EP21: The BEST Plants for Your Home from Real to Artificial with The Plant Guy

The Plant Guy is the Rock Star plant expert that is raising the bar and setting trends in the plant world. From real plants, to artificial, to indoor, to outdoor, to artificial floral ceiling designs... We bring you this podcast to learn all about the BEST Plants for your home!

WHO KNEW PLANTS COULD BE SO EXCITING?

Do you have a Green Thumb?
If not, THIS IS FOR YOU!
If yes, THIS IS FOR YOU!

Welcome to the Home Design Podcast! Your host, Adam Kayce, sits down with plant expert and innovator, Matthew Lang, the one, the only, The Plant Guy! Through this episode we learn the tips on how to maintain our house plants with little to no maintenance. There are so many great solutions to make plant care easier than what we have experienced in the past. Matthew discussed some of the tools and types of tools that you can use to make your plant life more manageable. Did you know that there are self watering planter options?

There are so many amazing plant options for your home to increase the overall feel and design style. Matthew is coming out with a proprietary and one of a kind planter where it will have it's own water reservoir and will bring that easily manageable height to your home with living greenery.

We don't stop there so enjoy this episode where you will discover ways to achieve that perfect balance of greenery and life in your home to make you capture that biophilic design feel that we all keep seeing through the evolving home trends.

Enjoy the Home Design Podcast.

Visit homeshows.net to learn more about the Home Design Podcast team and mission.
Follow @FLHomeShows

Meet Matthew, The Plant Guy, and become inspired by visiting theplantguy.com
Follow @ThePlantGuy

The Home Design Podcast is where we aim to educate, inspire, and connect South Florida with the industry authorities within their trade.

Transcript

Adam Kayce, Host of the Home Design Podcast:
Welcome everyone to today's podcast episode, you're listening to the Home Design Podcast. My name is Adam Kayce, your host, and we aim to educate, inspire and connect, South Florida with the industry authorities within their trade. Today, we're diving into everything that you should know about plants from real, to synthetic, to inside, to outside the artificial floral ceilings.

Yes. You heard that, right! This guy needs no introduction, Matthew Lang, the official, the one, the only, The Plant Guy.

Thank you. I mean, I, I feel like everybody knows you, you're out there, you know, from social media, you're, you're like a rock star plant expert.

Matthew:
So I liked it. You know.

Adam:
Thank you for being here and, you know, at the end of the day, we want to talk to the experts about what everyone should know when it comes to plants. But before we go into that. Who is The Plant Guy?

Matthew:
Wow. That's a big question, right?  I was born and raised here in South Florida and I've just been doing plants ever since I was a kid, you know, but it wasn't until I got older that I realized, well, gosh, this is what I'm going to do. It was right around actually when the market crashed in 2008. Yeah. So that's when I basically started, I said, Hey, I'm going to turn this into a real business.

Adam:
Absolutely. But you didn't start as The Plant Guy.

Matthew:
No, no, I started, well, I went, when it goes back to Green Thumb Pottery, but it was a green thumb pottery, and I basically sold big, heavy clay pots and any plant that I can get my hands on.

Adam:
And and that was The Plant Boat because you had an idea, delivering plants, because your store was right on the intercoastal, you could go up and down delivering plants, but you know, today we have Matthew and he is The Plant Guy. You know, just talking a little bit about that. I mean, you truly turned a passion into purpose and it is a thriving business today.

Matthew:
Yeah. I'm so grateful for that. Yeah, I definitely, I, I sold the plants that I had. They were my plants, you know, and that's how I started, but, I've been through it all. I've learned a lot about indoor, exterior plants and, you know, being down here in South Florida, we have a lot of salt and salty air and all those kinds of things. Really hot sun. Yeah. You know, so I have kind of became an expert at that, you know, without a doubt.

Adam:
And that's the thing, like a lot of people think about plants and, you know, even myself, you know, it's, it's a scary thing. Like they look so simple and definitely not complicated, but you know, you, you have to take care of them. There's a lot of care. And especially like, I want to go into houseplants first because there are so many species and you know, especially today, biophilic design is such a hot trend with interior design and everything else. And you know, people want plants in their home.

