These Aren’t Houseplants. You’re Just Seeing Them in the Wrong Place

What going to Madeira taught me about plant care (and why most people get it wrong)

I’ve spent years filling my house with plants.

Not casually either. Properly committing. Learning them. Growing them. Killing a few along the way and pretending I didn’t. Writing a whole book about them.

And for a long time, I thought I understood what they needed.

Then I went to Madeira… and realised I’d only been getting half the story.

This trip actually came about through a collaboration with loveholidays, and I’ll be honest, it couldn’t have been more on the money.

Because if you love plants properly, at some point you need to stop looking at them in your living room and go and see where they actually come from.

Why houseplants struggle in your home

Here’s the bit most people don’t realise.

These plants we call “houseplants” were never designed for our houses.

They’re not built for dry air, central heating, still rooms, or that one corner you’ve convinced yourself is “bright indirect light”.

They come from environments that feel completely different.

And until you stand in that environment, you don’t fully understand what they actually need.

What Madeira taught me about plant care

There’s a moment when it clicks.

Everything is damp, but nothing is rotting. The air feels alive. You can feel the humidity on your skin.

The light isn’t harsh. It’s filtered, layered, constantly shifting.

And the air… it’s never still.

That’s the part people miss completely.

We bring plants home, stick them in dense compost, water them on a schedule we saw online, leave them in stagnant air, and then wonder why they slowly decline.

It’s not that plants are difficult.

It’s that we’ve misunderstood the conditions they evolved in.

The biggest plant care mistake people make

Most people think better plant care means doing more.

More watering. More misting. More attention.

But being out there flips that completely.

Plants don’t want more.

They want the right conditions.

They want water that moves and drains, not soil that stays wet.

They want airflow, not stagnant corners.

They want light that filters and shifts, not constant exposure or complete neglect.

Once you understand that, everything changes.

You stop following random rules and start making decisions that actually make sense.

Watch the Madeira plant reel

I filmed the whole experience while I was out there.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it here (click below):

It’s not just a travel video.

It’s a completely different way of looking at plant care.

How travelling helps you understand houseplants

You can read about plant care all day long.

You can watch videos. Follow guides. Try every tip going.

But seeing plants in their natural habitat changes everything.

You understand why overwatering is the biggest killer.

You understand why airflow matters more than people think.

You understand that light isn’t just “bright” or “low”.

You stop guessing.

And you stop blaming the plant.

Love plants? Go and see where they come from

If you’re properly into plants, this is something you should experience at least once.

Because once you do, everything sharpens.

You become a better grower without even trying.

And if you are thinking about it, the trip I did was with loveholidays.

They’ve actually got a decent offer on at the moment:

You can get £100 off a £1000 holiday using the code:

LOVEPLANTS

Not a bad excuse to go and stand in a cloud forest and rethink how you look after your plants.

10% off houseplants until Monday at 9pm

I’m still buzzing from the trip, so I thought I’d do something for you lot.

There’s 10% off all houseplants on my website until Monday at 9pm.

No code needed. It’s already applied.

Shop Plants

Final thoughts on plant care

Most people try to force plants to adapt to their homes.

That’s where it goes wrong.

If you shift your environment even slightly towards what they’re used to, everything becomes easier.

Less guesswork. Less stress. Better growth.

And a lot fewer plants slowly giving up on you in the corner of the room.

One love, tiny phone people.