Does your plant need a nanny?

Straits Times

02-05-2025

Brandon Barnett (left) and Cameron Dotson, co-owners of Nerdy Plant Co., at a residential client's home in Atlanta, on March 27. PHOTOS: EMILY WANG/NYTIMES
UNITED STATES – How are Beyonce, SZA and Dolly Parton doing? That is the question on Mr Louis Easton's mind.
But he is not an assistant or a stylist to the stars. Instead, his charges are a monstera, a silver satin pothos and a prayer plant named after the American singers. Mr Easton, better known as the Plant Mon in Los Angeles, is part of a new crop of plant minders who help clients curate and care for their botanical babies.
'Plants are the new pets,' said Mr Brandon Barnett, a founder of Nerdy Plant in Atlanta , a full-service firm that offers design, care and troubleshooting for plant collections weekly, biweekly or monthly.
He propagated his first plant, a heartleaf philodendron – still his favourite – at 10 years old and has been helping care for other people's plants since college.
He and Mr Cameron Dotson, a co-owner, saw a significant uptick in demand for their plant ministrations during the coronavirus pandemic.
'People were buying a lot of different plants, but they were having a hard time with them,' Mr Barnett said. What started primarily as a retail business has morphed into a home-and-office service that includes watering, mitigating pests and optimising lighting for US$50 (S$65) an hour, excluding materials. (In the Plant Mon's case, basic services begin at US$50 a visit, but Mr Easton said he would adjust rates for those on a budget.)
Mr Barnett will go the extra mile to nurture his charges, he said, from polishing leaves by hand to leaving tap water out overnight to evaporate chemicals like chlorine before watering finicky plants such as calathea.
Nerdy Plant's clients, many of whom are in the movie business and gone for months at a time, often ask for photos so they can track their plants' wellness from afar.
'People invest time and money into these living things, so it makes sense that they care about them,' Mr Barnett said.
Mr Brandon Barnett spritzes and cleans a plant's leaves for a client.
PHOTO: EMILY WANG/NYTIMES
The expression of plant care can extend to the spoken word. Just ask Mr Hilton Carter, 45, a plant and interior stylist and content creator in Baltimore.
'I do talk to every single plant,' he said. 'I'm just checking in, like, 'Hey, how are you doing? Are you looking good? How'd you get these yellowing leaves? Is that my fault?''
Mr Carter is not alone in chatting to flora. In an interview that aired in 2011, Britain's King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, waxed poetic about his love of the natural world. 'I happily talk to the plants, the trees, listen to them,' he said. 'I think it's absolutely crucial.'
Once Mr Carter installs a plant collection, the client may choose to add ongoing care services for about US$50 an hour, but he notes that the real bond between parent and plant is forged during hands-on care.
'That process – the watering, the repotting, the wiping down the leaves, the misting – these things create a connection,' he said. 'Once you start to have that sort of relationship with something, that bond, that love is formed.'
There is a historical precedent to people inviting plant caretakers into their quarters, said London-based author Catherine Horwood of Potted History: How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes.
Ferns were popular in Victorian England because 'they didn't need a lot of light, so they survived quite well with all of the heavy drapes and curtains', she said. When indoor pollution because of coal and dust caused plants to die, a local gardener or plant nursery employee would remove dead plants and replace them with new ones, she added.
Today, as people move around, so do the plants, she said. 'They're sort of part of the family, and you are making this cocoon of greenery in your own space.'
Ms Samantha Adler, a certified horticulturist in Brooklyn, New York, who runs Houseplant Concierge, tries to keep her services affordable. In-person visits typically run around US$100, but she offers virtual plant visits on a sliding scale based on what clients can afford, with the goal of inclusivity, she said.
One of her clients, Ms Emma Wisniewski, a 34-year-old policy researcher and graduate student who lives in Queens, the adjacent New York City borough, had 'a couple dozen' plants, including a monstera measuring almost 2m .
'That's probably my baby,' Ms Wisniewski said. To prepare for a trip, she sends a video to Ms Adler with detailed updates on individual plants' specific needs.
'I started typing out an e-mail,' she said. 'Then I thought a video was more convenient, but I guess it is kind of precious.'
Emotional connections with plants can run deep. Clients grieve if a plant dies or sometimes even if its leaves or branches need to be pruned, Mr Easton , the Plant Mon, said. As their personal plant whisperer, he supports them through the process.
'I'm like, 'Look, we're going to let this leaf go. We're going to say a prayer. It's going to come back,'' he said. 'These plants are more immortal than we are.' NYTIMES
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