Matthew:
Yeah. It's interesting. People will come inside and go, oh, is this an inside plant? Well, All plants are outside plants. Right? Let's just put that there. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to bring an outside plants inside. So imagine it's a plant that's from the forest, we're going to bring it inside. They were not meant to be inside, right?

So basically if you look at it like this, you know, you have a forest in anything down below the base where it's like the ground, which is very dark. That's generally the type of plant that's going to fit inside.

Adam:
That makes sense, because you have the canopy, like, you know, you don't need a lot of sunlight.

You know, obviously I'm sure that how they're watered and how they're able to filter out in is very different from obviously, you know, the top growing trees. Exactly. So, you know, talking about some of these big trends, you know, like, I feel like everybody's looking at fiddle leaf, snake plants,  you know, give us some more, like what, when people in different homes. They're all different designs. You know, today, like boho chic is very popular. You have extremely modern and simplistic, and then you have like more of the traditional Spanish, Mediterranean style homes. When you're designing these homes or helping these homeowners or designers select the right plant. Does that play a role as far as the type of home and the type of plant that you place?

Matthew:
Oh man. It's, it's so huge. This is a big deal because a lot of times I'm in competition with the designer, right? Because I'm the one who, who knows really? I just don't. I know it's going to work. I can tell you in a minute, if it's going to work or not. You don't realize that.

Say for instance, you have a living room and you have a sliding glass door. Well, that little section to the left that's drywall or the right. And you turn that corner, you just lost all the light. Right, right. And so really need to put the right plant there. Right. And then another factor is that most homes, these days that are new, they have built in UV tolerant windows.

Right. It's built in either. Even though it's clear. It's UV and UV tolerant, meaning that it takes all the good light out. Right. So you think you have good light, but you really don't. So what do people do in that case? Well, you know it's it's so, like you said, Fiddle Leaf Fichus, that's the number one plant right now.

Right? Right. So when people walk in, I'm like, oh no, they're going to want that. So, right. So you actually get scared with people like that. I start with the fiddle leaf. Okay. Cause it's, it's going to be a phone call later. Right. So but yeah, I'll only sell that plant. If I see that they have amazing light, you know, they need to view facing southern, right.

Or an eastern or a western exposure, like three good four hours of good almost direct sun. Right. It's just the way it is. Absolutely. So I, you know but there are plants that work. It's funny, we're talking about plants inside. I developed I have something that is patent pending right now. It's in patent process allowed to share, like, is this a, I can talk about it.

You can't see a visually, I'm not going to show anyone yet, but when it's ready, we're going to publish it. We're going to put it out there, but in three weeks from now, I'll present that out. That's amazing. So cool. Just like, so for instance, I'll talk about a certain plant that's called pothos vine.

Everyone knows what that is. Right. And that grows inside amazingly. But the problem is every maintenance, low maintenance, but it's a tabletop plant. Right, right, right. But the problem is people want trees that go vertical in the space, like in a corner over here, they want it six foot, eight foot. Well, a typical, if you say true.

Trees like more sun, right? It's really hard to get a tree inside. It really is with the design that I came up with. It's taking those poles, those vines, it's turning them on their side and we stack them. That's incredible. It's such a beautiful thing. It's also self water. Well, it force it to grow up the stack like, oh yeah, it will automatically, the minute you get it, you're going to have plants all the way up.

So it's instantly just solve the problem. Right. And then but because it is a low light plant, it's going to take off, right. It's such a great vertical design. And so now you can hit that vertical area that you need to do.

So basically it's self watering,  Low-maintenance yeah, you get the height. It can be any height, right?

Matthew:
Yeah. I mean, we're starting out at six. They can go 8, 10, 12.

Adam:
That's amazing because that's filling a major issue in the sense of like, when people want plants, they want it to like a piece of art. Correct. You know, they want it to fill a corner or fill a wall or whatever it might be. Yeah. They want greenery inside right.

In that room, in that corner. Right. So this solve that problem, but stay tuned for that. Yeah. Yeah. And there's something to be said about greenery as far as just the feeling you get when you have plants and even just the color in and. We'll we'll go into the artificial side because you've also come with, come up with some amazing and creative ways to give the most realistic and actually real right.

