Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness
403 episodes listed below
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Looking for free, natural ways to decrease stress and increase joy and calm in your life? The answer might be simpler than you think: houseplants, gardening and nature. On Growing Joy with Plants, learn alongside Happy Plant Lady, Maria Failla to care for plants, engage with nature, and use them to manage your overwhelm, anxiety and experience happiness and calm you thought was only available on vacation.Plant care is self care. Come grow some joy with us. Follow along on socials @growingjoywithmaria
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · June 2026
A practical, warm guide to plant care and nature-based wellness for listeners who want calm rooted in everyday routines.
Growing Joy with Plants enters Health & Fitness through daily life: plants on a shelf, time outside, small garden decisions, and the steadying effect of paying attention.
You want plant care advice that treats peat moss and your nervous system as equally real.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A beginner-friendly cut-flower guide that makes gardening feel useful and generous.
Growing Joy with Plants treats a cut-flower garden as something small and useful, not fussy. Brooklyn of Blooming Hill Farms keeps the conversation beginner-friendly, but it still gets into the basics that matter: easy annuals, how a cut garden actually works, and why a few…
A calm, practical take on plant conversion, root health, and light.
The episode presents plant care as a steady, no-fuss process, centered on moving a plant, keeping roots healthy, and helping it settle after the change.
A calm, evidence-minded case for slowing down outside without turning it into a hike.
This episode treats forest bathing as a practice with shape and discipline, not a wellness slogan. It follows the host's path toward ANFT certification and brings in Amos Clifford and Nadine Mazzola to explain what forest therapy asks, how it differs from a hike, and why time…
A quick, cheerful guide to small spring updates that are easy to pull off.
The episode stays focused on small, affordable spring updates instead of a full makeover. BU by Live Trends is the example, with playful planters, small plants, and air plants that can brighten a desk, kitchen sink, or entry hall.
A budget-friendly spring refresh with practical reuse ideas.
This spring refresh piece treats a small-space update as a plain budget question: how to make a place feel new without buying much. The strongest part is the reuse advice, especially the thrifted coffee table and chairs, the sand-and-spray-paint rescue, and the reminder that…
A plainspoken refresher on African violet care indoors.
The episode stays with the basics of African violet care: east-window light, squat azalea pots, a peaty mix, and the difference between soil that is evenly moist and soil that is simply sitting in water. It keeps the advice practical.
A practical air plant care guide that clears up common myths without getting precious.
The piece gives air plant care a clear introduction, and its strongest stretch is the part that cuts through common misinformation and turns Tillandsia care into something workable at home.
A tree becomes a witness, and the episode lets that witness stand there quietly.
A single tree sits at the center of the episode, and everything else grows outward from it: memory, botany, and the weight of place. It is at its best when it stays with the walk alongside her sister and son, then arrives at the tree said to be 400 to 600 years old and the…
Practice ownership without the performance mask.
Creative lives, community care, real talk.
The host opens with a visit to a historic site with her sister and son.
Maria and Joe Lample, also known as Joe Gardner, revisit a Christmas-tree episode from the show’s early archives and focus on how a living Christmas tree can be planted after the holidays.
Maria opens with a spring-refresh pitch and a small roundup of cute planter moments from BU by Live Trends.
Charlie Nardazzi describes a low-maintenance vegetable garden built around perennials, self-sowing crops, and succession planting, with examples like asparagus, rhubarb, evergreen hardy onions, perennial kale, and purple sprouting broccoli.
Maria introduces Nina, a Finnish illustrator and folklore researcher, to unpack ancient Finnish tree worship in a country where about 70 percent of land is forest.
Maria opens with a short sponsor-style spring refresh pitch, then pivots into a replay on seed starting with Joe Lamp'l of joegardener.com and PBS gardening experience.
Erica Mitchell, co-founder of Famous in Oregon and part of the Tanner the Planter brand, describes meeting Tanner at a tire shop, building a relationship that began as friendship in 2013, and marrying in 2017.
Maria invites Kaylee, founder of Billy New in Provence, to explain how she turns flowers, natural pigments, and vintage textiles into wearable prints.
