Skip to main content

Darryl Cheng

Creator of House Plant Journal and author of The New Plant Parent, a Toronto-based houseplant expert known for his engineering approach to plant care.

Jan 19, 2026

KevinHOST
2:19
And so could you kind of give us a little overview of your philosophy of houseplant care? Because it's quite different from other people.
2:26
Yeah, so the thing is I've probably been asked so many times to do interviews on, oh, why do you think millennials are really driving up the business of houseplants? Why do you think they're so obsessed with them, right? And the answers always sort of revolve around, well, we have smaller spaces.
2:44
We want to nurture things.
2:45
We want to be connected with nature.
2:49
And so all of these things put together – are kind of like saying, well, we have basically different reasons for owning houseplants than when they were first popular in the 1960s and 70s, when really they were just sort of like, oh, here's a trendy piece of decor that can really jungle-fy your interior, right? We still have that today.
3:11
We still love to see that today, which is why I think it's so popular on Instagram.
3:17
But I think if we If we have a really different reason for owning plants, then why are we using advice that was still drawn up from the philosophy that, oh, here's a piece of decor that you need to maintain, right? Right, right.

42 MINS LATER

KevinHOST
45:20
So
4:09
(laughs)
4:09
A- and I think we...
4:10
Yes, we hear that a lot and- and we laugh about it and...
4:13
But I thought, "Wait a minute, Mom, you taught me how to do outdoor gardening and you're pretty good at it.
4:18
What's still different about indoor plants?" But she went back to the narrative of, "Oh, I have a black thumb, I kill everything." So I did like any good millennial would and bought a bunch of plants and tried to Google the- the care tips and- and stuff.
4:32
And what I found was a lot of vague, hand-wavy type of things.
4:36
You know, if you try and Google houseplant care advice you'll find a lot of just, like, dos and don'ts.
7:27
You're- you're half the size of when I got you." What do you think, like, are the most important things that people miss in terms of when their plants are just not thriving?

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click “Accept All” to consent, or “Decline non-essential” to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.