Ten months ago, Tommy Engström quit his job in ad sales, packed up his Chicago apartment and drove to Los Angeles.

For the record: This story has been updated to reflect the latest housing prices, released today.

He rented an apartment in Culver City that was so desolate, it echoed. “It was me, a suitcase of clothes and an air mattress,” Engström says.

He purchased a trio of cactuses and a chair at Target to liven up the place. When he stumbled into Rolling Greens nursery, he bought a low maintenance rubber plant, or Ficus elastica. That led to a staghorn fern he found at Grow in Venice, a trendy fiddle leaf fig from Home Depot, multiple air plants known as tillandsia and 20 other species.


“I found myself gravitating toward plants,” says Engström, who is 30 and works at a marketing agency. “Everyone made fun of me because I was sleeping on an air mattress and buying plants. But having living things to care for soothed me.”

“I found myself gravitating toward plants,” says Tommy Engström, at home in Culver City. (Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)

Engström is not alone. While houseplants have never gone out of style as low-budget home décor, sales of flowers, seeds and potted plants have increased since 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The recent surge coincides with the fact that some millennials, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as “America’s youth born between 1982 and 2000,” are delaying home ownership.

“A lot of millennials live in apartments and don’t have gardens,” says Annette Gutierrez, co-owner of the Atwater Village garden store Potted. “They don’t come in and buy $300 pots unless they are actors. They buy a lot of succulents, hanging plants and airplants.”


Gutierrez stocks about 100 tillandsia per week and says the majority are purchased by young people. She even had to change the store’s credit card policy because millennial customers seem to rarely have cash. “We used to have a transaction fee for purchases under $10,” she explains. “But so many customers were spending $4 we decided to change it.”

In Los Angeles County, where the median home price just hit $615,000, the cost of living has put home ownership beyond the reach of many millennials. Without the obligations of children and mortgages, millennials are finding solace in their Sansevieria and Monstera deliciosa and cultivating a sense of homeownership with plants.

From Pasadena to Long Beach, independent nurseries Folia Collective, Peacock & Co. and Sanso have opened recently and gained a foothold in the market by targeting millennials, even while many nurseries struggled to stay afloat during California’s drought in 2014.

If there is any barometer of millennial plant enthusiasm, however, just look to Instagram where philodendron-draped selfies populate accounts such as Boys With Plants and hashtags #plantmama and #plantdad connect #plantlovers.


Justina Blakeney, a designer and online influencer with more than 980,000 followers on her Jungalow Instagram account, thinks the fascination with plants is also a response to urban living.

“I can’t tell you how many people tell me that they have a new obsession with plants,” says Blakeney, 39. “Whenever I take a Lyft and tell them what I do, the drivers ask me for tips on their ficus.”

To Blakeney, plants are about “bringing life into your home,” she says. “People are looking to be close to nature. You can come home and be surrounded by greenery. It’s a respite to be surrounded that way.”

Blogger Lee Tilghman in her Koreatown apartment. (Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)


Food and wellness blogger Lee Tilghman, 28, who has lived in her Koreatown apartment since moving here from New York three years ago, agrees.

“I live in the center of the city, and it’s loud and hectic,” Tilghman says. “It’s nice to have a piece of outside inside. I used to struggle with anxiety and I found that having plants calms my anxiety and naturally brightens my space.”

Millennials are drawn to plants because they “don’t know what the future will bring,” she says. “We are always moving. You can bring them into your home without worrying about what comes next.”

It’s not surprising that someone — actors, comedians and self-confessed plant junkies Brooke Trantor, 28, and Erin McDonnell, 26 — turned the trend into a narrative, the comedic YouTube show “Botanical Baes.”


“It’s hard to be a millennial and an artist in this town,” says Trantor, who rents an apartment in Hollywood. “It feels great to come home to my plants and see their growth. That’s tangible. It reminds me that life is so much more than the day-to-day experience. In this apartment with these plants, I feel grounded. This is my sanctuary.”

Actors Brooke Trantor and Erin McDonnell turned their love of plants into the YouTube comedy series “Botanical Baes.” (Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)

An instant photograph of actors Erin McDonnell and Brooke Trantor as their YouTube personas Canyon and Stacey. (Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)

McDonnell grew up in South Pasadena and went to college in South Carolina. “Brooke and I connected over our plants,” says McDonnell, who also rents in Hollywood. “We have friends who can buy homes and have gardens. I can’t have a pet. We can’t re-landscape outside. It’s a nice creative outlet in a smaller way. We can take care of something and nurture it and watch it grow in a way that is accessible for us.”


The comedians insist they are not making fun of today’s plant parents.

“I learned at Second City that you don’t have the right to make fun of other people until you make fun of yourself,” adds Trantor. “I looked in the mirror and thought ‘We talk to our plants. We are ridiculous.’ And we ran with it.”

Anthony Gulino, 33, in his Los Feliz apartment with his plants and his cat Lincoln. (Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)

As a health insurance sales rep, Anthony Gulino, 33, often works from his Los Feliz apartment.


For him, creating a healthy work environment is not about ergonomics but environment.

“There is not an empty horizontal surface that doesn’t have a plant,” Gulino says. “I have fun watching them change, cultivating them and taking care of them. I like to see new growth and watch them do unpredictable things.”

The plants are part of what makes his apartment so compelling. “I have been in the market to buy a house or upgrade,” he says. “Sunlight for my plants is on my list.”

Adds Engström: “It’s a fun passion. So I’m obsessed with plants? It could be a lot worse.”


Here are a few of our favorite places to shop for plants in L.A. Have one to share? Let us know in the comments.

Acorn

1611 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock, (323) 474-6297

Artemisia Nursery


5068 Valley Blvd., El Sereno, (323) 795-5515

The Cactus Store

1505.5 Echo Park Ave., Echo Park, (213) 947-3009

Folia Collective


380 S Lake Ave #105, Pasadena, (626) 787-4957

Grow Venice

1650 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, (310) 729-2713

Mickey Hargitay Plants


1255 N. Sycamore Ave. West Hollywood, (323) 467-8044

The Los Angeles Flower Market

754 Wall St., downtown Los Angeles, (213) 627-3696

The Plant Provacateur


3318 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, (323) 774-4836

Ponderosa Cactus

128 N. Ave 64, Highland Park, (818) 583-7756

Potted


3158 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 665-3801

Rolling Greens

9528 Jefferson Blvd, Culver City, (310) 559-8656 and 7505 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, (323) 934-4500

Rose Bowl Flea Market


Second Sunday of every month, Rose Bowl, Pasadena.

Sals Cactus Mart

3571 Howe Road, Fillmore, (805) 368-5433

Sanso Plant Shop


2915 Knox Avenue. #103, Elysian Valley, (323) 922-6065

Sunset Nursery

4368 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, (323) 661-1642

lisa.boone@latimes.com


Twitter: @lisaboone19

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