Aroid plants are fascinating organisms. They can grow over ten feet tall in an ideal environment, and they come in a huge variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Best of all, there are numerous types! Take Anthuriums for example. There are over 1,000 species of the Anthurium genus out there! It’s hard to resist working with these plants if you enjoy gardening or horticulture at all. So here’s my story: why did I start working with aroid plants?
When it comes to hobbies, I generally have only one method of experiencing them: I dive in 100%. This hobby really started last year as I began to deal with some mental health challenges (see my previous post Security and Mental Health). As a security practitioner, I work with fascinating systems all the time, but they aren’t alive in the same way that living, organic organisms are.
Working with aroids is an amazing experience. I love spending my days surrounded by beautiful, vibrant, strange, and sometimes downright funky looking tropical foliage. For me, plants have really helped me to stay grounded, happy and positive throughout my day. Caring for these plants and watching them grow (and hopefully thrive) makes me feel alive!
Writing about botany and raising plants as a hobby has been an exciting journey that continues to teach me new things each day, and I want to share the joy of working with plants with everyone who shares the interest and could benefit from the positive mental health effects that this hobby can bring. Even though I’ve been working with plants on and off for a few years (as an amateur mycologist and botanist), I never really knew what I was doing until I started writing about them. I hope my experience will help you succeed in your horticultural endeavors by learning from my mistakes and taking advantage of my knowledge and experience.