Q&A: Plant Care Tips and Insight with @idrinkandigrowthings

Eunice Hernandez (@idrinkandigrowthings) is a self-described crazy plant lady living in Chicago with her husband and two kids. Her urban jungle is the envy of over 142,000 followers on instagram. Read on to find out where she got her name, how she deals with the weather in Chicago, her favorite plant, and more! 

Many thanks to our interviewer, Elise!

It all started with a lemon tree that I purchased at my local nursery… After that, I just kept buying indoor plants. I love to do outdoor gardening but I live in Chicago and summer is too short; I wanted to be able to enjoy plants all year round. 

I am a hugeeee fan of Game of Thrones, and one of my favorite characters (Tyrion) says in one episode “that’s what I do; I drink and I know things,” so I figured I would just change the ‘know’ to ‘grow' since it goes with what I do.

Unfortunately, yes, Chicago weather is not plant friendly during the winter! It’s always gloomy but I have learned to use some gadgets so that my plants can survive the long winter. One of my favorite things to use is grow lights. I have several grow lights throughout the house, and I also use humidifiers. When you turn on the heater it gets super dry and the humidity goes down to 30%; with humidifiers I can raise the humidity to at least 70% for my tropical plants. I also have a skylight in my kitchen and have WallyGro planters right next to it. Even with all these tricks, you are still going to lose some plants, but for the most part they stay happy.

I am so blessed to have kids that don’t mess with my plants. They actually love to help out. My oldest always wants to water my plants; he has his own watering can.

Great question and difficult to answer, but I think my Philodendron pink princess that I got back in 2017. She has grown so much and is so low maintenance. Wish all my plants were that easy!

Thanks to Eunice for sharing her story and her methods with us! See her work on social media:

Instagram: @idrinkandigrowthings