Plant Parenthood

Mug shots & family portraits from my now-retired hobby of collecting Alocasias.

I was never a plant person. I am, however, an aesthetics person. Years of seeing the same criticism of plantless homes on Apartment Therapy finally got to me when, one day, I looked around my own space and realized that I, too, was guilty of the same. My home was lifeless besides me. So I walked over to Home Depot and bought, predictably enough, a fiddle-leaf fig. When to my amazement I was able to keep that alive, I got a dracaena. Then a syngonium. Then a button fern (which I promptly killed—delicate ferns hate me). I downloaded plant apps. I watched plant videos. I overthought and worried like you wouldn’t believe. So when I successfully repotted my first plant, I was floating. And when things stayed alive, when they actually grew and seemed to be thriving—I cannot tell you how proud I was. I would never, ever have thought I could be a successful plant mom.

I slowly expanded my collection, getting braver and braver about my Home Depot selections until one day I went into an actual plant shop. It was there I saw my first alocasia—a nebula in a six-inch pot. I was instantly in love, and it was alocasia central at my place for about two years.

I loved the creative problem solving of find the right shelves, then experimenting with different types of grow lights, then modifying the shelves, then upgrading the lights, then upgrading how the lights are attached, then finding the perfect humidifiers, etc. I tinkered with my plants for hours on some days. Glossing up their leaves, pruning, training, switching their pots up, rearranging them on the shelves. Sometimes I would just sit and commune with them. I could almost feel my blood pressure drop, just trancing out as I stared at the captivating mix of colors and textures.

There was just one downside that I really couldn’t get past—the grow lights were really overstimulating to me. So in the winter of 2026, I called it quits on plants, except for a couple of very low maintenance ones. I gave everything else away, and disassembled my lights.

But I’m really proud of how successful I was at growing and maintaining such beautiful living things. I keep this page up as an homage to the happy, healthy green babies I raised.