gotten a couple of things at a garden store where I've kind of asked for help my hanging plant that I got at a garden store and kind of talked with someone about where it would do best.
[SPEAKER_00]: Trader Joe's is known for having really solid house plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: They tend to be small and as I've gotten a little better this I've realized like most of the time for a house plant to continue to do well it's going to need more space eventually.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the only thing
[SPEAKER_00]: about Trader Joe's is I would need to have a pot for it and a place for it to kind of grow into.
[SPEAKER_00]: They tend to you could buy little babies, baby, succulents, or baby, whatever, and then you kind of need to have a plan for them, which is I don't always.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now, honestly, the place I get new house plants is I make my own baby plants, Megan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a leader of plants.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to know about your plant midwifery business because I will tell you what, I hear all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I could be doing this with my outdoor plants too, like, all a divide blah blah blah, and I think what are you even talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, in theory, I know what propagating is.
[SPEAKER_01]: but in practice, it sounds really hard and I'm better.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tatiana tells us what how you do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to tell you the most basic version because that's all I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there are people who know a lot about the science and are doing much more complicated things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But first, a little pre-memory is when I lived in Orange County, so before this house, my neighbor across the street did a lot with succulents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember her telling me, so I had three tiny little kids, I had no house plans.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember her telling me, just any time, if you like any of my plans, just come over and like literally snap off one of the blooms, one of the heads and stick it in a pot of dirt on your front porch and it'll grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just remember thinking,
[SPEAKER_00]: really?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, is that how this works?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, succulents that really is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the very simplest, if you're if you're starting with succulents, you can snap off a little, you know, a little mini, um, like a bolt, whatever, it's like a leaf, but it's a, yes, thick thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, or you can go further down to where maybe there's a few of the,
[SPEAKER_00]: flower, you know, blues, and you can stick that in dirt and for the most part, it will grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would be the hook it in to dirt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now succulents are uniquely, uh, hearty that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I,
[SPEAKER_00]: Last week we talked about gardening, this week we're talking about indoor house plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Halfway in between are my kind of patio succulents and that's pretty much what I do with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a bunch of cute little decorative pots when something's looking old or tired or gets kind of woody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the wooden stem parts keeps growing and so the green on the end is sort of like lonely out there and not doing very well.
[SPEAKER_00]: you can just snap it off and start again and stick it in.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that would be the most basic level.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the first time I tried to propagate something of my indoor plans, more complicated, was the monsteras.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will post some pictures, but they get enormous.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do really, really well.
[SPEAKER_00]: They almost get too big.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I watched a couple YouTube videos and I was like, okay, I think I can do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, I sniped a hole
[SPEAKER_00]: front, a whole kind of leaf and its stem.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you put it, I put it in hot and clean water for like two weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing this right now, actually, because I just took apart my giant monster.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was getting too big.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm taking it down to parts and starting over with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: I found a big kind of glass vessel and I put it in water for like ten days, two weeks and what starts to happen is there's these little aquatic roots that start you can start to see little tiny roots that grow out of where you broke off the stem and they're they're just sort of floating around in the water and so I remember in the YouTube it was like okay wait until you have
[SPEAKER_00]: enough of those because those are what are going to be able to absorb nutrients from the soil.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I waited, I think, it's like two weeks, ish, and then once there's those visible roots, you can stick that thing in,
[SPEAKER_00]: A new pot of soil, give it some good water, baby it a little bit, like probably water it a little more often than you would Check on it more often and those roots will take root and then basically the leaf that you broke off of your plant.
[SPEAKER_00]: will take root in a new pot of soil and I've done it with my monsteras and I've done it with the hanging plant and that one was fun because I had like if you picture like a pretty hanging leafy plant they're like long tendrils almost like like long hair or something so I had a bunch of those and I put those in a skinny vase and again I I just waited till I saw these kind of spidery white aquatic roots start to come out and I changed the water a lot so I kept the water clean
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you can get way fancier than I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can put plant food in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can like But honestly, if you can see it in the glass of water that it is growing aquatic roots and if they're continuing to grow eventually You're like, okay, maybe you're ready for soil and maybe it is and maybe it isn't but it's so gratifying that like then you stick that thing in a new pot of soil And I've had a lot of success like I'm like I just made a new plant from the leaves of this other plant
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's really no downside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's no downside.
[SPEAKER_00]: It costs you, it costs nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I end up reusing a lot of pots or every once in a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be at the garden store, the Home Depot, that type of place, and get a new pot for a new corner of a shelf or a room.
