When Darryl Cheng first set out to help his mom decorate with houseplants nearly five years ago, there was a caveat: “You better figure out how to take care of them,” she told him. Cheng, creator of the Instagram account House Plant Journal (@houseplantjournal) and author of “The New Plant Parent,” didn’t just figure it out — he cracked the care-keeping code, and along the way amassed half a million followers.

Part of the reason his account has resonated so deeply with the houseplant community is his ability to package technical care information with the optics of appeal, both influenced by his backgrounds in industrial engineering and professional photography.

“Part of my old job was to design training materials. That’s why it really grabbed me when I read training materials for houseplant care and realizing it was just totally lacking in anything that was concrete,” Cheng says. “Most notably, the thing I realized that nobody really ever measures is light.”

Let there be light

He didn’t know much about houseplant care when he first started this journey. When he looked for specifics, Google didn’t deliver, and instructions floating around Facebook and Pinterest were vague at best — until he discovered foliage production guidelines from The University of Florida. Finding this information was “a breath of fresh air.”

“I think most people today are very comfortable with different technologies. It’s almost as if we need to give more credit to our listeners and give them the more tactical stuff and then allow them to realize, ‘Oh, this is important,’” Cheng says.

He notes that watering instructions are always specific while lighting instructions are often vague.

“If your plant is in a dark corner, there’s no way to water it correctly. You’re still going to be disappointed with it in a few months. The watering is not the independent variable. The water is dependent on the light,” Cheng says.

Labor of love

For Jacquelyn Holland, creator of the Instagram account Little North Plants (@littlenorthplants), running the account is a labor of love. Her mother and maternal grandmother instilled their love of gardening into her at a young age, but it wasn’t until she moved into her own apartment that she took up the houseplant hobby as her own.

“My mom gave me houseplants as gifts to brighten up my apartment and that kind of thing, so it started with those. They’re all long dead now because, in the beginning, you know how it is,” Holland jokes.

Like Cheng, she also has a background in photography, as well as graphic design. She’s also had experience running a business and now runs an online shop of the same name in which she sells T-shirts, accessories and other wares fit for plant parents.

Neither Cheng nor Holland had expected their content to “go viral,” which is when a post gains high traction and engagement across social media. When a single piece of content goes viral, it often paves the way for account exposure, along with an influx of new followers, hungry for more content.

Cheng traces his account’s growth back to when Instagram first released its video feature and he started sharing 15-second time-lapse videos of plants or flowers blooming, which went viral and were picked up by various news media outlets.

“Parallel to that, I was also writing about how to take care of plants in a way that was unique to my own,” Cheng recalls.

As for Holland, she noticed that many people in the houseplant community were frustrated when they bought Monstera cuttings that didn’t grow to fit their expectations. So, she set out to educate them.

“I made a post explaining, side by side, the differences and what you’re going to get from each one. I made it because I heard all of these people were disappointed in what they got,” Holland says. “They’re spending a lot of money on these expensive plants and they’re not getting what they thought they would get, and I guess that just resonated with a lot of people.”

You’ve gone viral. Now what?

As IGCs utilize Instagram as a marketing tool, Cheng and Holland offer practical advice. The first thing IGCs should keep in mind is that building an audience consists of slow and steady work.

“I think I started my Instagram back in April of last year. I had around 1,000 followers right up until around September, and then one post kind of blew up for some reason I still don’t know why,” Holland says. “But that’s when a lot of people started finding me, so it’s always going to be slow in the beginning.”

Currently, she has more than 73,000 followers (and counting). She also recommends that IGCs regularly post content, which ensures your brand will stay memorable in the minds of your followers.

“It may be easier for the algorithm to share your posts if you’re consistent every day. And you don’t need to post at the same time every day or anything like that — just keep generating the content,” Holland says.

In terms of building your brand, Cheng advises IGCs to focus on relevant topics and track what links or posts gain traction with the audience. In his case, pointing out light considerations is all about balance.

“It’s difficult getting people to click on something that’s very abstract about light — for example, ‘How to calculate the daily light integral’ — nobody’s going to click on that. But when I post something like ‘How to get rid of thrips,’ it clicks through the roof,” Cheng says.

In short, keep your posts practical. When followers start to understand more about your brand, you can achieve those means more thoroughly through your website, or the captions on particular posts, he says. In terms of other Instagram influencer accounts, such as travel or fashion, Cheng points out that it’s quite easy to share photos of plants because they’re all around.

Brand building

Hashtags can be a good way to draw in followers who are searching for a specific plant, but it’s important to be intentional when using them. If your garden center plans to use hashtags to accompany your content, refrain from dumping hashtags at the bottom of the post just for the sake of using them, Cheng advises.

Instead, he recommends placing a hashtag of the plant name, genus or species and embed that into the caption, where the people are reading.

“That way, when they read it, they can see all the posts that are related to that particular plant. It will take them away from your account, but at the same time people will get used to reading your content while connecting them to the broader topic, “Cheng says.

Holland has a similar approach and notes the importance of including the scientific name as well as the common plant name, because people call plants different things (especially in different geographical regions). Additionally, she uses hashtags to connect Instagram users with the hashtag they’re searching for or following. She keeps a document of hashtags that she can easily copy and paste into a post, and tweaks as necessary.

It’s also important to understand the mechanics of Instagram, which is all about quick content. If the information isn’t helpful or aesthetically pleasing, your followers won’t engage with your posts, Holland says.

