PLANT TALK GOES SOCIAL - FYTA Magazine

Duc, aka Mrplantast, is more than a „boy with plants.“ How did the infatuation with greenery come about? Does plant addiction have lasting effects? And what does this have to do with sexy posing? Let’s find out.

Duc is a self-proclaimed plantoholic who manifests his passion on Social Media. A few years ago, he got the taste for green blood and hadn’t been able to go without since: “It’s like an addiction.” – Duc, we feel you!

Mrplantast has somehow always been interested in plants. However, when he moved into his apartment in Berlin Friedrichshain, he didn’t have green roommates on his agenda yet. Too binding, too needy, too moody! “I figured I wouldn’t be staying here that long anyway, so I wouldn’t need to get any plants.”

YouTube changes that. Somewhat by accident, Duc clicks his way through plant channels. A tutorial here, a couple of how-tos there, oh and those rarities …! At some point, one plant nerd chases the next. Curiosity has already got the better of Duc. How could anyone be this enthusiastic about plants? Greenery gets you red-hot? Really?

“It’s like an addiction.”

Somehow, it got to him. Passion is contagious, and Duc is in love. And so, nature enters his four walls. Green buddies quickly take over his shelves, watering cans and shovels are purchased.

But it’s not just watering, fertilizing, repotting, and propagating. Duc documents what he does – takes pictures of rarities and, while he’s at it, of himself. Duc posts. In the beginning, in a private channel. Soon it becomes too much green for his friends. The Mrplantast channel is created overnight, and Duc really gets going: “The excessive hobby came about overnight.” His bio says: “Finding rare plants is like having a good date – hard.” So, plants as a date substitute? Not really. But he admits: His plants distract him from the fact that he is currently single (shout-out to everyone out there – get in touch!).

Many plant lovers are downright plant hunters – the harder it is to snag the plant, the better. Duc is no exception. “I’d be lying if I said my favorite plant was an ivy; I tend to go toward the more expensive and rare variety.”

The thrill of having something extraordinary in the living room is what drove Duc at the beginning of his passion for plants, sometimes even with negative consequences: “When I first started, it was very excessive and became an addiction. I spent much money on plants and invested much time in this hobby, and this behavior ended up causing me a lot of stress, unconscious stress.”

From Gardening To The Ballroom

He is now more of a trendsetter than a trend follower and only does what makes him feel good. After all, we think “All Plants are beautiful,” and Mrplantast now sees it the same way. In addition, he is disturbed by the idea that this new wave of indoor gardening is merely a trend. In his opinion, the plant-lover community will grow even more prominent through social media.

But is everything in Duc’s life just GreenGreenGreen? In any case, his four-legged housemates tend to border on cuteness overload and are also outspoken plant lovers of the first order. So far, no plant has been nibbled; only a flower pot was broken. And we are sure: Despite their extensive love of plants, the two cats get enough cuddles and Instagram fame – Fantastic!

When it comes to houseplants, Duc’s knowledge is pretty impressive. Based on his geeky plant knowledge, we would have bet that he’s also into plants and botany away from his Instagram channel. But far from it. In his less green life offline, Duc works as a speech therapist and is active in Berlin’s ballroom community. “When I’m interested in things, I soak up knowledge like a sponge. I’m just also interested in technical terms, I had Latin in school, and that makes things easier for me in the plant world.”