Real Life Plant Parents: The Wild Interiors Team
This month we’re highlighting Real Life Plant Parents a little differently and giving you a peek into our own creative team at Wild Interiors! This blog post will let you get to know Amy, Caitlin, Kayla, and Mckenzie, the creative minds behind our social media and blog.
Amy
Amy has worked for Wild Interiors for about three years. She got started as a plant parent in college with her first plant, and once she started working for a plant brand she grew her collection to over 30 plants.
“The day that I moved into my freshman dorm, one of the first things my mom told me I needed was a plant. We stopped into Home Depot and grabbed a 6” philodendron hanging basket, repotted it into a hideous baby blue tin basket, and my roommates and I named him Roger. Seven years later Roger is still holding on in a much more aesthetically pleasing pot.”
Amy says the most surprising thing about plants since she started with Wild Interiors is how much life they add to a home. She didn’t know what she was missing until she had such a lush collection.
“Whenever I do a big watering day and pull all my plants into the shower for a rinse-down, it never ceases to surprise me how empty and sterile my apartment looks and feels without my plants. At first glance you’d never guess that I have so many plants because of the varying sizes of them all, but when they’re gone it looks like a bachelor pad.”
If you’re not the most natural green thumb, you’re in good company with Amy.
“I’ve killed more plants than I’ve kept alive, and I wear that like a badge of honor. Most of my plants take a turn for the worse really fast. I turn around and they’re just dead. But my favorite plant is my Staghorn Fern. I got it in June and it’s been living its best life on my plant shelf. Evry part of it has grown and constantly amazed that it’s still alive.”
You can follow Amy on Instagram - @amthekel
Caitlin
Caitlin has worked for the Wild Interiors brand for two years and has a modest plant collection that grows whenever we have something that catches her eye.
“My mom had an aloe vera and a big snake plant when I was a kid, but I didn’t get my own plants until I started working for Wild Interiors. I brought home an echeveria and a spider plant, which one of my cats immediately destroyed. I now have four plants at work on my desk and about ten or twelve at home, and I rely entirely on plants that need low maintenance care. I need more so I can keep up with Amy and Kayla.”
Since becoming part of the creative team for Wild Interiors, Caitlin has upped her plant knowledge significantly.
“I had no idea plants could actually be easy. I assumed that I’d kill anything I tried to keep alive, and I have had a few losses, but some I’ve had going for a long time and I even have a new stem growing on my dormant orchid. I never expected to see it grow but when the temperature dropped as fall arrived, it started growing a new spike. I am the proudest plant parent!”
Caitlin finds it hard to pick a favorite, but there are some strong contenders.
“I love all of my plants, even the one really scraggly spider plant that I won’t admit is not doing well. My favorite plants are my peperomias. I love how easy they are and their leaves are so interesting to me. I also have a ponytail palm named Jairo II, after my first Jairo who tragically died of unknown causes probably related to overwatering.”
Kayla
Kayla is attempting to live her best green thumb life since she came to Wild Interiors at the end of May 2019. She started getting to know plants as a kid gardening with her dad.
“My dad and I planted sunflowers in the backyard when I was four, and we got a lot of blooms which gave me false hope. After that, I tried various outdoor and indoor plants and continuously murdered them. I think I spent too much time decorating the pots and not enough time learning how to care for them. In college, my grandma gave me a planter so I decided to try again. I bought a container of ten echeveria succulents that I potted in the planter and managed to keep alive for months, but I forgot to bring them inside in the fall. Whoops.”
Kayla now has a 30+ plant collection that she’s put together in the last seven months since coming to Wild Interiors.
“I started my collection the day of my interview to work here. I was given a plant and decided that I needed to keep it alive this time. From there, I immersed myself in what I was working with so I could better understand everything. I wanted one of every plant so that I could become an expert, but instead I have a lot of plants and I’m moderately capable.”
Kayla has learned a lot about plant care since joining our team, in a very short time.
“I never knew about bottom watering or the idea of grower pots within a decorative one for drainage. I’m beginning to understand how I killed so many plants. I also learned that brown spots on leaves don’t ever improve, they just don’t get worse. Don’t ask why I ever through a crusty leaf would get better.”
Kayla’s gotten attached to a few plants since coming to work here but she’s only had two casualties!
“I named my money tree Keanu Leaves, he was my favorite but sadly he has left this mortal plane. Stay excellent, Mr. Leaves. I also overwatered a mini succulent and it started to rot. I managed to propagate two pieces, so Ellie the Echeveria may live on in her descendants.”
You can follow Kayla on Instagram - @kaylapanigutti
Mckenzie
Mckenzie is the creative genius behind all of our amazing photographs and has been here for going on three years. She’s had plants in her life since she was a kid and keeps plants both inside and outside the home.
“Growing up, I was always the one who helped my parents with their flower beds and eventually I took it on as my task every Spring. I enjoyed selecting the plants and taking the time to plan out where they would go. It was a therapeutic process for me.
I first remember getting a few plants in college that I could learn to take care of and brighten up my space. Some would thrive and others would quit on me a while later. I definitely didn’t know what I was doing at the time!”
She’s used to having a lot of plants in her home and her collection is always growing.
“Right now I have roughly 40-50 plants. All different sizes, but a lot of smaller ones that can fit on shelves and window sills. They tend to hide in these places and make it feel like less than 50 plants. Or maybe I’m just used to having a lot of plants.”
Even with a lifetime of experience with plants, Mckenzie still learns new things from her experience working with Wild Interiors -- and she’s had her share of casualties too.
“I am sometimes still in shock to learn about certain plants being very simple to take care of. They can be ignored for weeks and still survive. But I have also killed more plants than I can remember. Multiple succulents have been overwatered, mainly in my early houseplant days. I have killed a few ferns due to lack of water. Some plants are harder than others!”
Mckenzie’s collection has some of our usual suspects but she also has other plants that aren’t in the standard Wild Interiors lineup.
“I love my Calathea Ornata for the beautiful pink pinstripes. Calatheas are fun to watch close up at night when the light starts to disappear. My two other favorites would be my ZZ and my lithop succulents. I find ZZ plants to be one of the easiest plants to take care of, while also adding a beautiful dark green color to any space. Lithops are fun to watch grow and basically birth a new plant. Plants are truly fascinating!”
Thanks for getting to know us!
We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know the team behind the brand at Wild Interiors. We love getting to know our plant parents too! To submit your plant story to be featured, visit this page or email us at info@wildinteriors.com.