Bring the jungle indoors

Nicky Peauafi wanted to fill her room with pot plants, so she turned her green thumbs into a thriving business, writes

Pot Plant Studio owners Nicky and Josh Peauafi love indoor plants. They love them so much they’ve turned their passion into a business. Selling a curated selection of plants online, they can ship anywhere in the country – including to their own front room in Lower Hutt, where they have more than 100 plants of their own.

How did you get started?

I wanted to fill my room full of plants. That’s when I got the famous fiddle-leaf fig and invested time and energy into raising it. I saw how large it was getting and then I just wanted to keep filling my room with more plants. As time went on, we saw that there weren’t many places for us to buy. So I guess that’s how we started Pot Plant Studio, to sell plants online.

NICKY:

The indoor plant trend was huge in the 70s.

It was quite funny to see the monstera, swiss cheese plant come back into fashion, because when I see it, it just reminds me of the 70s.

A lot of the vintage plants are coming back into fashion, like the hoyas and the cast iron plants and some palms, which are quite popular.

The rubber plants are definitely coming back into fashion.

NICKY: JOSH:

When you see things like the $5000 monstera or $6500 hoya on Trade Me, what do you think?

It depends on how easy those plants can be bought and how fast they can grow. It’s the rarity.

The more rare they are, the more expensive they get. So, the variegated monstera that was a crazy amount on Trade Me – they’re so hard to get here. You can’t really grow them, you could try to take a cutting, but they’re just so rare it bumps the price up quite a lot.

NICKY: JOSH:

Was your passion for plants inspired by the trend, or have you always loved them?

Nicky’s always been passionate about plants. But we just happen to land in a time when plants are popular, which is good for us. We probably would have done it whether plants were trendy or not, just because we’ve come to care so much for our plants.

We’ve got a great community around us.

There were a few people we gifted plants to who weren’t plant people at all. They were like: ‘‘Why are you giving me a plant? They’re not my thing.’’ Now they want to buy more plants, they’re really invested in them, they want to care for them. They want to know more about them. They want to fill their whole office...

Their whole house!

JOSH: NICKY: JOSH:

Why aren’t people ever happy with just one pot plant?

They want the jungle look.

I think it’s about just going back to

JOSH: NICKY:

nature. We know that being out in nature reduces our anxiety and improves our wellbeing, so when we bring that indoors, and we can see that we’re looking after a plant that’s thriving, it’s loving life, we want to keep doing that.

I guess it becomes an addiction. You want to grow more plants together, group them together and you want to make the space look really lush and healthy, especially if you’re renting and you want to be creative in styling, using plants is a great idea.

Also, I think with rentals, you can’t really have animals in most places. So plants are a good way for people to have something they can care for and look after, but they don’t get in trouble with the landlord.

NICKY: JOSH:

Something you can nurture without having to walk it.

You don’t have to walk it. You don’t have to worry about going to the vet, although some plants need a bit more care than others. So you might need to do your research.

JOSH:

Do you have a favourite plant?

I can tell you Nicky’s favourite plant. I already know what it is: the fiddle-leaf fig. That was your first plant.

I’m sure a lot of people have had a peace lily, that’s probably the standard introduction to plants. But the fiddle-leaf is probably my favourite one.

I think my favourite is ‘‘Black Knight’’, a variety of rubber plant.

JOSH: NICKY: JOSH:

I just got my first rubber plant. I love it. Yay!

JOSH:

What do I need to know to look after it?

It’s probably best to underwater than overwater because they are prone to root rot. The best way to know when to water is when most of the top soil looks dry.

It’s better to underwater in general, because you can always bring a plant back if it’s dry, but you can’t if it gets root rot.

I would probably keep it away from any draughts, they’re quite picky about cold, so keep them away from doors and windows. Direct sunlight burns them if they’re not used to sun. Also, filtered water is one of the best things you can do for them.

That’s what I do with my fiddle-leaf fig, I only feed her filtered water. If you don’t have access to filtered water, the best thing is to leave water to sit for for an hour before giving it to the plant, so that the chlorine evaporates.

It’s good to wipe the leaves from time to time, to get the dust off. They’ve got a big surface area.

And it may be dry – the air may be dry as well. Most of our plants that we bring indoors are from tropical environments, so they do like humidity.

I’d say that’s one of the most important things when you’re looking for plants: check where they originally came from, their natural habitats, because that’s what they’ll like.

NICKY: JOSH: NICKY: JOSH: NICKY: