MEET OUR 2021 HOUSEPLANT HEROES!

Obsessive indoor plant collectors from all over the country entered our annual competition to find New Zealand’s most fanatical houseplant growers … so meet this year’s inspiring winner and incredible runners-up!

Alyce Read bought her first plant, a Boston fern, in 2019. It died. “Yeah, that’s unfortunate,” she admits. ”I have since learned that ferns are quite finicky to keep alive.” But having popped the (doomed) fern into the bedroom of her Nelson home, she immediately noticed a difference. “It just felt really good. So I thought I might get another one. And another one. And another one. And it just carried on.”

Now she has about 150 plants, almost all in her bedroom, since she’s the only plant-mad member of the household.

”It’s tricky to name a favourite,” she ponders. ”I love the pothos, the trailing and climbing varieties, they look really jungly and lush. I also love alocasia and antirrhinum. Overall, I am a really big fan of foliage. I love big dramatic leaves.”

Very soon after she started collecting houseplants, a friend suggested she start an Instagram account to document her growing obsession (@alyceinthejungle).

“And at first it was just a bit of fun but as my collection grew, the page grew and I connected with a few people,” she says. “It was mostly just pictures of plants. But after a while I started to share more about mental health, because as someone who lives with depression and anxiety, that’s relevant for me. And also there’s still so much stigma around it. Not everyone with mental health challenges feels comfortable talking about it, so because I feel OK talking about it, I like to take the opportunity to do so. I hope I help people feel like they are not the odd one out. Because these struggles are really common but ironically, when you feel that way, you feel very much alone.”

And indeed, over the years she has been posting, Alyce has had numerous people reach out, either to encourage her, or tell her how she has helped them.

”Some people have told me that what I have posted have given them a different outlook, or a less negative view of themselves. I have even had some people say that as a result of our conversation or something I have posted they are going to speak to their doctor about getting support or realised that they need to do something like that. That’s awesome to me.”

Having plants, for Alyce, is part of her own self care. Looking after them helps give her something to focus on, clear jobs that need to be done when she might otherwise struggle to see the next step. But she also finds plants have taught her a lot of lessons which can be applied across her whole life.

”With plants, you realise they are not perfect. You can’t expect perfection from them. That helps you enjoy them so much more. And it made me think how that could be applied to your own life. You don’t need to put so many expectations on yourself, you can just enjoy the way that you are.

”And you need to look at conditions. You wouldn’t take a plant and put it in a dark corner and fail to water it and expect it to thrive. So we should look at ourselves that way. If we are not thriving in the way that we would wish, it might not be any fault of ours, it might be the conditions that we are under. So rather than blame ourselves, we should take care of ourselves.

”Everyone has different things that might bring them joy, or give them a focus. And for me, it’s plants. It might sound cheesy, but I find them inspiring. You look at them, the resilience they have. They are not bombproof, but with many of them it’s remarkable the conditions in which they will grow.”