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Dahling, plants (or “green gurls,” as I like to call them) make wonderful gifts for a variety of reasons. They can serve as lush, lasting reminders of a special occasion. They can boost mood, concentration, and even reduce stress levels. And they’re versatile, too, suitable for anyone from a student living in a dorm room to a parent living in a large family home. The best part about gifting plants is that they offer your loved one an opportunity to nurture, to foster a connection to nature — a viridescent experience that keeps on giving.
So how did a kween get into the lushness that is indoor gardening? Let's get into story time. Like all the Black women in my life, my grandmother was full of magic, soul, light, and life. You’d ride down her street in southwest Philadelphia and easily spot her house because her yard was always green and in bloom. It was no debate, dahling — her garden was the best on the block. She is, was, and will forever be the original plant queen in my life. When I was about six years old, she would take me on day trips out to her favorite nurseries, holding my little hand as we wandered around those endless fairy-tale jungles. I grew fascinated by the idea that we could take a small piece of the jungle home with us, nourish it, and watch it grow. Sometimes, she’d let me pick out the plants we’d take back with us. Whenever I was visiting her green oasis of a home, she’d remind me to water the green gurls I’d picked out; she was nurturing the nurturer she saw in me. I thought of her when I bought my very first plant eight years ago.
For my kweens doing their holigay shopping, here are some questions to keep in mind if ya wanna give the gift of lushness. What’s the giftee’s home sun lighting situation? Sticking with green gurls that can survive in a myriad of lighting conditions is always a cute way to go. Snake Plants, Pothos, and ZZ Plants are kweens that are great when it comes to tolerating lower light. Are they a kween on-the-go or a homebody? Cacti and succulents are fab for those friends that are on-the-go often, as they thrive without consistent oversight. Ferns and orchids could be fun for kweens that are home more often and enjoy a green gurl that loves a bit more attention. Do they have any pets or small children? Some green gurls are toxic and may not be suitable for certain homes, dahling. The Parlor Palm, the Spider Plant, or the Prayer Plant are three non-toxic green gurls that could be fab as a gift.
These be just a few of the questions I dive into when looking to gift a green gurl to folks I love, and I always find that a convo with the person I want to gift greenery to is always informative, fun, and lovely when gathering the details that will be helpful in picking out the perfect plant for them.
Below is a list of gorgeous green gurl gifts (ranked in order of care difficulty), along with some gardening gadgets that would be perfect presents for the holigays. When it comes to purchasing plants, I’d recommend a visit to your local nursery, or seeking out online vendors like The Sill, Rooted, or Horti.
For curious beginner plant parents:
Native to China, the Indian subcontinent, Australia, and various islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the pothos ivy is a tropical kween that is near and dear to my heart. These climbing vines enjoy bright ambient light, but can survive in lower light conditions as well. Watering this plant is pretty easy — once a week during warmer months and every two weeks during colder months.
Elevating your green gurl with a stool can help position her to receive the correct amount of light. In addition, this cheeky stool from Ayva and Avery makes for the perfect place for resting that bawdy while giving your gurl a drink.
ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
Native to eastern Africa, from southern Kenya to northeastern South Africa, this popular indoor tropical kween was probably not known to anyone outside the continent of Africa before 1996. These hearty kweens' leaves are jam packed with chlorophyll, making them forgiving when it comes to light levels. They thrive in brighter light conditions but also tolerate shade. ZZ plants grow from large, thick rhizomes — or subterranean plant stems — that resemble potatoes. These rhizomes store water, which is why this green gurl does well during droughts and in the houses of plant parents on-the-go, who may occasionally forget to water their green gurls.
Greenery:Unlimited Brass Soil Probe
Understanding the condition of your soil is useful when determining when to water your plant and how much. This probe from Greenery:Unlimited is fabulous for testing the soil moisture of your plants as well as for aerating their roots, which can help save an overwatered plant.
Snake Plant (Dracaena trifasciata)
Native to parts of Africa, Madagascar, and southern Asia with over seventy different fabulous varieties, the snake plant has easily become one of my favorite green gurls. These extremely resilient, adaptable, and easy-to-care-for kweens can grow anywhere from 8 inches to 12 feet high in their natural habitat. While these kweens can be quite adaptable to myriad lighting situations, I find that they thrive in bright, ambient light with some direct sun. You do not have to water this plant often — every two weeks in the warmer months and every 3-4 weeks during the colder months is enough. Snake plants also absorb excessive amounts of carbon monoxide, emit oxygen, and filter other toxins released into the air from common household products.
Green gurls aren’t just for table tops and floors. With the right equipment, your plants can take flight. This vibrant planter from WallyGrow could be fierce for utilizing vertical space to green up your place.