For garden centers, Holland advises that one person who understands the platform should run the account, but that they should be open to collaboration from the entire team. Using the Instagram business function of the app can help your designated social media person see which topics or posts are resonating with your audience. From there, she suggests the social media person scour through the IGC’s top five or 10 posts and repurpose that information, whether it be in a new form of post, video or something else creative.

According to Cheng, nurseries and IGCs have a prime advantage when it comes to posting because stock is always changing and they can post as often as they want, especially when new shipments come in.

“A nursery has the ability now to say, ‘Oh, this just in, we have Monstera Thai Constellation,’ and then when people scroll past the nursery, that post is almost like a flyer,” Cheng says.

Running an account isn’t without challenges, though. Holland says there are some days she isn’t quite sure what to post and feels the pressure of creating new content as she gains more followers. For Cheng, he tries not to allow the idea of “keeping up with the trends” to permeate into what he does on Instagram.

“Five years in, I do recognize that I have to sort of play a role of being a broadcaster of plant interest. But when I first started, I really took in the mindset that the No. 1 fan of my Instagram account has to be me,” Cheng says.

If there’s one thing houseplant lovers can’t resist it’s more plants. To reach this new and growing market of plant enthusiasts, Barnes Nursery is hosting houseplant swaps to create a space for plant parents to come together, share their excitement and get to know the Ohio IGC.

The idea came about when a Barnes Nursery store manager traveled to New York and saw an announcement for a plant swap at a shop in Brooklyn. Barnes Nursery had been looking for ways to connect with new houseplant customers and Jen Cook, general manager of retail operations, loved the idea. The IGC had been seeing an explosive growth of interest in houseplants and wanted to focus on those new customers.

“This idea seemed like something fresh and unique that this particular genre of customer would love,” she says.

Cook tweaked the idea to take it from a short event requiring entry tickets and turned it into a more laid-back, all-day event.

In the initial planning stages, Barnes Nursery considered requiring an RSVP, charging a fee, having a speaker and a few other options, but decided to keep it simple. “What we kept coming back to is this event isn’t about making money or maintaining a tight schedule,” Cook says. “It’s about providing a place for enthusiasts to gather and share plants, knowledge and information among themselves at their own pace. So we were happy to simply provide the event space and the swappers took it from there.”

Getting it going

To kick the swap off, employees propagated their own cuttings and rootings to supplement customers’ offerings and give early attendees more to choose from. The IGC also donated some plants from the greenhouse to fill ou the early offreings.

For the first year’s event, the IGC gave out one ticket for each plant swappers brought in. Participants could then trade that ticket for one plant of their choice but that format didn’t work well, Cook says, since attendees brought plants of all sizes.

“Some brought cuttings; some brought larger entire plants and some brought small starts,” she says. “We thought it might work better to leave it up to the swappers.”

So in the second year, they did away with the tickets and the swap went off without a hitch. Staff simply kept an eye out while attendees negotiated. “What we noticed is the swappers were all so kind to each other,” Cook says. “We had concerns there may be unbalanced swapping, but everyone was fair, generous and gracious.”

For example, if one swapper brought in a large potted plant, others would ask for a cutting rather than the whole plant to allow others a chance to grow one at home. Cook says there were no arguments or disagreements throughout the event.

Plant swap promotions

To get the word out about their swap events, Barnes Nursery worked with their graphics team to put out a promotional flyer including guidelines for the swap, specifying that only pest-free houseplants, not hardy varieties, were part of the swap. It’s key to include the terms “houseplant” or “indoor plants” prominently so that customers know what to bring.

“This event is strictly for the houseplant customer base so be sure to word it that way or you’ll have people showing up with lilac cuttings and hosta clumps,” Cook says. “Those are two very different customer bases and events.”

Staff handed those flyers out to store customers for three to four weeks before the big event and promoted it on their social media channels. In addition, there was a big banner promotion outside the storefront.

“We had a very simple black and white banner printed to hang outside the building in the weeks prior that read ‘Houseplant Swap Here” with the date and time,” Cook says. “The simplicity of the banner along with the fact that this was a unique event generated a lot of buzz.”

Lessons learned

Over the past two events, Barnes Nursery has learned a lot. The garden center chose October for the first event in 2018, right before Ohio gardeners bring their houseplants indoors for the winter. “Our greenhouse was fairly empty so we had a great space and traffic was slowing down so we thought this would increase traffic,” Cook says.

After that first event, the garden center received feedback that the event was too late in the year, so in 2019, they moved the event to September. Cook says the move increased attendance, and the garden center still had a good stock of fall plants and décor, so the space was more inviting. That, combined with warmer weather, allowed attendees a more inviting space to wander outdoors, which provided a better overall experience.

They also learned that food wasn’t as big of a draw as they had originally anticipated. To kick off the event in the first year, Barnes Nursery provided brick oven pizzas, wine, craft beer, water and coffee, but while people loved the idea of pizza, the IGC noticed that not many people were actually eating it. Attendees were too busy in the greenhouse chatting and swapping. So in the second year, they switched it up and provided cookies and drinks, which was plenty to entice swappers, Cook says.

All in all, the events only took about a day to set up, outside of the time spent propagating plants to supplement the swap. And Barnes was able to do it all in an 8- by 4-foot space in their greenhouse.

While the garden center skipped the event last year due to the pandemic, Cook says she’s excited to host it again this fall. Previous events brought 30 to 50 people through the doors, but the event is more about creating goodwill than it is about customers or sales. Although there were a few sales of potting mix soil and rarer houseplants, Cook says it wasn’t a particularly profitable event. “It was more just about providing the space and getting people who have never been in the store before and just talking to them,” Cook says.

At the end of the day, the goal of the event — to bring in new customers — was definitely met.