Bloom And Grow Radio

I think we all know that there are a lot of lessons to be learned in the garden and that's twofold: literally how to garden and how to grow food, reconnect with our food chain, and deepen our relationship with nature. I am so excited to deepen my gardening knowledge this summer with My First Garden Series, where I troubleshoot and try my first shot at outdoor gardening outside of the tiny balcony garden that I have had since I've launched the show. In this episode, I invite Nicole from Gardenary for an in-depth garden coaching, sprinkled with wonderful insights about self-love, reconnecting with nature, and just life in general. Let’s dive in!Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast,so you don't miss the amazing episodes we have coming up!In this episode we learn:[00:04:40] The exciting news for the Bloom and Grow community![00:08:23] Who is Nicole Burke of Gardenary, how she turned into a gardener, and how gardening has helped her regain her sense of self[00:11:37] How the idea behind Gardena

Do any of you remember that store in the mall that sold mini bonsai trees and meditative water features? I was pretty obsessed with them as a kid and was so taken with these tiny trees, all the miniaturization of these beautiful, serene scenes. I definitely had and killed several of those trees in my teenage years, and I’m put at ease to hear I’m not the only one after speaking to many of you on Instagram about bonsai and our guest today, Bjorn from Eisei-en Bonsai. We cover a lot about this niche hobby of bonsai within an already niche of plant care, so let's get to it!Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast,so you don't miss the amazing episodes we have coming up!In this episode we learn:[00:04:44] How Bjorn became the bonsai expert he is today[00:05:35] How long does a bonsai apprenticeship take? What are typical duties for a bonsai apprentice?[00:07:31] Bjorn shares his experience in Japan and being an apprentice[00:09:16] How to properly pronounce ‘bonsai’ and what it means[00:09:40] What is

I’ve always known that Hardiness Zones and Frost Dates are important to planning your outdoor garden… but plant friend, I’ve never quite understood what they were or why they were so important. I’ve gotten as far as typing my zip code into the hardiness zone website, getting my “number” and then pretty much not doing anything with it. As I look to plan my first grown up garden this summer, I knew I needed help, so I asked Rochelle Greayer, of the renowned garden design website Pith & Vigor, who has years of garden design under her belt to help break all of these important concepts down for us, to better understand our outdoor environments. So many lightbulb moments in this episode let's dive right in. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast,so you don't miss the amazing episodes we have coming up!In this episode we learn:[04:46] What Maria has in store for fellow novice gardeners like her this summer![05:40] How Rochelle went from flying aircraft and satellites to a full-time garden designer[

Of all the plants I’m feeling drawn to these days, Alocasia are at the top of my list. I feel like their weird, semi heart shaped, semi ovular shaped leaves look like little alien heads looking at me, popping out from my collection to say hello. They are oddly friendly but also strange looking plants that I’m obsessed with. There are so many reasons to love Alocasia, from the unique leaf shape, to their gorgeous vein patterns and the incredible variety of colors you see, I’m particularly entranced by Alocasia cuprea. Today we are joined by Enid from NSE Tropicals againt o dive deep into Alocasia care and best plants for different types of plant parents. I dare you to not try this amazing genus of plants after listening, sweet plant friend. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast,so you don't miss the amazing episodes we have coming up! In this episode we learn:[04:13] Reintroducing Enid, why Maria is OBSESSED with alocasia, and what this episode has in store[05:19] Where can you find alocasias in nat

So we’ve all been in a garden center and picked up a plant, or had a friend give us a cutting and look at the plant in our hands and think “ummm what is this thing?” Today’s episode is all about learning some basic skills for identifying houseplants and how to observe our plants in order to get to know them better. We are joined by Derek of The Crazy Botanist for a higher level conversation about basic houseplant identification, and how to change our thinking around plants to see them for their leaf shapes, flowers and other identifying factors instead of just a name. This episode is a nice palate cleanser that encourages us to zoom out in our relationship to plants, in addition to the intense nerdy specifics we always like to deep dive on. I hope you enjoy it. In this episode we learn:[02:05] Introducing Derek and episode key ideas[04:17] How Derek got into the plant parent life, where his obsession with plants started, and how he uses his degree in Botany![06:23] How are plants classified? What is binomial

