“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world.” — Georgia O’Keefe

Toni-Ann Bradshaw, like many of us, arrived at her love of plants through an unwitting avenue of discovery. To put it simply, it all started with a mango.

Sharing the evolution with us, Toni-Ann charts her journey, “Growing up, I was never interested in plants. When I was a teenager my mom gave me melon seeds to sow and none grew. That further solidified my disinterest. Around the age of 18, my love for East Indian mangoes fueled the beginning of my love for plants. I bought two massive mangoes then proceeded to watch YouTube videos on how to germinate the seed. I followed the instructions thoroughly with my damp napkin and a Ziploc bag in the fridge. Ten days later there was new growth. I was thrilled! I continued to follow the instructions and I then had two mango trees! After my success, I started to plant everything I ate. From sweet potatoes, tangerines, lime, orange, sweet pepper, tomatoes, longan and guinep.”

Planting happiness

Toni-Ann’s happiness grew along with her gardening prowess and diverse array of plants. Taking us through the growth, Toni-Ann says, “At first, I was really interested in growing fruits and vegetables, especially from seeds. There’s just more appreciation and gratification to watch a plant grow from a single seed than to buy a mature plant. I then moved on to succulents and that ended rather quickly. I guess I gave them too much love and overwatered; they all died. That’s when desert roses caught my attention. They require little attention and water and that was easier for me to manage along with college. After, I started to collect all types of plants, learning quickly what works for me and what doesn’t. Now, desert roses, Hoyas and a few Christmas Cactus’ and succulents are my focus, with my Hoya australis ‘Lisa’ as #1 desert roses make up 90% of my collection.”

For Toni-Ann, “Plants mean happiness and relaxation. Whenever I’m not in a good mood or receive some bad news I just buy a new plant — which instantly makes me feel better.”

Pot It 876

Toni-Ann, @potit876, captures and shares beautiful visuals of gardening skills on Instagram. Describing her online journey, she articulates, “Pot It 876 is a story of my plant journey with my favourite and not-so-favourite plants…how I’ve learned from my mistakes and experiments to be able to effectively care for my plants today. Pot It 876 depicts my plant story from the beginning of July 2019, how I have evolved and been able to present better content and take better pictures to express my love and joy for my plants, especially when I get blooms for my desert roses, which you would see a lot of on my page…It has further evolved into @iplantupot along with my best friend Tio Stevens to be able to share our collection with others. It just started but I promise that you will not be disappointed in what we have to offer.”

Gardening with care

Toni-Ann believes strongly that plant lovers must have a solid understanding of the needs of each plant to adequately give care. She explains, “My main growing tip is to learn about the types of plants you have, the type of environment it thrives in, the amount of water it needs, pests that you may encounter at some point in time, and fertilise…Learn about your environment and surroundings before you buy a plant. If you live within the hottest parts of Jamaica, for example Kingston, Calatheas and ferns are not for you. I learned this the hard way. They like a cool/humid environment and will not survive the heat, hence, why I love Hoyas and desert roses — they love the sun.”

Toni-Ann also practises sustainable gardening by using rainwater or water from her fish tank to water her plants.

#COUPLEGOALS

Jean-Jacques Rousseau once wrote, “Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.” While this may apply to most couples who enjoy a little gardening fun, it definitely doesn’t apply to Toni-Ann and her beau who now have a shared affection for plants. Toni -Ann confides, “My love for plants is so strong that I managed to convince my significant other to love plants as well. Initially, he wasn’t into plants but his love for me transferred to my plants. I was away for five weeks and he cared for them extremely well. He even watered them with the water from my fish tank.” Now, for the gardener, that’s true love.

This weekend, for those of us who are vaxxed and relaxed, it might be good to follow Toni-Ann’s lead and work towards our couple goals by indulging in the glory of gardening with our significant other. By Alfred Austin’s definition, this means — “hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature…To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul”.

For those who are not vaccinated…please attend upon your nearest vaccine centre — “if a dirt a dirt” should only apply to your garden.