For plant parents looking to step up their green gurl game:
Staghorn Fern (Platycerium bifurcatum)
Native to tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia, Madagascar, Africa and South America, these epiphytic beauties can grow to massive sizes on the trunks and branches of trees, even rocks. Causing no damage or harm to their hosts, these kweens acquire all the water and nutrients that they need from the air, fallen plant debris, or other bits and pieces of organic matter. These kweens enjoy a shaded/filtered light scene. They can handle dapples of more sun if given enough water, warmth, and humidity. Just be cautious about allowing any direct rays to hit the fragile fronds, as they can burn easily. I’ve seen staghorn ferns sold in pots, but because these kweens are epiphytes, mature staghorns should be mounted on a board or hung in a hanging basket, as this mimics how they would be growing if they were in their natural habitat. These kweens love humidity and frequent watering. For easy watering, remove your fern and its mounting from the wall (or wherever it's hung) and soak it in a sink filled with water for 10 to 20 minutes, or until the roots are fully saturated. Allow to drip dry before rehanging.
Porcelain Flower (Hoya carnosa)
Native to eastern Asia and Australia, this kween has been in cultivation for almost two hundred years. Through my fun little experimentation I found that she enjoys bright, indirect light, that she does not do well in artificial light, and that her leaves burn when put in direct sunlight. Like most green gurls, Hoyas are susceptible to root rot, so I’ve always made sure to let the soil dry out completely before watering. In the warmer months I water every week, and in the colder months, every 2 to 3 weeks. The trick with these kweens is to get them flower! Fertilize them throughout the year (modify based on the kind of fertilizer you use and the season) and she may bloom for you.
Greenery:Unlimited Self Watering Planter
Another Greenery:Unlimited stand out, this chic planter is wonderful for those plant parents on-the-go, so your green gurl can soak up the water she needs when she needs.
Prayer Plant (Maranta leuconeura)
Native to the moist and swampy tropical forests of Central and South America, these kweens grow on the forest floor, never reaching more than 8 inches in height. These green gurls can be show-offs with their fierce foliage, oval leaves splashed with colors ranging from dark green patches to bright pink veins. These kweens also love to move! They open their leaves toward the sun in the morning to soak up that delicious sunshine and close their leaves as the sun sets. In her natural habitat, this kween is used to growing in lower light conditions, catching the sunlight filtered through the canopy. I’ve found that bright, indirect light is her favorite scene and that she is prone to sunburn with exposure to direct sun. Place her in that ambient bright, indirect light and let her leaves follow the sun. She enjoys her soil slightly acidic, so adding peat moss and compost to her well-drained soil is the perfect situation for this kween. In the warmer months, I make sure to keep her soil consistently moist, and in colder months I have my humidifier blasting next to her. The trick with these kweens is that they experience browning leaf edges quite frequently, so make sure you have her in a sultry, humid environment to keep those dry edges at bay.
For green gurl gurus ready for a lush challenge:
Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes ‘Miranda’)
A complex human-made hybrid, her parents (N. maxima and N. northiana) are native to the tropical regions of Malaysia. There are about one hundred species in the Nepenthes family, and these kweens have the same number of chromosomes, making them very easy to crossbreed. Nepenthes have two main divisions: kweens that grow in low tropical areas and kweens that grow high on the mountains. Both types require high humidity. Ms. Miranda, like the other lowland tropical pitcher plants, grows on and under trees. Dappled bright, indirect sunlight is what this kween enjoys. She also enjoys warmer temps and is sensitive to low chills. I’ve found that peat moss works well as a potting medium, or a peat moss and soil mixture. To feed this green gurl and give her the nutrients she loves and adores, drop in a few freeze-dried bloodworms, dead crickets, wasps, or similar insects into her pitcher.
Modern Sprout Gardening Shears
Yellowing leaves are a natural part of life for green gurls. When it’s time to let go of these leaves, this pair of chic shears are the perfect gadget for pruning your plants back into shape.
Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)
Native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States, this kween catches its prey — insects and arachnids — with a trapping structure formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves. Mimicking this kween's natural habitat means feeding her live flies, spiders, crickets or slugs. It's best to use tweezers to grasp the insect and gently insert it into the trap until it contacts a trigger hair inside the trap. This green gurl's trap has a set number of times during its life that it can open and close, so it will help to keep a journal to track when you feed. Additionally, for houseplant longevity, May or June flowering leads to seed production;this whole process will only divert energy away from the plant, so picking off the flower when you see the plant coming into bloom is helpful when being grown indoors. Six or more hours of direct sunlight will yield that fabulous vigorous growth. If full sun is not possible, provide a minimum of 4 hours of direct sunlight with bright ambient light during the rest of the day. Also, it’s important to keep her pot in standing water at all times. Never allow the soil to dry out completely. Depending on where you live, rainwater can be best for this kween. In the absence of rainwater, use distilled water.
Eco-friendly bendable moss poles
Give your climbing green gurls something to cling onto! Moss poles are fabulous for any plant that loves to climb, mimicking their natural habitat.
Peperomia Argyreia (Watermelon peperomia)
Native to northern South America, including Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela, these green gurls thrive in the undercover within forests with some sun and shade, so it’s best to try and replicate this. A bright room with indirect, ambient light seems to be werking well for my green gurl. These kweens also enjoy humidity and their soil moist, but not soggy to the point that root rot becomes an issue. I’ve started using a peat-based soil mix, and my green gurl seems to be enjoying that.
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