But set, but also synthetic correct products. But, you know, let's first go into that in, in the sense of you know, the product itself and what that's really accomplishing for these people, for the artificial, for the artificial itself,

Matthew:
the artificial, what we've done is like, we're talking about the fiddly ficus, right?

So what we do is we, we work with a local guy that he actually trims large trees. We take all those trimmings, right. And I'm talking about big branches in the trees. So it's not like we go cut them down, but we get these we're harvesting taking them and recycling. So we're saving these trees and then we're driving them.

And then we put them in a bucket. We make them vertical. And then we put all these back in artificial artificial leaves and it's a realistic looking Fiddle Leaf Fichus.

Adam:
So I, I have seen this firsthand, you know, Matthew, obviously his showroom is. Like none other it's anyone that's listening, you have to visit the plant guy.

But what's really unique is so just so you can paint the picture a little bit further. This is a real trunk, I guess, you know, branch. And you hollow out or you manufacture it to be able to adhere these synthetic trees. So basically you have the real, but the part that's most difficult to keep alive, you're giving the synthetic.

Correct. So it's, it's amazing. And basically that solves the issue in a great resolution as far as for people that want the fiddle leaf, but probably are not going to take care of it the way they should. Absolutely. So talking about that and then going into like the self-watering system that. You know, you have developed, there's been a lot of products and evolution of planters specifically that are available.

That a lot of people don't necessarily, they're used to maybe going into the Home Goods or Home Depot and you see a plant and that's what it is. But planters go so much further to simplify that process. So I do want to talk about a little bit of the evolution of self-watering planters because you have seen them when they've started to where they are today.

Matthew:
Yeah, definitely. There's a company that I use. It's called Lechuza and it's a German brand and it is an amazing product. So basically it's,  imagine a planter, but it has reservoirs in the bottom of the planner, all plants, all live plants, grow feeder roots. Feeder roots are roots that can sit in water.

Okay. So the water is in the bottom of this, this planter, and there's a screen above that water. So these roots will grow right to that water and drink it. The only thing that you have to do is pay attention to the reservoir, which it tells you you're low on water. You fill the tank up. You're done.

 So that's the, the challenge that people have is they don't know when to water. They look at a plan, they go, oh my God, it needs more water. Let me put more on it.

Adam:
If you don't know how much, how often probably not the problem. Right.

Matthew:
It was probably not the problem, but it's, it's generally, it's a little bit of everything, you know, but the, the good key to always know this.

If you have low lighting, you need to do low water. Right. That's a good point. Yeah. It makes sense, right? Yeah. Not more water. Right. Okay.

Adam:
Without a doubt. And if somebody doesn't have one of these self watering planters, is there like a trick of the trade to know whether or not the, the plant really does need water?

Matthew:
Okay. Yeah. You can definitely go on Amazon and order you a water meter or a meter. All right. Yeah, like 12 bucks. Save your life right there. And saves hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars. I mean, it's basically a probe. It's about 12 inches long. Push it into the soil. It'll tell you if it's wet or not.

Adam:
I wish I I got one of those for myself or some plants that I've had that I feel like I've given up and I bug you. I'm like, man, I need some of these synthetic quits, you know? Because the challenge is, you know, for homeowners, you know, it is a task. You know, something else that I've thought that, that, you know, you read and you hear it's.

Do people have to talk to plants. Right? Is that a real thing?

Matthew:
Well, you know, it, people forget plants are living. Right. Do you know that? Yeah, of course. Think about it. Right. We just, we just think they're just plants right there. They're breathing. They're legit breathing. They need water. Like we need water, they need sunlight. They need vitamin D. They need all of that. Just like we do. So, yeah. You have to lean them. Yeah, absolutely.

Adam:
Because you know, there is something to be said for that and, you know, the feeling and everything that you get for being able to add life to your home is so important. You know, not only aesthetically, but mentally, you know, it, it increases production.

