This post is part-confession, part-love letter, and part-accountability for myself. You see, I’ve been on a journey for the past couple years. A journey to acquire 100 houseplants. Yes, with enough money, I could just go out and buy 100 houseplants. But I really wanted to learn about each plant that I was bringing in, making sure that I provide it the proper environment to thrive, and ultimately, not kill them.
To be honest, my love affair with houseplants didn’t even start until I moved out of California. I suppose I was really spoiled by the perfect 70s weather year round. My parents’ home has a modest backyard, but they filled it with over a dozen fruit trees, huge trees, and plenty of little plants. In college, I loved doing my papers out on their backyard, feeling like I was surrounded by an oasis.
When I moved to Illinois in 2012, I acquired my first plant. It was a small succulent (it’s still alive!) and it kept me company during school. I didn’t really think about increasing the number of plants beyond my one succulent until I moved to Philly. I finally had a home with decent square footage and some natural sunlight. I started acquiring more houseplants. In our 2 years of living in Philly, I probably had around 15-20 houseplants of various sizes.
Then we moved to the suburbs. Our current house is really big (for me, anyway). And in my opinion, one of the BEST ways to decorate a home on a budget is put in plants. Plants naturally brighten up the space, bringing in color and texture. Our house also has great light all around, large windows, allowing my plant dreams to come true.
Over the last 2 years, I started acquiring more and more houseplants. I also started learning how to propagate my houseplants. So when I “count” plants, I’m really counting planters containing a living plant, rather than different species of plants.
I’m in full nesting-mode right now. Ian jokes that I’m creating friends for our little one. Last week, my friend kindly mailed me over a dozen cuttings from her plant collection. So now, I’m up to around 77 plants. The next goal isn’t 200, but rather growing some of these little guys into bigger plants so they look substantial in my home.
If you are interested in following some of my favorite “plantfluencers”, here are some of my favorites:
spoonfulofwonderful.com 
What a lovely little family!
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