You who are reading me and if you consider yourself a “millennial”: have you noticed that in the last few years, you (probably) or at least some of your friends started to cultivate succulents, monsteras, cactus, snake plant, among other plants that are more resistant, for the permanent lack of time that defines and devastates us?
We lost time to cultivate orchids and roses and disconnected from nature, we miss the garden and feet on the grass and start looking for plants that need the least amount of sun, water and survive regardless of the season.
According to studies between 2016 and 2018, our generation caused the sale of domestic plants to increase by about 50%, and during the pandemic the increase in this market grew even more.
Some say that our generation’s interest in domestic plants comes from changing our habits, interests and customs. They argue that as our generation does not want to have children “early”, we would have turned plants into our object of desire and their cultivation would be our movement to satisfy this urge to care.
Besides that, millennials who live in urban areas have another yearning: the need to be connected to nature. Therefore, the need to have nature indoors is something that refers to this connection in some way, be it just one plant or enough plants for a private mini forest for those who consider the habit of growing plants customary, in a way that it can even turn into an addiction.
I didn’t come here to criticize the habit of growing plants. I cultivate some myself in the studio I’m living in today, I’ve even given them names and I have been talking to them and yes, they are being called domestic, those that precede care, that don’t require so much sun or so much water.
Nature is resilient, often without access to light for photosynthesis, even if we forget to water for a week, but what about you, have you been taking yourself for a walk barefoot on the grass, taken a sunbath, when was the last time you had shower in the rain?
Along with our habits and needs, the plants we grow change. I was just thinking, I wish I had the time of the generation that grew roses.