It increases happiness and. With that, you know, biophilic design and all that. And even in the artificial. So they, they are saying, it's you get the same feeling? How many times have you been somewhere? And you've seen an artificial display of plants and wow, wow. This, this is nice. Like, it feels good. I think it has a lot to do with the color green and making you feel like you're out in nature, but you know, that's amazing.

Adam:
It's all life like green, your saying you associate with life and. You know, going from inside to outside, you know, because obviously there, you still have to have the proper setting, proper sunlight for all different types of plants. And you know, for you, I've seen you doing these projects where you're like, bring in full trees into like a small pot, like an entryway of a home that obviously has sunlight to obviously doing things outside on balconies, creating privacy walls. I mean, there's a lot of different things that you're doing, but you know, just talking about outdoors in particular, what plants are you working with most when it comes to some of these outdoor designs.

Matthew:
So outdoor, you know, well, here we're in south Florida. I don't know how far this podcast goes, but anyway, it's really great to check Google it. What's a native plant to your area. Bingo. There you go. And why I say that is because if it's native. Right then that's what the rain will require it. Right. See, we, we tend to bring in plants from all over the world into Florida. Right. Force it, force it. And so like, I have these Indian Shoko trees in front of my house.

They're absolutely stunning. Oh my. But guess what? They won't survive on their own. They have to have sprinklers. They have to, whenever I'm doing a planter install, I really search for plants that are native to the area. So they only require the rain.

Adam:
Okay. Yeah. That's a good point. And that's also peace of mind for the homeowner because you know, there's different people for different things, but you, you have to know what you're signing up for when you're planting certain.

And also, and I'm forgetting the name when I was in your showroom. There was a specific plant. It may have actually been an indoor plant that there's only like, however many in the world and I'm talking about probably no more than a hundred or something like that. Very exclusive. Do you get that a lot in general, as far as when it comes to these exclusive types of plans that are difficult to come across?

Matthew:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I searched for them. So the one you're speaking of is called Coca Loca Rugosa plant.

Adam:
Yeah. I would have never remembered that.

Matthew:
So it's from Puerto Rico. It's amazing. It's basically a giant Sea Grape. But wow. It does amazing inside. So there's only 450 in the world, you know, it'samazing.

I have quite a few of them, but yeah, I searched for cool exotic thing.

Adam:
 Absolutely. And that's what makes you unique? You know, and also talking about outside because privacy walls are big, especially in these condo living type of scenarios where, you know, how far can you really go on a balcony and giving that aesthetic and giving the greenery, you know, there's a lot of condos down here in south Florida.

Let's talk to the condo owners or condo designers for now, right? What should they be looking for? Right. As far as privacy , or, or I have to start with privacy. Yes.

Matthew:
Yes. I have two versions of that. I go, one way is we have our artificial, so we need a base. We need a planter to hold it. Right.

So we designed this aluminum frame that goes inside of our long rectangle planner, obviously. And we then cover that in artificial light. Okay, but we also want to step further and we, we took this frame and it's able, it's all aluminum, no rust. Right. And so it slides out of the way lightweight, but it slides out of the basin in case there's a hurricane.

Right. So we may be mindful of that. Right. So that's that. And then also, if we're going to go live. Choice is one is sense of area, right? It's snake plants, right. Mother-in-law's tongue or Clusia plant, which is a huge Florida native. And it just can, it can live off the rain. You know. 

Adam:
Talking about snake plants because I've had, I love snake plants.

They gives the modern aesthetic. They look beautiful. They fill out I've had them indoors. I have them outdoors. Right. You know, my wife always asks me, like, why can't you keep our snake plant alive, call the plant guy.

Matthew:
How often do you water it?

Adam:I would give it like 16 ounces, like once a, once every three weeks or something like that.

But like, it was doing good for a while and I, I mean, I impressed myself cause I think we had it going good for two years. I don't know, life got in the way maybe you got COVID or something. I don't, I don't know what happened, but I have like two stems left. I do need to replace that. But no, in all seriousness, even talking about outside, I'm talking about sunlight.

Cause I know that does affect because a lot of times people will see that the tips might burn out or different elements. Like what is the. Setting for, you know, talking about snake plants because you know, a lot of people have snakes plants.

