Bloom And Grow Radio

We are so lucky to be joined by Mickey from Mickey Hargitay Plants- THE go to plant institution in Los Angeles for Plant People. Mickey has been in the business of selling plants for 39 years: long before the recent trend has taken over Instagram and millennials. He had his shop in the 70s during the last houseplant craze, and gives us insight into his experience selling plants through several decades. We chat today not only about his long career, but what it takes as a plant shop owner to get a plant from a grower and into their customer’s hands: sourcing, transportation, pricing, inventory and more. Mickey is such a special human and gives us such wonderful insight into his career and his shop.   In this episode we learn: Mickey’s journey into plants and his 39 year career owning a plant shop How houseplant trends have changed over the last 30 years Mickey walks us through his process for running his shop: from sourcing plants, to storing and selling them and ensuring their happiness in your home Best prac

So thrilled to be joined again by Leslie Halleck after the wildly successful two part episode on Understanding Natural Light (Episodes 46 and 47) last season. After the success of her recent book, Gardening Under Lights, Leslie published a new book this month on propagation called Plant Parenting. Today Leslie joins me to discuss not the techniques for propagation, by how plants actually multiply. Today’s episode is meant to help us zoom out and understand the overarching reasons for why the propagation projects we know and love are so successful. It is the perfect conversation to enrich our understanding of our plants and how intelligently designed they are. Leslie Halleck is a Horticulturalist by education and profession with a passion for plants and gardening. She has worked in many sectors of the gardening industry, from nurseries, to being the Director of Horticulture Research at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden to founding Halleck Horticultural, a consulting service for Green Industry businesse

Thrilled to be sharing this planty conversation with my #plantfriendIRL, Kevin Espiritu from Epic Gardening! Kevin and I recently met IRL in San Diego and clicked immediately. He is a wonderfully curious Botanical Bro who has the most incredible Urban Gardening set up in his home in San Diego. Our journeys to plant parenthood are very similar, but revolve around different passions: indoor (mine) and outdoor (his).  Today we talk our different interests, the similarities and differences between indoor and outdoor gardening and container gardening for those of us who might want to try gardening outdoors! I hope you find it inspiring to grow your own food in your outdoor space! Kevin's book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, was just released and would be the perfect companion for anyone curious to learn more about urban gardening and growing your own food! In this episode we learn: Kevin's somewhat unsuccessful intro to growing food, and how he became the amazing gardener he is now Differences in our exp

Thrilled to be bringing you the live taping of Bloom and Grow Radio in Tucson on “Living with Plants in the Desert”. I am joined by Brendan the owner of Eco Grow, a local aquaponics and rare plant shop and grower and also Prococo Products, premium coco coir supplier, Akiko from Tucson based flower and plant shop Bloom Maven and Becca, a Tucson native and the Plant Lady behind the De La Plants Youtube channel. We have a wonderful discussion on the desert climate, the Saguaro Cactus, and how to have a thriving plant collection while living in the desert, and how to incorporate desert style into your home and plant collection.   In this episode we learn: What a desert biome is The history of the Saguaro Cacti Houseplant Care in the Desert 101 with Brendan from Eco Gro and Prococo Desert plant styling tips with Akiko from Bloom Maven Hot tips on living with Plants in the Desert from Becca of Becca De La Plants   Thank you to our Wine and Gift Bag Sponsors (all female owned and run companies)! Sand Reckoner Vine