When I think Jungle Vibes, anthuriums always come to mind. Their large leaves, mesmerizing vein patterns in the leaves, long slim stems and gorgeous flowers have such a prehistoric look to them. There is so much more to the world of Anthuriums besides the one you can always pick up in the grocery store, so today we welcome back the queen of the aroids, Enid from NSE tropicals to do a deep dive on Anthurium care. NSE Tropicals is one of the most sought after rare plant provider in the US. Restocks routinely sell out in minutes and we are lucky that the mastermind behind it, Enid joins us today for an in depth discussion.Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast,because Enid will be back next month, to discuss Alocasia care!In this episode we learn:How Maria’s wishlist plants have changed since she first started collecting [02:15]How you can help grow the Bloom and Grow Radio community! [04:00]Enid shares the wonderful story behind the NSE Tropicals, and its 21 year-old plant collecting history! [05:11]Why a

So many of us got bitten by the outdoor gardening bug last year and learned there is no better way to connect with the food we eat.. then by growing it. My passion for growing edible plants has grown, like my space has. My first garden was a tiny box full of herbs and one tomato plant on our tiny balcony three years ago, and since then, the balcony containers grew, and now I’m excited to be in our first home with acres to farm this summer. Starting these edible plants from seed has been a bit intimidating, but in my efforts to continue growing as a plant parent, I’m ready to take the plunge and dive in. Starting from seed offers us the ability to be in control of the varieties we grow, plan in advance and save lots of money in the long run. My dear friend and mentor Joe Lamp’l- the "joe behind joe gardener" is the king of organic gardening and has an amazing seed starting course launching this week and was kind enough to stop by and give us the inside scoop on seed starting basics, and inspire us to d

So we have said goodbye to 2020 and all of the insanity that came with it, but there is something we haven’t said goodbye to: working from home. Many companies have pledged to work from home well into 2021, leaving us sitting in our sweatpants, computer monitors and weird makeshift home offices with reluctant acceptance. People are spending more time than EVER indoors and at their screens, and that’s why it’s never been MORE important to have plants not only in our homes, but in our work from home office set ups.Since WFH isn't going anywhere, in 2021, I'm choosing to reframe it from a frustration to an opportunity.An opportunity to have complete control over our WFH environment and create our desk space oasis to look exactly like we want it.Today’s episode is all about the why and how behind bringing plants into our workspaces, whether you are still working from home or are back in your office. Cobbling together a work from home set up was STRESSFUL in 2020, in our old apartment I had a desk that fol

One of the biggest questions I’ve gotten from our community is how to understand humidity and watering better. As we are in the depths of winter, humidity is a big topic and focus in our plant care routines, and you are going to hear a LOT about it today in a nerdy deep dive with two other plant podcasters, the daddies of the Plant Daddy Podcast Stephen and Matthew. I knew there couldn’t be a better guests than these two guys who are total nerds and maybe the only two other people who get as jazzed as doing weird deep dives into plant care as I am. This conversation was supposed to be 40 minutes and ended up being 90 because we just couldn’t stop talking about plants and winter and humidity and problem solving andI hope your inner plant nerd sees the inner plant nerd in us and just smiles and feels seen.So kick back, cozy up with your plants and enjoy episode 112 of the Bloom and Grow Radio Podcast!Just wanted to let you plant friends know during the time of this interview I got REAL curious and polled you gu

Learn to care for plants successfully and cultivate more joy in your life with episodes of the Bloom and Grow Radio Podcast.Ever killed a houseplant before? Host Maria Failla can relate. That’s why she interviews planty experts to get answers to the plant care questions we all have, but might be nervous to ask: like what the heck IS bright indirect light? What is soil and potting mix made up of? Or What IS the best way to water my plants?Tune in to stop killing your plants, learn how to get them to thrive and most importantly, how plants can help us grow a little more joy in our lives while we “Keep Blooming and Keep Growing”!Subscribe to the show on iTunes or your preferred podcast player so you never miss an episodeNot sure where to start? Check out the Bloom and Grow Radio Episode Catalogue where all the episodes are broken down by genre: Individual Plant Care, General Plant Care, Nerdy Plant Science, Plants & Wellness, Gardening & more!Want more Bloom and Grow Content?Check out the Bloom and Grow

