- Well, hello, darling.
This is Tula, one of my favorite plant shops in Brooklyn.
And honey, they have a lot of plants.
[upbeat music]
But with so many green girls to choose from,
it can be hard to know where to start.
I'm going to walk you through almost every plant
in this store and show you how I shop
for the perfect green girl and how you can, too.
All right, darling.
So one of the first things that I enjoy doing
before I prance around and enjoy the green girls galore
of the plant shop is to figure out how the green girls
are situated throughout this space.
Now Tula, one of my favorite shops has two main sections.
There's the tropical section,
and then there is the arid section.
Something that I really enjoy is when plant shops
situate their green girls based on their lighting needs.
You may have a plant shop that has all of their green girls
that really enjoy bright light
towards the front of their store,
where they're getting all that direct light.
And then as we go towards the back, there are green girls
that can withstand low light condition.
And when I say low light, that does not mean no light.
All green girls need an amount of light
in order to self-sustain themselves
through that wonderful process called what?
Photosynthesis. Okay.
So kween, let's prance around and see the variety
of green girls we have before us.
These are kweens that really, really enjoy bright light.
We have the infamous begonia maculata, one of my favorite
kweens with her little polka dots sensation.
This is another begonia.
We have some tradescantias. We have some hoyas.
We have the philodendron birkin
and I'm not talking about the bag, okay.
These kweens do enjoy a good amount of bright light.
And when it comes to watering, I find that philodendrons
do enjoy a nice aerated soil mixture.
One of the easiest things to do when you're watering
your green girls is you have to put your finger
in two inches and just test the moisture around the soil.
You don't want to just tap the top soil.
You really want to make sure that you're checking
the soil near the root.
One of the beautiful things about plant shops
is that they're going to guide you through the experience.
You look here, it says what? Pet safe.
There are a lot of green girls that are toxic
for small children and for a pet.
You just want to make sure that if you do have
little furry creatures or little humans running around
that you're investing and bringing in pet safe
or pet friendly green girls into your space.
[upbeat music]
One of the best things that you can do
before deciding which green girls you want
to put in your shopping bag and take back home
is to do an environmental assessment of your space.
When it comes to lighting situations,
you have basic four directions, so you have north-facing
which really gets more indirect, bright ambient light.
You have south-facing windows,
which are often highly sought after by plant parents
because of the consistent amount of light.
You have east-facing windows,
we get that soft morning light, by mid afternoon,
the sun is going into the west-facing window
and then going into sunset.
What I typically do is that I'll whip up my compass app.
It's free, it's on your phone, very accessible.
And I'll point in the direction of the windows,
just to get an idea of the sunlight situation
that I'm working with.
[gentle music]
So let's do some comparisons.
You have plants like the banana plant,
and then you have a green girls
like this beautiful asparagus fern.
When it comes to different lighting needs,
I think this is a good example of a green girl
that can withstand more direct light
as compared to more delicate plants
that may more easily experience sunburn.
When folks say indirect light, what they really mean
is filtered ambient light.
So imagine a very, very bright room,
but the sun is not shining directly
on to this particular green girl.
Then you have one of my favorite which is the snake plant,
which comes in over 70 different varieties.
One of the best air purifiers, according to NASA,
one of the things that I really enjoy doing
when I'm trying to, you know, experiment
with my plant parents skills, is that I'll buy two
of the same plant and I'll place them at different parts
of my apartment that may have different lighting conditions
and see how they fare.
And then once you notice that there's the green girl
that is doing much better than you may want to bring
that other green girl and pot her in the same pot
so that she can thrive as well.
[upbeat music]
We are now at one of my favorite little spots
and it's this lovely, lovely, lovely shower.
I really enjoy the tiles.
Right beside me, we have the infamous monstera deliciosa.
She has her own social media day, #monsteramonday.
One of the beautiful things that some folk
may not necessarily know is that it's actually
a climbing vine that utilize their aerial root,
which is these beautiful things right here
to latch on to any surfaces that they may be near.
So it could be a tree, it could be a wall,
any solid surface, these kweens will grow up.
What you can do is invest in a moss pole or a totem pole.
These are perfect for allowing any epiphytic kweens
that enjoy growing upward,
whether it's a pothos or a monstera.