[SPEAKER_00]: But honestly, I mostly, I'm not spending a lot of money at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way you kind of rearrange the cushions on your couch or you think I'm gonna put this through blanket out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sort of like,
[SPEAKER_00]: using what I have and finding new new locations and maybe a new pot, and it's such an affordable and kind of satisfying way to spruce up this space.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have to say I love it so much more than fresh flowers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to buy myself fresh flowers or pick flowers from the yard more, but I think I like the plants like a longer game, but more satisfying to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they don't, you know, with fresh flowers, which I do in theory love to have around.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also kind of a bummer to watch them die.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like you're immediately dying, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you're immediately just trying to keep them fresh from the beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whereas the plant is like the opposite.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, grow, little guy, grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this is like magical.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is pretty magical.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very different from what the kind of propagating and maybe I'm not even using the right word that I was envisioning, which is like dividing bulbs or, you know, like, it's still kind of mystical to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really understand how that works either, but this feels so doable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I already have plants in my house that I could be stamping pieces off and totally.
[SPEAKER_01]: starting in other rooms or something, just kind of having them take over.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have a lot of little pots and things that could be pots that I just don't use right now because I don't have enough plants to put in them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and you like your kitchen science too, like your little witchy experiments.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say that the propagating phase feels like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You end up with like,
[SPEAKER_00]: a jar with like a stem in it that you're kind of like watching for a couple weeks and then you're kind of figuring out if it's ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it would appeal to that thing that you like as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of like that active management watching.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, making a part of my routine, that's such a thing for me and it really does make me, that's how I engage with things.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I don't have that as part of it, I just kind of forget about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like you said, there's literally no downside.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no downside.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a question for you about pots, specifically, because I have a lot of sort of decorative planters that are definitely small to small to be outside that have been given to me over the years for whatever reason or have fallen into my hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of them don't have holes drill in the bottom.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: I then kind of freeze because I'm like, well, do I need to drill holes in the bottom and then get a tray or can I just put these on top of moss or like, what, how do you decide?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do all of your plants have drainage hole or your plants have drainage holes?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, what do you do when they go?
[SPEAKER_00]: All of my big ones do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the plants I described earlier, the monsters and the Zeeze plant and the FICA Street, they all do and probably for,
[SPEAKER_00]: that type of thing where you've made a little bit more of an investment and it's like a, it's a signature piece of your heart decor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I think that's best case.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like you, I have a lot of smaller pots and some do and some don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it kind of depends.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's a succulent or something that doesn't need a lot of water, I actually think it's kind of fine without it because you're not drowning it in water.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might be watering it every once in a while and then it gets a little soggy, but I also live in a,
[SPEAKER_00]: semi-arid climate.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not super humid here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, so there's some that I just don't worry about, and I I water something in there anyway, even though there's no drainage hole.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say that's mostly for things that don't get watered very often.
[SPEAKER_01]: Quick question for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you manage?
[SPEAKER_01]: You probably already were going to answer this anyway, but how do you like manage the different
[SPEAKER_00]: larger ones that I want to be on a predictable schedule with.
[SPEAKER_00]: I use a recurring reminder in my to doist app.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it just it's I think it's set to every 10 days and when I open up my app, it says water the plants and then I do it that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have a recurring reminder because 10 days is such a weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, where did I get 10 days?
[SPEAKER_00]: From the lady I bought the plants from on Facebook Marketplace.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew so little that she said do, I think she said like 10 ounces of water each every 10 days, or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever she told me, I just did, because I literally had no experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and then they did well, so I just kept doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I use a recurring reminder for, and it's just every 10 days it pops up, and then I do the Monsters and the Ficus Tree,
[SPEAKER_00]: a couple other plants I usually do that day if I don't I'll do it the next time and then everything that's smaller little succulents little things I'm playing with here and there it's like whenever but again I have a lot of I have a lot of low water need plants where it's like if it's looking dry I'll give it some water.
[SPEAKER_01]: And does it kind of like, have you gotten to the point now where you just know, like, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you don't have to always be looking at a reference or a, yeah, you're list.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this one kind of needs this and that one needs that.
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of, although I do think that the consistency of the every 10 days, if I didn't have that reminder pop up, I don't know that I would remember when was the last time and does this upward?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I guess I could feel like, you know, I know you hear like water at when the soil feels completely dry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, some of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think honestly I go with like this plant's not looking very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one that with the hanging one in my office Does just does not get enough sunlight and so I was constantly like oh, what's wrong with this one?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would give it a bunch of water and so yes and no I would say I am I'm sort of responsive But often I'm responding to a plant that doesn't look so good and then I'm like hmm what to do now
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wonder if you have any other tips you want to share about getting started or just how to navigate this house plant mom life that you've entered into.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I would say if you haven't, if you don't already have an inherent interest in plants, then do what I did and maybe think of it as a part of your home decor.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe you find a pot or a basket that you really like and have a corner where you'd like to put a plant like start with maybe the decor side and then find it an easy,
[SPEAKER_00]: an easy plant to keep alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can go to the garden store, you can look secondhand, like I did, but rather than like find the perfect plant, find the place you want to put a plant in your home, and then reverse engineer from there.