What a year it’s been. I’m thankful 2020 is coming to a close and excited for 2021, I think a silver lining 2020 has given us is truly understanding the power of plants and how they can help us relieve stress and cultivate more joy in our lives. My goal for Bloom and Grow is to help everyone successfully care for plants for that exact reason, to make the world a kinder and greener place. Now… there is also a dark side to this hobby of plant care. There is a moment in all of our lives where our hobby teeters the thin line between joyful and stressful. Where we fall so deeply in love with plants, maybe we bring too many home at once, or go through a season of life where we can’t care for our collection and then feel disappointed in ourselves. I initially thought my struggles with plant parent overwhelm have been unique, an outlier in our community, but after hearing from you in the listener survey, or in dms and emails, I know this moment of Plant Parent Overwhelm is something we all struggle with.   On this ep

One of the major things that plants do is help connect us with nature. I think as plant parents, once we use plants to reconnect with ourselves and make our homes look beautiful, they also get us thinking more about nature and the earth and how important it’s preservation is. So today’s episode is exploring just that: plant parenthood and low waste living, and what it means to make intentional decisions about preserving our planet while taking care of ourselves and our plants. I think we are all anxiously looking at 2021 and getting excited about the changes that will come. This is the time to set new years resolutions and just think about how we want to show up in 2021 for ourselves and I think more importantly, there are global conversations happening about how we can show up for those around us and the environment.   As I continue to fall deeper in love with plants, I’m finding that I’m falling deeper in love with nature itself and feeling a stronger sense of responsibility to take care of our planet. I’m

I’m so excited to welcome back Kay from @inrootedlove for a next level conversation on the soil free Semi Hydroponic or Passive Hydroponic Lifestyle. You might remember Kay from episode 77 an Intro to Semi or Passive Hydroponics- so now that  year has passed and our community has been experimenting with this style of growing- she’s joining me again discuss what a year of passive- hydro has looked like, dive deeper into the concepts and answer listener questions. For those of you who don't know: Passive Hydroponics is a method for keeping plants not in soil, but in LECA or PON Lechuza (inorganic substrates) and managing their  nutrients yourself, instead of using potting mix. It’s a plant parent lifestyle many people swear by. I initially was NOT sold on the complexities of preparing LECA, measuring nutrients and more, but after a year of experimenting with passive-hydro I definitely see the value in this practice! So if you haven’t listened to that first episode- I highly recommend starting there before l

I recently took Intro to Horticultural Therapy at NYBG and Anne Meore, my teacher, joins me today to discuss the biggest lessons learned in class, review some studies we learned about on the science behind the plant/people connection and to discuss the concept and use of restorative spaces. As I “bloom and grow” as a plant parent and a business I am becoming more curious about the science behind the plant/person connection. The more I learn and read about plants as restorative instruments for human body and spirit, I’m realizing plants not only make people happy, but can help us heal faster and restore our brains to their natural state. We have never needed these tools MORE, especially after this year which has kept us all inside and glued to screens. Everyone can create a restorative environment in their own home, so Anne walks us through the components of a restorative space and then we brainstorm some awesome ways to create a restorative space even in our limited indoor environments.I wanted to thank NYBG

Boy of boy am I excited about this EPICly planty conversation. This episode is inspired largely by the responses in the BAGR 2020 Listener Survey I’ve been combing through. Many of us in the community are loving collecting plants, but have struggled with the overwhelm of learning how to manage your ever growing collections- so I decided to ask three plantstagrammers who have collections I’ve admired for a while, to pick their brains for their top tips for organizing, managing and designing with their plant collections of 75+ plants. BONUS- we’ve put together a giveaway with cuttings of our personal collections (including a cutting of Raffi my Raphidophora) on IG, so after you’re done listening, head over to IG to make sure you enter! Giveaway runs Tuesday November 10th, 2020 @ Noon through Friday November 13th @ Noon. I’m going to be honest with you plant friends, I wrestled with the idea for this episode, because I in no way want this episode to make anyone feel pressured to increase their collections. I wan

