How this plant store owner cares for his plants

In October of 2018 I was undoubtedly, extremely unqualified to answer plant care questions. When we decided to open a flower shop I really had no intention of becoming a “plant expert”. Yes, REWILD in it’s infancy was basically a flower shop. Pretty early on that shifted and it became obvious that when you sell plants you need to know how to take care of them. So, its October of 2018 I have zero plants at home, just found out that plants don’t die if you take care of them (news to me), and I still did not have my first plant.

Fast Forward to April of 2020, its quite a different time (pandemic and all). My wife and I now have almost too many plants to count. I have actually counted and the number is 16 plants inside, 12 outside plants that are indoor plants, and some random cuttings that don’t count in my opinion. REWILD at this point is selling a fair number of plants and what comes along with that is plant care questions!?

Why is my leaf yellow? Why is it brown? This plant has bugs what do I do? How did it get bugs in the first place (probably not my fault)? I have fungus gnats, what do I do? What is indirect light? My plant has a bite mark? How do I get humidity to my plant?

My plant philosophy in general is pretty laissev-faire. I remember reading that the whole goal when you have an indoor plant is to mimic the biome of wherever this plant came from in your own home. When that is the goal it seems like failing isn’t so bad. Compound onto that the idea that I take responsibility for something around 500-1000 plants at our shop at any given time. Compounded by the fact that we have amazing, interested plant lovers who work at our shop. In a short period of time I’ve been able to see a real wide spectrum of plant problems and discuss them with people who love to discuss plant problems. Lastly, I’ve become truly obsessed with the plant world in lots of ways from influencers, to plant shops, to buying plants, and this is basically the genesis of this blog.

In the ensuing blog posts I’m going to take you through my process of tackling plant care problems. How do I research the issues that I come across literally everyday. How do I feel about all the conflicting plant care advice on the internet and the people distributing them. Then hopefully I give you a clear cut methodology for testing and solving various problems that pop up in your indoor jungle.

Be well,

Joe