Matthew:
Plants are great. There's 72 varieties of snakes, so many different colors and options and whatever. People, some people think I'm a annoying plant, like dry, that grows crazy outside. Right. I personally love it. Just like you stated, it's very modern and clean looking. But the cool thing is, is they can go all the way in the darkest location. But they're grown in full sun. Okay. I don't know if people know that.

I didn't know. I didn't realize that there's no shade house for these things are grown in full sun. Wow. And then they get brought into a shade house and then they go into a home. See that, that, that little acclimation period. Yep. So there is a, you know, people's, there is a challenge that people have where they go, oh, I think my plant needs more light.

I'm going to throw it outside. Right. You wouldn't throw a baby outside, would you? Right? Yeah.

Adam:
Yeah. I don't think so. He might have a few phone calls.

Matthew:
But immediately going from inside, they're going to get sunburned immediately, right? So you would have to like slowly progress them, but snake plant is an amazing plant.

You can that plant, you probably wouldn't have to water about once a month, maybe even one month and a half. What happens over time? When I know what happened two years is over two years, it starts to accumulate water after water to water. And eventually I guarantee the soil is just super wet.

Adam:
Yeah. It was probably too much a nd it's hard to judge that as a homeowner cause I'm no plant expert.

Matthew:
I mean, I could let that thing dry out for six months, not touch it and I get to go back. Oh, really?

Adam:
I love to test that. I'll just put it in the corner, so let's not let it go. So talking about that, because you did say that there is a transition period when they're bringing that plant indoors, but what about outdoors?

Like, is this what they do with all snake plants where they, you know, they obviously grow it and then bring it inside or ones that are meant for outside. Do they leave outside? So it doesn't have to acclimate to anything right. Snake plant is very interesting though. You could throw that right outside. It's such a strong plant.

It is a Fiddle Leaf Fichus. You can't plant outside as it is very sensitive it'll burn immediately. Right.

Adam:
But do people plant fiddle Leafs in shaded areas? Oh, this is the thing fiddily ficus. It's a ficus, right? It has the strongest root system known. Okay. Do not plant it in the ground. Really? Yeah. That's why you, how many times do you see it in the ground?

Matthew:
Wherever. Right, right. Because they know that's, that's the one you don't plant in the ground. Okay. Gotcha. That makes sense. Yeah. You know, so talking about, you know, we mentioned it before, you know, the modern versus more of like the traditional design you know, obviously, you know, snake plant is very modern.

What's your go-to for like say somebody has a beautiful Mediterranean style. Right. And for the inside? No outside. Oh, outside. Yeah. Well, it's just, you know, it depends. I love bougainvillea. Yeah. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. That's a plant that's, it's really easy to grow and people say that they don't like their roots to be messed with.

Right. A lot of times they'll even plant them in the ground, in the growth. Okay, right. That just leave it, just leave it even her alone. You know what I mean? We, we put them in planters. We don't add new soil. We just we'll build up the base of the planter with foam. We'll put a tray inside. We'll put the grow pot on top of it and fill the void with mulch.

Right, right. We didn't mess with it. We didn't add any more soil, but it's an amazing plant.

Adam:
That's awesome. So, you know, in, in talking about the whole design process evolving products, creating products, you displayed something pretty spectacular in the last Fort Lauderdale Home Show. You know, this is something that I can't say that I've seen before. And I feel like I want to like lead people on a little bit further, but I'm just going to go into it because they're probably wondering what is this... Artificial floral ceilings... Where did that come from? Like, you know, is that like a dream or was it a nightmare? You're like, oh my God, I got to do this now.

Matthew:
Yeah. I guess I'm always, you know, wanting to create, I get bored quickly. Right? That's my challenge. I guess it's a good thing. But a client of mine asked me if I would do a project in Wynwood jungle and put a Flint, a floral ceiling. Well, I figured out all the ways to make it happen. Right. And then I just took off from there, but it's an amazing little thing that people can add to say, for instance, in a home that you have like a library, you have a little sitting room or an office. We can make an amazing, beautiful floral ceiling. That's just. I mean, it's a whole another level you saw. Yeah, absolutely. It just gives you this warm vibe and it's just beautiful.