Plant friends, I’m so excited to finally bring this highly request episode to your earbuds! I have to be honest, for the first 3 years I really wasn’t getting the whole “hoya craze” that many of my plant friends were going through, I just didn’t get it. But after I was gifted a Hoya compacta from a listener… and realized how much it looked like stacked tortellinis, I started falling in love. THEN I went down a rabbit hole of what Hoya flowers looked like and I was sold. When looking for a guest for this show, I knew I had to look no further than Doug Chamberlain, the man behind Vermont Hoyas. Doug is one of the most successful Hoya collectors in all of the states and documents his collection on his blog. Today he shares his passion for hoyas and lots of information about them: where they grow in the wild, basic care, how he achieves ideal humidity in his home, a deep dive into flowers, we bust a few Hoya myths and then he shares his Top 5 Hoyas for Beginners, 3 Hoyas for Advanced Plant Parents and then assign

Today we invite Dr Elle Barnes back to the show after our very successful conversation after I took Intro to Plant Science with her at NYBG. Elle is a scientist and teacher for NYBG and in addition to Intro to Plant Science, I recently took The Science of Tree Communication class with as well. It was WILD to learn about the underground “wood wide web” that the forest runs on, and how trees communicate with one another through VOCs. I frequently go for morning walks in nearby woods, and since I took that class, I truly look at forest environment differently, and have such a deeper appreciation for it. Plant friends, there is a network of mycorrhizae negotiating transport of vital compounds for trees under every step we take outside! How cool is that?! In addition to the “Wood Wide Web,” a big part of our conversation in The Science of Tree Communication class was HOW trees and plants communicate with each other through VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds. Since VOCs are a hot topic in the plant community regard

"You can't reach the brain till you go through the heart" - Joe Dombrowski I'm thrilled to welcome back Joe Dombrowski (@mrDtimes3) to the show after our wonderful episode on Plants in the Classroom a couple of years ago. Since then a lot has changed, Joe and I have become IRL friends (I was able to visit him in 2019 and we took an amazing trip to the Amazon Spheres together which you'll hear about in the episode), Joe has become a full time comedian AND... classrooms are looking very different these days. Since many kids are home with the pandemic, Joe and I thought we'd put together a list of fun planty experiments and projects to do with kids while we spend this time at home together. There is a project for every type of kid and every age. We hope this episode helps with ideas to get children (or adult children like us!) off of their phones and into the dirt and getting curious about plants. Please share your projects with us on instagram! @mrdtimes3 & @bloomandgrowradio Have yo

So thrilled to welcome Chris Satch back to the show for an UNBELIEVABLE, comprehensive conversation on all things WATERING! We cover everything from top watering, bottom watering, troubleshooting, how to identify root rot and many listener questions. This is not an episode to miss if you have any questions around watering your plants! Have you taken the 2020 Bloom and Grow Radio Listener Survey - Please take 5 minutes to take this survey and be a part of the future of Bloom and Grow Radio and Media! I did this survey 2 years ago and it was INSTRUMENTAL in planning episode topics and community resources. I can't wait to hear from you! Check out my youtube video on how I water my plants In this episode we learn: [5:00]What Chris is loving in his collection lately A quick overview on how to propagate fern spores How to grow mosses [12:30] What BAGR listeners are struggling with when it comes to how to water your plants [13:00] Why is watering so important to our plants? [14:20] What are xylem and phloem and

The 2020 Bloom and Grow Radio Listener Survey is live!- Please take 5 minutes to take this survey and be a part of the future of Bloom and Grow Radio and Media! I did this survey 2 years ago and it was INSTRUMENTAL in planning episode topics and community resources. We had 1000 people complete the survey last time, so my goal for this survey is 3000 planty listeners! I can't wait to hear from you! At this point in the growing season, I'm sure we all have some beautifully bushy herb plants... and maybe no ideas of what to make with them. Today's episode is focused on getting these homegrown herbs into our bellies! (If you want help learning how to grow herbs, check out Episode 22: Windowsill Herb Gardening). I’ve connected with some brilliant female chefs who share their favorite herb inspired recipes! Each chef chose an herb, they share why they love it in recipes so much and then educates us on how to cook their favorite dish inspired by their herb!  The first chunk of this episode is three power