Biophilic design at home, with Mint Plants
Are your house plants looking worse for wear, or does your space needs some livening up and you have no idea where to start? Hayley, from Mint Plants (@mint.plants) is here to help.
Running a plant haven since September 2018, no one knows biophilic design better than Hayley. Hayley started Mint Plants in Wotton-under-Edge and later relocated to Easton, Bristol. We finally managed to sit her down amongst her leafy friends to talk about all things plants. Here, Hayley shares her nuggets of wisdom about incorporating plants into the home, covering everything from novice-friendly recommendations to plants best for the kitchen.About Mint Plants
"I started the shop because I wanted to play with plants all day, and had a skinful of the corporate world. And now it’s basically grown to a bunch of mates who live and breathe plants. I am a total nerd and just want to spread plant love to the whole world, and people seem to resonate with that! We don’t let you leave unless you know exactly what to do with your new friend, and we often continue the conversation with our customers way past the initial purchase." The big move 🚶♀️
"I am from North Bristol originally, and spent my graduate years in Peckham in London. On moving back from London, Easton had a very similar vibe and I totally fell in love with it. It’s unbelievably vibrant and friendly. Most of our customers are in Bristol, plus suppliers and other connections, so when we started looking at premises it was the absolute dream location. When we saw this shop come up on Gumtree I would have fought tooth and nail to get it!It was a brand new refurb, with the original Victorian front when we first got hold of it. I was on a major budget so roped in as many friends and family as I could to help me paint the floor, put shelving up and make the place a retro plant paradise. I am obsessed with all things mid-century and vintage, so bright orange for the floor was the only option in my mind!"Hanging up plants
"We chose to go with MONROE, BRONTE & CAREY for our store. We love the brushed brass finish of these pieces. We put the MONROE rails up with the BRONTE S-hooks on the walls and the CAREY hooks on the side of some vintage teak units.The CAREY hooks are so solid, and super easy to install. We’re loving the look of them against the dark wood, the contrast is STUNNING! We’ve actually used these to loop long stems of some trailing plants over, like the Ceropegia woodii, aka. String of Hearts, which has long delicate stems that grow like mad. These plants will just grow longer and longer, and having hooks like this that are quite short and wide is absolutely perfect for the stems to rest on.
The rails are spot on for hanging our handmade macrame plant pods, and along with BRONTE they enable absolutely anything to be hung on them. Traditionally macrame plant hangers are made with a wooden or rope hoop at the top, which means they cannot easily be hooked onto things. The BRONTE hooks make this so much more simple and beautiful!"
Choosing the best plants for your home 🏠
"Choosing plants to best suit your home environment is very important – I could go on forever! First thing is to know your space. Start with the space, and then figure out which plants to go for, and which to avoid. The phrase ‘I just kill them’ is SO COMMON at our shop, but don’t put yourself down! There will always be a reason! Have you got a really cold house? In which case you can’t have any Calatheas or Alocasias, as they love warmth.I’d recommend doing a little audit of your spaces and the conditions. The conditions you need to be aware of are light obviously, but also temperature – especially temperature changes, draughts and how often you are going to see that plant."
Low-light spaces
"Have you got one big bright room, and the rest dark? In which case put Yuccas, Monsteras and all Aglaonemas in the darker spots as these can also be relatively ignored in those rooms. Other low light lovers that are perfect in a bathroom with a frosted window are Sansevierias, Alocasias and Philodendrons."Changing conditions
"If you have a hallway that is super bright, you could have tons of plants in there but if the door goes right out onto the street, you’re going to be constantly flushing the space with colder air. This can really affect some plants. But others, like a Epiphyllum Guatemalensis, don’t care! So you have to know what will thrive where.If you have a super bright room but you hardly ever go in there, you can’t put anything thirsty in there as you’ll forget it. Most plants will get shocked if they are left without water for too long, but others thrive on it! So you really have to know your space before you do anything. Just send me your audit, and I will send recommendations until the cows come home!" 
Plants for the kitchen
“The kitchen is SUCH a tricky spot for plants. Because of cookers and fridges and all our other appliances the temperature can be all over the place. Not to mention doors and windows are opening all the time, so draughts need to be taken into account. Plus heavy foot traffic means plants can get bashed about quite a bit.Additionally, there is usually limited space for plants in kitchens. You’ve either got a super bright windowsill (with windows potentially being opened and closed a lot) or you’ve got limited floor space, sometimes far away from the light source.There are some plants that you want to avoid, like Calathea, Alocasia and Maranta, as these are super tropical and love warmth and still air. If you have some of these plants, just pop them in a bedroom or bathroom, aka. somewhere with minimal draughts. Plants that love bright light and would thrive on your sunny windowsills would be all carnivorous plants: Bonsai, Hoya, Begonia and any kind of succulent.Finally plants that don’t mind a bit of bashing around and are great floor plants for those shadier corners are things like Yucca, Monstera, Ficus and Aglaonema. These all love to dry out quite a bit between waterings too, so are really easy to look after.”Beginner-friendly plants 👌
“My absolute go-to recommendations for first time plant parents are Zamioculcas, Ficus elastica and Sansevieria. These are all beautiful, glossy plants with unusual foliage and are super easy to keep. You need to let them all dry out completely before you water them. This means letting the compost go COMPLETELY dry. You can either pick it up to check the weight of it, and when it’s light as a feather that’s when it’s ready. Or, stick your finger in, and only water when it is totally bone dry."
"When watering, fully soak the compost. This may mean 3 or more pints if it's a big plant. And I mean fully soak it. Picture the plant in the wild, it’ll get one huge rainfall in the jungle (or the desert in the Sansevieria’s world), it’ll soak up as much as it can, and then nothing for days, sometimes weeks on end. The roots also need to breathe, they hate being wet 100% of the time. So give it a massive drink, then leave it! As soon as you get over the fear of the plant going dry, it’ll start to thrive!”Plant-loving community 💚
“I am blown away by some of the things going on in the plant world at the moment. My source of inspiration comes from those doing things with plants from their homes, or their bedrooms in some cases!”Sarah at @theplantrescuer
“A huge passion of ours is plant rescue. Especially bringing plants back from the dead. It gives you so much more joy reviving a plant, seeing new growth and knowing you have cared for this little thing so well that it has decided to come back to life. The person doing this super well is Sarah. We have partnered with Sarah to bring Rescue Boxes to our customers too.”Andie at @dahliabeach
“Another source of inspiration for me is Andie. Andie seems to share our love of being goofy rather than professional and sharing our experiences no matter what is happening!”Emma at @littlepricksplants
“And then finally, I met Emma recently at the BBC Gardeners World Live show, and found a real affinity with her for home grown cacti and succulents. Emma started her business after looking after her granddads plants, and soon became obsessed. It was my birthday at the show and my mum and the girls that work for me both bought me plants from Emma as presents as I was so obsessed with her collection!”High-energy tunes 💃
“I am a massive music lover, and obsess over all sorts from 80s hip hop to drum and bass, house and newer sing-along-at-your-loudest pop songs like Glass Animals. Here’s the latest high energy songs I have been blasting in the shop!”A huge thank you to Hayley and her plants for joining us for a TEA BREAK. Why not follow the team over at @mint.plants?
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