INDOOR SHOP
We handpick our houseplants every week
We only bring back the healthiest, happiest plants. This means that you can trust that the plants you buy from us have the best possible starting point for thriving in your home.
Houseplants to the people
Our job is to help you pick the right houseplants based on criteria such as lighting conditions in your house, watering needs, aesthetics and care level. We are mindful that everyone’s starting points are different and we welcome beginners as well as experienced plant lovers. All you need to succeed is some basic advise and a bit of passion.
PLANT CARE
Houseplants vary in their care needs. We have plants ranging from “almost no care at all plants” (ex. Snake plants and ZZ-plants), to “easy going with basic care” (pothos, philodendrons) to “high maintenance plants” (fiddle leaf figs, certain begonias) for the more advanced plant parents. Most plants are not that complicated, but some of them have very specific needs that the owner will have to adhere to for a successful experience. Fiddle Leaf Figs (ficus lyrata) can be tricky, but they can also be easy once you have cracked the code of the right amount of light and water. Maiden hair ferns like to stay moist and in a bright spot, but if they get direct light they will shrivel right up. Airplants need a bath once a week and to be in a bright spot. On this page we give our best advice on how to care for the plants that we regularly sell in our shop. If you have questions, feel free to call us at 510 658 3729 or stop by our shop for a chat!
HERE’S A BIT OF BASIC ADVICE
Light
As a general idea, most indoor plants will thrive in “bright, but indirect light”. Indirect can mean filtered light as if you have a curtain or shade, or that the plant is removed from the window enough so it doesn’t get direct sunlight.
If you need help assessing the light in your home, we are happy to assist with that. Bring in some photos and pay attention to the location of your house (the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so an unobstructed south facing window will get a lot of direct light whereas a north-facing window will not).
A north facing windowsill is an ideal spot for any plant.
A south-facing window will have to be filtered by a curtain or for the plant to be moved sufficiently away from the direct sunlight (for most plants, but there are exceptions).
Water
When it comes to watering, the general advice is that no plant likes to sit in water. When you water a plant we always advise you to bring the plant over to the sink (or a the shower/bathtub) and give it a liberal soak (plenty of water - make sure all of the soil gets wet), and a full drain (you can let it sit in the sink for 15 minutes) before you put the plant back in its spot. Make sure you never plant into a pot that does not have a drainage hole. We recommend keeping the plant in the plastic container that it came in, and to use a “decorative pot” without a drainage hole to keep the plant with plastic container in. If you want to plant directly into a ceramic (or other) container, make sure it has a drainage hole (and a saucer so that you don’t ruin your floors).
There are plants that need to be watered multiple times a week (we say they want to stay moist), and other plants that can go for a month without water (they want to fully dry out).