These are the perfect little tools that we can utilize
to mimic the natural habitat of our green girls.
You may not want your green girl growing up your wall,
you want that security deposit back, right?
[gentle music]
So there are a variety of tropical plants right here.
We have a beautiful palm and I find that palms tend to enjoy
a good amount of light, as well as humidity.
We have a beautiful golden pothos right here.
While they are often found in hanging planters,
one of the best things that you can do for a pothos
is to let her climb.
You have this vine right here and the leaves
are getting smaller as they are trailing down
as compared to these larger leaves that are trailing up.
If you do have the opportunity to do like a moss pole
or a totem pole situation for the pothos,
it's an absolute must, darling.
Something that I really enjoy doing is figuring out
what are the natural habitats and what do they look like
out in the wild so that I can try to mimic that
when I bring them into my home.
Some other beautiful kweens that we have before us
is the beautiful bird of paradise.
She has some new growth realness,
which we absolutely love and adore.
And I find that once this leaf kind of goes up
a little bit larger, something that you can do
is take a wet sponge or wet cloth and kind of go down
that new leaf to help her unfurl.
Cute little trick, it works in like a matter of hours.
We have the beautiful money tree, which symbolizes wealth,
good fortune, all that good stuff.
It said that there was a plant parent
who had this particular plant
and realized that it was really easy to grow.
And so kind of started his own business and named the tree,
the money tree because he basically propagated a plant
and made tons of money.
[upbeat music]
All right, so now we are in the arid section of Tula,
one of my favorite, favorite,
favorite parts of this plant shop.
We have a variety of succulents, cacti, euphorbia,
all those wonderful hardy resilient kweens.
These kweens live in an environment
that are often susceptible to droughts.
They need to make sure that they can hold on
to as much water as possible and they do it in their leaves.
When it comes to watering our cacti,
succulents, and euphorbia, you want to make sure
that you are watering them fully.
And so just because they are very good
at withstanding drought and you don't need to water them
as often as you do when it comes to a tropical green girl,
that doesn't mean that you're just giving them
a trickle of water, that's actually something
that's really bad for our green girls
because you're forcing the root to stretch themselves
to find that moisture.
And so what I tend to do with any succulents or cacti
or euphorbia that I have in my plant fam
is that I space out the watering,
make sure that the soil is completely dried out
before giving them another drink and when I do water them,
I am soaking them completely and making sure the water
is touching all parts of that soil.
[gentle music]
There are a variety of reasons
that a plant may be more expensive
as compared to her sisters in the store.
Some of the factors could be the access that growers have
to that particular plant.
If there's limited access, that means that the price point
is going to be a little bit higher.
It could mean that the plant is a slow grower.
That means that it's going to take a little bit more time
for that plant shop to have access to that particular plant.
When it comes to social media, there could be a green girl
that is extremely popular, that could actually raise
the price point up if folks are attracted
and are actively seeking out that green girl.
When it comes to growing your plant fam,
you don't necessarily need rare plants.
It's more about matching that green girl
to what you can provide as a plant parent
and what your space can provide.
I love plants like this beautiful dinosaur back,
but I also love the basic green girl, the basic pothos,
snake plant, ZZ plant, rubber tree, those green girls
are as equally beautiful as this particular kween
that could be a little bit harder to find.
[gentle music]
The next time you are perusing the green girls galore
of your local plant shop, make sure you know your space,
make sure you know the layout of the plant shop,
make sure you do your research on the green girls
that catches your eye.
And with those combinations of strategies and techniques,
you'll find the perfect green girl for you.
I've decided to pick up this particular green girl.
She is known as the whale fin snake plant
because of the massiveness of her beautiful leaves.
One of the reasons that I'm choosing this kween
is because I know that snake plants
do very, very well with me.
It's not all about welcoming new green girls
into your space or ones that you don't necessarily have,
it's knowing the kind of plant parent you are
and that welcoming the green girls that you know
are going to survive with you.
This kween is growing in a very unique way.
That's one of the things that I look for
when I'm bringing a new plant into my home.
How is she growing? How is she different?
But how is she similar to the other kweens
that I know I can care for?
I have the perfect little spot,
all dedicated to her lusciousness and her growth.
And honey, she's excited.