Today Maria shares a mini episode on why Bloom and Grow Radio is now on Patreon. Support Bloom and Grow Radio by becoming a Plant Friend on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/bloomandgrowradio    Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Maria and members of the Bloom and Grow Radio Community give tips on how to move homes with houseplants!  In this episode we learn: - the various ways to pack plants for moving - practical tips from listeners who have moved successfully with their houseplants - suggestions from Maria for moving in a car, truck, plane or countries!   For a blog with all of the tips provided in this episode visit: www.bloomandgrowradio.com/moving   For a youtube video where Maria shows you how she packs her plants to take on the plane visit: https://www.youtube.com/c/bloomandgrowradio   Support Bloom and Grow Radio on PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/bloomandgrowradio Follow Bloom and Grow Radio: Instagram and Facebook: @BloomandGrowRadio Subscribe to the Bloom and Grow YOUTUBE show! https://www.youtube.com/c/bloomandgrowradio Website: www.bloomandgrowradio.com Join the (free) Garden Club: www.bloomandgrowradio.com/garden-club Support Bloom and Grow Radio on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bloomandgrowradio Advertising Inquiri

Rachael is the plant lady behind Infinite Succulent and the author of the succulent crafting book Infinite Succulent: Miniature Living Art to Keep or Share. The book is filled with incredible and easy succulent crafts for any skill level. I have been obsessed with succulent crowns ever since I found them on Instagram over a year ago and got one for myself on my last trip to San Diego. I’ve wanted to do an episode on DIY Succulent Crowns for a year and I’m so excited to have had the opportunity to finally be bringing an episode to you because I just always feel so special and giddy whenever I’ve worn one in the past. They are such a fun craft to do with friends or your kids. I hope you enjoy our wonderful conversation! At this live taping, Rachael walks Maria (and guests) through making their own succulent crowns from start to finish and teaches us how to replant our crowns to have them live on forever. A few heads up about this episode 1)   the nursery and space for this event was so perfect, we were surround

I am so excited to share the magic of our first live taping at Folia Collective in Los Angeles with my special guests Danae from Folia Collective and Christine from Work Hard Plant Hard. You will remember them from Episode 24 on How to Start a Plant Shop where Danae took us behind the scenes of how she grew Folia Collective into the Planty mecca it is now and Episode 17 on The Studies Behind Why Plants Make People Happy and Healthy where Christine, who is a practicing physician, walks us through the scientific studies that prove that plants improve the quality of our lives. These two women are such special friends to me, and such pillars in this planty community and I’m so thrilled to be sharing this special conversation with you. We dive into all things plant community: how to first become a part of it, how to grow within it and also how to behave as part of it. I was surprised at how inspiring and helpful the etiquette section of the conversation was, and hope you have some great take aways from it. Special

Plant Friends, I’m so excited to welcome Summer Rayne Oakes of Homestead Brooklyn back on the show to talk about an issue we’ve all probably run into: finding a plant you love at a garden shop or nursery that doesn’t have a name tag… and what to do! We’ve learned through out these episodes that one of the most important things we can do as plant parents is to find out what kind of light and humidity our homes get, and to bring plants home that will thrive in our unique indoor environments. So… how are you supposed to be able to do this if you don't know what the plant is!? I know this is an issue I’ve come across and thought Summer Rayne would be the perfect person to chat about the general clues we could get from looking at a plant, that might lead us to get a general idea for the light and care it may need. Disclaimer: obviously we speak in generalities here, there will always be an exception to the rule, BUT it’s great to arm ourselves with as much general knowledge as humanly possible, to zoom out and

I’m thrilled to have Dave Hunter, the founder of Crown Bees on the show to talk about pollinators and how important they are for our environment. Dave is a native bee expert that shares so much information about pollination, bees in general, why the honey bee might not be the king of the bee world as we know it, and how we can help pollinators continue to help our local environments literally bloom and grow. Pollinators are something I knew little about and Dave really walks us through everything we need to know about them. In this episode we learn: What pollinators are, and why they are important Why the Honey Bee might not be the most effective pollinator How many types of bees there are, and what they do How do bees pollinator flowers What is a native bee Why are bees threatened? How can we help - Thank you Dave for all of your incredible information. If you are interested in learning more about pollinators, or possibly installing one of Daves amazing bee kits, I highly suggest heading over to https://cr