Maria talks with horticulturist and lighting expert Leslie Halleck about why “bright, indirect light” confuses plant parents and why the real issue is light volume, not brightness.
Maria and Nick Consumpis, also known as Farmer Nick, revisit how a single houseplant can become a gateway to low-waste living and regenerative environmental action.
Maria opens with the appeal of a small spring refresh and the kind of modest plant swap that can change a room quickly.
Richard, known as Lord Fierce on Instagram and Plant Daddy MD, traces his plant career from a childhood garden in a Vietnamese immigrant family to plant consulting in New York City.
Maria frames winter houseplant care around lower light, reduced growth, and the difference between quiescence and true dormancy, then names Leslie Halleck as the botanist who corrected her mistaken African violet assumption.
The host discusses refreshing your space for spring with small, affordable planters from BU by Live Trends, and introduces a theme of finding ease and joy in gardening through permaculture.
The episode discusses quick and affordable ways to refresh your space for spring using small plants and playful planters from BU by Live Trends, promoting joy and mood improvement.
The host discusses how small plant additions can refresh a space and boost mood, then promotes BU by Live Trends planters and criticizes misleading plant care content.
Maria Failla and Cassidy Tuttle discuss embracing ease and joy in plant care for 2026, including culling collections and low-maintenance strategies.
Growing Joy with Plants dips back into the archives for a Best of Growing Joy replay.
Maria and Kay revisit passive hydroponics, also called semi-hydro, and Kay says her collection has grown to possibly more than 300 plants with over 50 Hoyas on one wall.
Host Maria Failla interviews Amos Clifford, founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, and guide Nadine Mazzola to explore forest bathing.
In this interview with horticulture expert Leslie Halleck, host Maria Failla explores how to measure light for indoor plants, covering topics like PAR, lux, foot candles, and the importance of understanding light density.
Maria Failla explores biophilic design principles to integrate plants into home offices for mental wellness, citing studies on reduced stress and increased productivity.
Maria Failla announces her pregnancy after experiencing multiple miscarriages, sharing her emotional journey through loss, IVF, and finding hope.
Maria welcomes Rochelle Greyer of Pith and Vigor for a beginner-friendly explanation of USDA hardiness zones, last frost dates, and why plant tags use “6A,” “6B,” or “7 and above.” Rochelle says the USDA system is based on average cold, while the American Horticultural Society heat zones count days over 86 degrees Fahrenheit and Sunset Magazine’s climate zones add moisture, humidity, and elevation.
Maria Failla interviews Kay from In Rooted Love about semi-hydroponics for indoor plants, covering topics like LECA, plant conversion, nutrient management, and pest control.
Maria Failla interviews Stephanie Rose about her book 'The Wild and Free Garden,' exploring how to create beautiful gardens through buy-nothing principles, community resources, and bartering.
Maria Failla interviews Mark Hatchadorian from the New York Botanical Garden in a best-of episode focused on begonia care.
Host Maria Failla interviews Dr.
Maria Failla interviews water quality expert Sidian to explore how tap water varies by location and affects both plant health and human well-being.
Maria opens with the kind of spring-refresh energy that makes a small plant feel like a little burst of joy.
Maria opens Season 11 of Growing Joy with Plants by saying she is moving away from endless houseplant watering content and toward “how do you water yourself?” through nature.
Maria re-releases a Best of Growing Joy episode with Joe Dombrowski, known as Mr.
The host and her guest break down what air plants actually need.
The host discusses refreshing your space for spring with small, affordable planters from BU by Live Trends, then transitions to exploring the Sonoran Desert ecosystem.
The episode discusses refreshing your space with small plants and planters, then interviews a lavender farmer about different lavender varieties.
This episode reveals the hidden superpowers of common houseplants, exploring how they move, communicate, and remember, and how they can enhance well-being.
The episode discusses refreshing your space with small plants and planters, and introduces a new propagation method using fluval stratum.
A plant scientist debunks common viral plant care myths and explains the science behind why they don't work.
The episode discusses refreshing your space for spring with small, affordable planters from BU by Live Trends to bring joy and change the mood.