Adam:
And is this because it's obviously a newer application that you started doing, that you doing entire rooms or people doing accent areas within a room?

Matthew:
Like, you know, what is. We went to California, we to do a room out there that was a gigantic room. It was 15,000 florals, but we covered the walls and the ceiling. It was crazy. That's incredible.

Adam:
And we're going to share a picture of that. That is absolutely stunning. I've seen images of it and it's just like next level thought, because it's not like people don't just do this.

Like, you know, working with the professional. What I want to really go into is knowing who you're working with, because at the end of the day, like, yes, Places to go buy a plant and have a planter, you know, but if you want to separate your home, your business, your building, you know, cause you're working both commercial, you're working with developers, you're working with restaurants, you're working with homeowners, designers I mean, it doesn't matter who it is. Right. Tell us what should in this could be for whether it's a homeowner designer, anybody, what are the questions that somebody should ask the individual that they're looking to work with?  As you being the professional, what should they ask you or somebody else to make sure that they're going to get what they're looking for?

Matthew:
Right. Well, it's so important. Say fronts were, you're doing a balcony and you want plants out there. You really need to ask them, Hey, can this handle the wind and the salt I live by the ocean, the salt water. Right. You know, it really is. But great question. If you, if you live in a condo, walk outside, look at the plants you see around that condo. That's probably what you can do, right? Okay. Cause if you noticed the more east you go, you're going to all the plants just started looking at the same, right? You're right. There's like six different ones. That's it? That's your choices. So yeah. Oh, and, and, you know, a lot of designers will make this mistake.

They have a certain look they're going for, but does it work? You're going to force it. Yeah. Yeah. And it really, you should ask your designer, Hey, are you sure? You know, is this going to work for this location because you know, who wants a phone call later? Right.

Adam:
Well, yeah. And the thing is like, these plants, you know, it's an investment, so it's not just the design, you know, the designer wants to look and they're going to get a beautiful picture, but the homeowner or the business they're living with it.

Matthew:
Yeah. And I think definitely. Do self-watering inside. Okay. Ask for self-watering right. There's many options. We take self, we take the German, Lechuza self-watering planter. If you don't like that, we'll put it inside of your planter. Right. As long as that plant becomes self-watering.

Adam:
There was also that the stick, the thermometer thermometer, but the water meter, the water meter that you can use it if need be, but self-watering is the way to go. It's even for the plant guy, it's easy to find, like it's not like people have to search too far.

Matthew:
No, no type in self-watering planner. And they're everywhere.

Adam:
Yeah, no. So in which obviously this new product that you're going to be launching soon, that just solves everybody's problems because, you know, obviously the, the low, no maintenance, self-watering, beauty, height,

Matthew:
we can do height. We can. And then the frame is amazing because you can get in any color you want.

Right. Right. So you're only going to see the sides of it right in the face.

Adam:
And this is proprietary. This is something. If you want it, they must go to you. This is yours, you know, you're innovating the industry. And that brings me to another question because you know, you're always, like you said, you get bored easy.  Innovating taking trends further, but really you're a trendsetter. You're raising the bar, you're doing different things. But what I've found from you, which is actually one of the most impressive things is that you want to educate your peers. You don't look at competition as competition. You, I mean, there's plenty of business out there and that's what speaks to you as an individual.

And I kind of want to dive into that as far as your feelings, as far as the industry, as a whole. You know how you're looking to obviously educate you. I mean, you're inspiring every single day. I mean, you just have to, I'm going to take a quick moment and plug it right now. Open up your phone and hit @theplantguy on social media and you're going to be inspired and you'll get a really clear picture as far as what, what Matthew does and accomplishes by.

Talk to me about just the industry and competition.

Matthew::
It's so interesting. You know, I just like the show you had recently in Fort Lauderdale and say from Plant Me Rosie. Yeah. Amazing. So that was me, you know, back in the day too. And, and I remember. It's amazing to see all of these companies. I learned from them, you know?

