You can pay people to style your houseplants

After he began posting photos of his Baltimore home to Instagram three years ago, and talking about the 200 plants that fill the lush rooms, Hilton Carter became a bit of a celebrity. He published a book Wild at Home: How to Style and Care for Beautiful Plants and, he says, created a new occupation.

“I’m not going to lie to you… I believe I was the first person to ever say I was a plant stylist,” said Carter, 40, who worked at an ad agency before dedicating himself to houseplants. “I just ran with it. It’s awesome that it’s now a job title.”

These days, Carter is too busy with his other plant gigs (he has a new book coming out this spring, Wild Interiors, with a promotional tour to follow) to do much styling, he said.

Maryah Greene, who runs the onewoman firm Greene Piece, bills herself as New York City’s “Plant Doctor & and Stylist”.

She is the fiddle-leaf-fig whisperer for the rest of us: She charges a flat hourly rate of between $125 and

$175. Her clients are largely renters who want to introduce a little greenery into their lives but don’t know a pot plant from a bird of paradise.

“A lot of what I do I like to think of as confidence boosting,” said Greene, 24, who has plant styled for more than a year and has met with about 50 clients so far.

The confidence they crave requires counsel: Will a monstera be happy by the radiator? Can sunshine-loving cactuses thrive in a light-starved apartment? What’s the best pot to show off the pink and white leaves of hoya carnosa?

The plant stylists say most people’s ability to properly choose and care for houseplants is woeful, even as the reported desire to live among them is high.

“One of the biggest questions I get from clients is ‘What plant can I get that would be good with no light?’” Muñoz said. “No light? That’s actually not possible.”

John Fraser, a chef, hired Muñoz to rescue his neglected houseplants, which “were on death’s door”, and to create a potted greenscape on the balcony of his apartment.

“I wanted someone who could give me the answers that you probably learn over time,” he said. “Because of travel and restaurant stuff, I’m not the best caretaker.” | The New York Times