Today’s episode is a community episode, featuring YOU, the Bloom and Grow Radio Listeners sharing their stories and empowering and educating our community.             Plant Fails, everyone take a moment of silence to bow our heads for the plants we’ve lost in our plant parenthood journeys. Because plant friends… I don’t care how gorgeously curated your IG feed is…. we ALL have a plant fail in our history. But for some reason, we feel shame when they happen. I think it’s hard to stomach our not so perfect plant parenthood moments, when we are surrounded by perfect photos of gorgeous plants, in our curated IG feeds and in the garden centers that get the perfect amount of light and fertilizer to make them truly thrive. I had the idea for this episode when I was struggling with this problem last month. I was surprised at how much shame I felt about this plant fail, and knew I wanted to turn to our community for support and help, and this episode is the result of that!             Thank you to Brie, Eva (@rootb

RSVP HERE    So excited to have a "Botanicals and Brunch" Bloom and Grow Radio Listener Meet up at Cultivate Propagate in SEATTLE this Saturday March 30th from 1030-noon!   Join us for Brunch Cocktails, Coffee, Raised Doughnuts and more! It will be a wonderful way to meet your local planty community members and make new #plantfriendsIRL!   I'll be hosting informal interviews about what your favorite Seattle Planty Places are!    Chelsea (the shop owner) will be saving some Philodendron Pink Princess and Painted Lady and Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma to go on sale in shop during the event!   Please RSVP by clicking this link so we know how much stuff to get!   Botanicals and Brunch Partners: Cultivate Propagate Raised Doughnuts Marseille Food and Wine Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Today's episode is a short and sweet nugget of love about my trip to the Redwood Forest. Tune in for some mushy feel good vibes and inspiration. Use #bagplantlatinchallenge and post a photo of one of your plants with the latin name! Educate our community! Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Club for exclusive access to early offerings for events, episodes, the free download of the Molly Mansfield Keep Blooming Print and the password to our private facebook group!  https://bloomandgrowradio.com/garden-club Follow Maria and Bloom and Grow Radio on Instagram for behind the scenes shots and... plants!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Plant Friends! I’m so excited to have my dear friend and Botanical Bro Chris Satch back on the show, to help demystify the latin names of our houseplants we love so dearly. Today we dive into plant latin, some history, troubleshooting, and learn LOTS of nerdy latin words. We hope this episode helps you better understand your houseplants, what families they come from and maybe just gives you some fancy words to pull out at parties and sound fancy with. Stay tuned till the end of the episode because we’ve come up with a fun challenge for our community to participate in, you wont want to miss it- I can’t wait to see what you come up with! In this episode we learn: Why Plant Latin is so important to know for our houseplants Who Carl Linneus was why he’s important to Plant Latin General Pronunciation guidelines Kingdom, division, class, order, family, genus, species- how these names apply to our plants How houseplants are broken down in Plant Latin What the cultivar and special exceptions for Plant Latin are Reso

Today’s guest caught my eye on social media because of his incredible travel itinerary and his obvious passion for finding the plants we know and love as houseplants, in their natural habitats around the world. Michael Mittermeier is a passionate plant professional who has traveled the world and documents his findings of rare and unusual plants on his instagram account @mickmitty. He also has one of the largest private collections of Monstera, Syngonium, Scindapsus and Raphidophora in the country. I invited him on the show today to discuss his experience with our favorite houseplants in nature, but the conversation blossomed into a fun chat about how to plan trips for plant sightseeing, how to take your plant obsession to the next level, what these plants are like in nature and lots and lots of information about Monstera in the wild and he even teaches us a thing or two about Adansonii vs Obliqua. I hope this conversation encourages you to learn more about where these plants we love to keep indoors actually c

