Plants And Finding Your Community
No One Ever Told Me This Was Possible
If a few years ago you had told me, a self-proclaimed adult introvert who thoroughly enjoys the company of her dog, that I would accidentally stumble upon a community that expands from Canada to the UK, to Australia, to Indonesia…I probably would have laughed at you before retreating back into my cozy cave at home.
Let’s peddle back to late 2018, shall we?
If this isn’t some form of divine intervention, I don’t know what is. I woke up one day and felt a full-bodied desire to buy a succulent as a houseplant. Or maybe I’d be really wild and buy two. I marched into my local flower boutique that happened to also sell houseplants – without much thought– I grabbed a pinkish purple succulent and what was labelled a “zebra plant”.
And let me tell you, the JOY that these two plants brought me was borderline embarrassing. Knowing absolutely nothing about plant care, I moved this pair of tiny plants from window sill to window sill throughout the day to find as much light as possible. At this point, I knew I had opened pandora’s box and there was no turning back. If these two tiny succulents made me this happy, I would need to transform my home into a fucking jungle and that’s that.
A few trips to the garden centre later and I was seemingly halfway there. Two plants turned to ten plants, turned to twenty plants (which eventually became fifteen plants again because I killed a bunch). Instead of giving up, I poured over blog posts, YouTube videos and houseplant podcasts (yes, there are houseplant podcasts and they are fucking awesome!) to learn as much as I possibly could, to help me–you guessed it–get more plants.
I have a point, I promise.
No one in my physical vicinity seemed to understand what had become of me. I had a few friends and family members become infected by my excitement over those earlier months but they eventually lost interest, because it just didn’t give them the same joy that it gave me. And that’s totally okay. I felt that I had solidified my weirdness at this point, and eventually took the hint that I was annoying everyone by posting photos of my houseplants constantly on social media so I thought that I should make a separate instagram account, and the people who just wanted to see my plants were welcome to follow.
And I’m so glad that I did!
A community that I never expected to find
I shared my plants, best tips as I learned them, figuring maybe a few of my aunts would read it now and then but primarily it was a creative outlet to share my love of plants and the joy that this new hobby brought me. Little did I know that it would change everything.
I opened the door to a community that I never expected to find. Strangers would comment on my photos and wanted to talk about plants with me. People from Texas, Scotland, Australia were reaching out to me to share the joy in this hobby. I found other planty friends to follow, whom I later met in person at local garden centres and events (yes, there are houseplant events) and we barely knew each other’s names, but knew our instagram accounts. It was truly delightful. I learned how to grow a social media following and decided to change the course of my career as a result. I started a houseplant blog. Of course, I bought more plants. And I killed many plants. And I learned so much along the way.
They Will Find You
To be clear, this isn’t a serendipitous event where someone gained a million followers and now is famous has a community. You do not need to love plants, or go viral, or become internet famous to find your community. To date, I only have over a thousand followers and all of this truthfully began when I had 20 followers. I’ve had people approach me and say “I don’t even really care about plants but you make me excited about them”.
The internet can be a horrible, hateful place and social media can be a beast. But if you follow what gives you joy, your community is out there. Whether you love knitting, fish-keeping, crystals, woodworking, sandwiches, computers, home design...if you share your joy with the world, your community will find you.
They don’t have to live in your town and they don’t have to be in your current circle of friends.
Be as dorky, as weird and as passionate about what brings you joy as you want to be…and don’t worry if your friends roll your eyes about it because someone will find value in what you give to the world.
When it comes to the internet, you create the space, you make the rules, and the people you invite will see your passion and they will find you.
How fucking magical is that?
Written by @plantyquirkyblogger
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