And so it's exciting to see it. There's plenty of business for everyone. Right. But we all learn from everyone and it's just an exciting field. Plants weren't that in years ago, it wasn't. Yeah. You know, but they are in now, so, but it's a really great business. It's a great comradery and yeah.

Adam:
And that's what it's all about because you know, When it comes to competition.

I always wonder when I talk to people, like they have to find their inspiration somewhere, whether it's a person, whether it's a movie, whether it's a song, an artist, whatever. But do you have that source of inspiration that, you know, you've found that has inspired you?

Matthew:
Like I said, to see Plant Me Rosie and seeing all these other people that have striving and you know A's Ornamental with Willie.

Adam:
Yeah. I mean his podcasts, he's done a great job as far as diving into the industry itself. Yeah. The plant move it and pop the Plant Movement Podcast. Definitely everybody check them out because if you're specifically looking for all aspects of plants, nursery, growing business as a whole, you know, he is a great resource for that.

Talking about now to the next five years to 10 years, what do we, what are we going to expect from The Plant Guy?

Matthew:
Well, hopefully we'll be on TV soon. That would be really cool. You've been working a lot more content and TV. Yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, the sky's the limit. We're excited. We're developing some artificial product right now and we're excited about.

Adam:
That's amazing. And you know, right now, like one of the top trends is smart homes, technology, all of that. When are we going to see a smart plant? I guess actually this, this is right.

Matthew:
Actually the one that I developed is I'm actually gonna pull in another vendor. And so basically it'll have a probe that's automatically inside the plant. You'll get a text message when you need to water this. Right? So we're working with that too. There's just so many cool things out there.

Adam:
So many integrations you know, so we've talked about a lot of different areas when it comes to you, your inspiration, your development, where you started, where you are now. I can speak firsthand seeing when we first met, which was when you were starting back in 2008. To where you are now. It inspires me in everything that I do on a day to day, because you're the perfect example as far as starting out with an idea and bringing it and really leading an industry.

Matthew:
Thank you. I appreciate that.

Adam:
Without a doubt. Yeah. Just something just to recap, it could be something that you've already mentioned today, but give me your top three to five tips. Somebody is looking for plants in general. What should they be thinking?

Matthew:
Right. Okay. So basically, well, one, if you're thinking about plants inside, you can look on our Instagram for one and you can look through them. I see what we use a lot of. Right. And that's going to tell you what works inside, right.

Two, you know, just ask questions, especially when you go to a nursery, you know, tell them the location of where you're trying to put this, you know, maybe even take pictures, take, oh my God pictures. That's the best. If you ever come to see us bring pictures. Right. Cause that's, that's how we work. Bring pictures of where you want to plant and where you want it outside. All those kinds of questions. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. I, I don't know what else to say.

Adam:
Yeah, well, no, I mean, I can't thank you enough. I mean, we've learned so much if somebody, you know, obviously they can go to your social media, but if somebody is listening to this, they want to contact you.

I know you're easily reachable you know, share with us. What's the best way to reach you?

Matthew:
It's theplantguy.com. It's @ThePlantGuy on Instagram. It's @ThePlantGuy on TikTok. Yeah. It's The Plant Guy. Yeah. It's The Plan Guy go to the website. All of the links are there.

Adam:
You know, you can click on everything, but if you're looking to be inspired, find what's best for your home, get ideas.

Doesn't matter where you live in the world. If you want to see some of the most spectacular installations and you do travel, it doesn't matter where they live.

Matthew:
We're going to The Bahamas soon. And then we have to go to Jamaica, California, New York. Yeah, amazing. So, Matthew, I can't thank you enough for being here today.

You know, for everybody, please go to Matthew's Instagram, @ThePlantGuy , check him out on his website, theplantguy.com. Check them out everywhere on all social media platforms. But until next time, I appreciate you guys all listening to this podcast episode. You can always check us out on our website homeshows.net.

Look at us on our social media, and you'll see a lot of features of Matthew and his team as well @FLHomeShows, but until next time, please subscribe to our channel, get all of the upcoming podcast episodes. As we're looking to bring you the latest in home design and home improvement, but stay tuned for the next episode. .