[SPEAKER_00]: That worked well for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would say except that some will do well and some won't and most of this is a pretty affordable way to play around with design and decor in your home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's not the end of the world if you lose some.
[SPEAKER_00]: I already mentioned recurring reminders.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to do this but I think most of our phone systems,
[SPEAKER_00]: start with what you think would be the right frequency and then automate that somehow.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also know people who water their plants every Saturday morning, like who just or who tie it to some other thing that happens weekly or monthly or twice a month.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just figure that figure out what works for you, but I think that that automation is key.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned that succulents are a great starter
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to say, I lived in Arizona for almost 10 years and when I moved back to California after that time in Arizona, I was so over cactus and agave and like drought resistant everything and
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, succulents actually were having kind of a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is 2014.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were kind of in in terms of like decor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you were everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, people succulents in a pot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had such a visceral...
[SPEAKER_00]: reaction in the opposite direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted roses and climbing vines and like lush greenery and grass, and so it took me a long time in those first few years of living in California, despite the universe being like succulents are so cute and easy and look at this tiny little pod and they were kind of everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now it's been, you know, over 10 years since I have been back in California and I'm like, okay, succulents are kind of great.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're great.
[SPEAKER_00]: To start, they make a cute accent, they're really low maintenance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And actually there's a lot of variety within succulents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you can build a really, I have a planter on my front porch that my friend Nicole actually helped.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very large.
[SPEAKER_00]: So she almost like landscape designed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like she, she brought over a bunch of
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, like a succulent garden, I guess, in this planter, and they're so easy to grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, for giving, they can be inside or outside, so, I guess I had to come to that in my own way, but if you don't have the Arizona baggage that I do, just start with your tiny little like grocery store succulent.
[SPEAKER_00]: and maybe find a cute pot that's a little bigger and put a couple of them in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We even have succulents and some cactus that grow out of the ground here in Michigan.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not, I mean, I understand why you'd be in that place coming out of Arizona, but it's appropriate for your surroundings too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it absolutely is, and there's some really, when you stop judging them all just as cacti like I kind of did, there's some really cool looking and really pretty ones and a lot of variety within that general family.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to touch on fake houseplants really quick because I think in general, I prefer real and I think the fake ones
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, the best fake planter, the ones that are so expensive that I would never buy them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can't, you can find some gorgeous art official greenery for your home and your decor.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the cheaper it is, I think the cheaper it looks.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's never been something I've wanted a lot to do with, but when you're when you're doing some real house plants, mixing in a couple of fake ones into your decor,
[SPEAKER_00]: actually can work well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I keep mentioning the hanging plant in my office that after a few years it did finally bite the dust.
[SPEAKER_00]: I propagated it so it has a child in my dining room.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the original died and yet I have this really cute macromae very 70s, 80s like macromae hanging.
[SPEAKER_00]: thing for it and I just suck a little fake plant in there for now until I have something else and it makes me so happy So I guess don't be afraid of an occasional fake plant if what you want is the aesthetic And I have found that the smaller ones feel less Fony to me or feel less like I'm somehow A fraud so I'm just gonna quickly interject about the plant.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought was fake for like a year and I remember the water it
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, I had bought it just to go up in a high shelf in my office and I was like, well, I'm going to be putting it way up high.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't want to real plant because I don't want to have to go get it down to water it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I stuck it up there and kind of forgot about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then one day I'm like, why is that fake plant grouping and turning brown, but it took so long for that to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so now I remember when you said that to me and I want to say that was a ZZ plant.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could be wrong, but they they need very little water and I've had one for six years and I was just in a store and they had one it was so big and gorgeous and I was like, oh my gosh, here's just so big and that made me think I bet mine is ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: to be repotted because mine is pretty healthy but it hasn't grown a lot in size but they're so forgiving and I think they look really nice so yeah and almost look fake because it was so glossy and like nice looking yeah I don't know it shows you my experience with house plants is that they usually look like they're dying that's I thought it helped me one was fake but I was gonna mention briefly there are there is plant food little liquid things that you
[SPEAKER_00]: dabbled very lightly in these like I'll purchase one and I'll use it a couple times and then I'll forget about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's plant food.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can fertilize maybe maybe this is my assignment that you stick down in the soil.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, talking about yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, would you mean the sticks that help the plant stay upright or I mean like fertilizer space.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I haven't done any of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think partly it might be my climate is pretty easy for a lot of this and two I'm picking plants that don't require a lot of money.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not doing like orchids.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, orchids make me anxious.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got one as a gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got one as a gift in the beginning of this summer and I just, it feels like responsibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the best that I could say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to plant that does not feel like risk.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you've got to put it in a baby v-orn and...