Today I’m joined by my plant friend Darryl of Houseplant Journal to discuss the importance of soil aeration and having plants in low Light environments. Houseplant Journal is known for it’s amazing instagram account, blog and now watering can and his forthcoming book! Darryl's instagram bio says “an engineers approach to plant care” and I think that sums Darryl up so well, he has the clinical, thoughtful, inquisitive brain of an engineer, and the passion and enthusiasm of the best of the best plant parents. Darryl is passionate about helping people understand their lighting environment so I thought he would be the perfect guest for this episode on what to do if you are a Plant Person living in a low light home. Plant friends, we get real in this episode. We might say things you don't want to hear, but it's important information to understand how to best set our plants up for success! In this episode we learn: What’s new with Darryl as he’s built the Houseplant Journal brand and what exciting thin

Plant Friends, you’ve heard me talk about my “Plant Co Parent” on this podcast, you’ve seen in him in our Botanicals and Booze Happy Hour Insta-stories, or maybe in our most recent Wallygro Install insta-story, and now, it’s time for me to officially introduce to the love of my life, and “partner in plants,” Billy Morrissey, to you. This past year and a half has been big for me with leaving my Plant Killer Ways and becoming a Crazy Plant Lady, but it’s also been a whirlwind for my live in boyfriend, Billy. He has been there every step of the way as I’ve built our Urban Jungle, and this podcast, and let me tell you… although the process has been magical and I wouldn’t change a thing, it hasn’t been the easiest. He has had this intense hobby thrust upon him, and over this past year or so, we’ve learned a lot about how to manage my new found passion while still having a healthy relationship and a happy (and uncluttered) home. So plant friends… this episode isn’t necessarily for YOU… it’s for your partners, your

Plant Friends! We are kicking of Season 3 with your top most requested episode out of any topic, a 101 episode on how to care for the Marantaceae Family, and understanding why on earth they can be so dang tricky to care for! I would say that “why is my calathea or prayer plant browning at the tips” is one of my most frequently DM’d questions on instagram. I think this Marantaceae family has some of the most gorgeously patterned leaves I’ve ever seen and I’m excited to have this episode to help us keep them happy and healthy in our urban jungles! And friends, I have the worlds most perfect guest to walk us through the beauty and complexities of this amazing family of Plants. Marc Hachadourian is the Director of Glasshouse Horticulture and Senior Curator of Orchids at the New York Botanical Garden. I have been hearing about Marc for over a year. His amazing plant brain, friendly personality and passion for plants is kind of legendary and I’m so excited to introduce you all to him. I’m so thankful to the New Yor

Updates and exciting announcements about Season 3 and an invitation (and instructions) for YOU to be featured in an upcoming episode!  If you want to be featured on the Plant Killer Lessons episode- call  (267) 478-2521 and leave your story! The voicemail allows for 3 minute max, so it will help to write your story out ahead of time. I can't wait to hear from you and learn what you've learned! Follow Maria and Bloom and Grow on the Road on Instagram Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Club (for free) https://www.bloomandgrowradio.com/garden-clubAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Happy News Years! Today I’m reviewing the lessons I’ve learned in all of the incredible conversations I’ve had over the 49 episodes of Bloom and Grow Radio. Man, I have learned so much! In the episode we discuss what I’ve learned about: Drainage Episode 08: Dirty Talk with Darryl from Houseplant Journal  Succulents Episode 3: How to Not Kill You're your Succulents  Episode 35: How to Grow Desert Plants and Succulents Indoors Artificial and Natural Light  Episode 12: Everything You Need to Know About Indoor Grow lights   Episode 45, 46: Understanding Natural Light Specific Plant Care Episode 33: Monstera 101 Episode 25: Fiddle Leaf Fig 101  Episode 14: Pilea Peperomiodes 101  Episode 29: Indoor Citrus 101  Episode 32: Airplants 101  Episode 44 and 45: Aroids 101 (2 parts) Episode 44 Part 1  Episode 45 Part 2 DIY (which are fun and not hard and scary!) Episode 16: Mounting Epiphytes Episode 19: Terrarium 101 Episode 22: Windowsill Herb Gardening  Episode 42: How to Make a Moss Pole  Episo