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the time you're playing classical music.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you miss your plans?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you own a mister?
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you miss your plans?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't own a mister.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do own like one like very cute aesthetically pleasing watering can that's from IKEA.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's very darling.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want like a petite watering can that almost looks like part of the decor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I key a sells it for like $11.
[SPEAKER_01]: You sent me one, I think you sent me one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably it's like gold axioms and it's a little.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's very cute.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't have a Mr.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do try to buy, if I am repotting, I do try to buy soil for the type of plant I'm repotting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's like pretty basic.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like,
[SPEAKER_00]: There's potting soil that works well for succulents and cacti and then there's potting soil that works better for indoor house plants versus outdoor.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean that's like that's about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean I am not spending a lot of money or extra brain power to try to like make this an A plus effort.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am solidly like middle of the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a quick question about propagating, I don't think you mentioned this, and if you did, I apologize, but when you're propagating, are you ever starting with something you find outside?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, have you ever gone and snipped something out of a garden outside?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I had you didn't ask that before, so good question.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have with a succulent type
[SPEAKER_00]: plant that I know is just growing on the side of the road.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other than my neighbor Don back in 2015, I wish I had access to that succulent garden again because she had some cool ones, but I mean, I wouldn't do it from anyone's private property.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I haven't tried it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll definitely give you permission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, unless we like like neighbor Don.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't tried it with something that's not from the succulent family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the succulents are so easy that you're just like walking along and like, I'm like, oh, I'm just going to break this off and go home and stick it in an unused pot on my back patio and it will grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have done that a couple of times.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be interesting to try it with something more leafy, more lush.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not tried, but I think, like, again, why not, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if you see those little aquatic white roots starting to grow, who knows?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a loose, there's not a loose.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, like, IVs, like, IVs and those kind of climbing plants would probably be pretty easy to do not with, they want to grow, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I guess we should wrap up by talking about your precious kitty cats.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you experience with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, this is probably like unhelpful, but I did just move some plants into some areas that the cats don't go when I first, when they were kittens and they were much more, um, rambunkious.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't want them to get sick.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I, I think I did a basic Google to make sure that nothing I had was going to literally kill my pets.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that would be number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want to poison anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also bought a handy little type of thing that has these upward facing, they're not spikes, like they're not going to impale your the toe beans of your cat, but they would be uncomfortable to walk on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can cut it, it lays flat in the in the pot of your plan and you can cut around it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like if you're, let's say it's the fakestry, the fakestry has kind of one
[SPEAKER_00]: This material into the right shape and kind of fit it right in there and then that was for the bigger plant so the kittens could not just get up there and walk around like basically they would try and use it like a litter box right so that would be that would be for a larger plant.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have in the past knocked a plant over they have taken their teeth to some leaves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I honestly think they've outgrown most of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was like a time period where, yes, it was a little bit of a pain, but,
[SPEAKER_00]: with that spiky stuff for the big plants was worth the purchase and I'll link to that in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aside from that, it was sort of like accepting that they were gonna claw up a few leaves that were in reach and then I would just eventually snip those leaves off and the rest of the plant looks fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, right now it's just sort of like, they don't totally leave the house plants alone, but also they're not like making a huge mess constantly.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's tolerable.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tolerable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and the the dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: The dog has not gotten into the plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't have any of my superpowers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know about the things and then we'll do another episode about plant poopers at some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I have learned so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm feeling very motivated to just start something.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, even just propagating something we already have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our Jade plant is solid.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really established and I feel like that's probably one that I could.
[SPEAKER_01]: Propagate pretty easily and maybe you just have a couple.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really like how it looks and maybe we have a couple.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or else some start there, why not?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something really fun about having a new plant that you made from your old plant.
[SPEAKER_00]: And especially when you already have those planted, like a little pots and stuff, it's like free.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something new for free.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: My interest in me is excited.
[SPEAKER_01]: So.
[SPEAKER_00]: And YouTube is obviously your friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did more YouTube being with the monsters because they're kind of specific and they were new to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they came so mature already that I didn't want to screw it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So YouTube, like I'm sure there are YouTube's about specific propagation tips just for that type of plan and stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I will help you report back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this was really fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will put lots of pictures and links in the show notes, which are on our sub-stack.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also wanted to mention that we are heading into one of our little season breaks between batches of episodes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we will be back with new episodes beginning September 8th.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the meantime, just a reminder, you can find everything we talked about on sub-stack at midlifeladyleisurepersuits.substack.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that is also where you'll find the special page we've set up with some of our favorite Vionic styles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Use the promo code midlife at vionicshoes.com for 15% off.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for being here everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: We will talk to you soon.