If you are a Plant Parent looking to connect with other Plant People to grow your plant care knowledge and cultivate a little more joy in your life...

You've come to the right place. 

The Bloom and Grow Garden Society is where the plant community and Horticulturist taught education come together. 

Make New Plant Friends.

Cultivate Knowledge.

Grow More Joy.

Back in the day,

plant and gardening enthusiasts would gather at local garden and community centers for garden society meet ups, where they could nerd out with fellow plant geeks to get expert level education from guest speakers, trade tips and techniques and show off their prized plants. 

Nowadays,

the plant community has extended past local garden centers, into a world wide web of plant friends across the internet. 

But the internet has also created an overwhelming amount of unvetted plant care guides and advice, that are sometimes just plain wrong or hard to understand. 

We created The Bloom & Grow Garden Society as a safe space for plant friends to grow their plant care knowledge and themselves through: 

• exclusive high-quality plant care education and coaching provided by the Garden Society Horticulturist in Residence, Leslie Halleck
• opportunities to explore the plant/person connection as a community with Host, Maria Failla
• a community based platform and approach that allows for members to go beyond their meetings and lectures, and support each other in real time, all the time

If you’re longing to find a community where you can make meaningful connections with like-minded plant enthusiasts and gardeners, and benefit from expert-level education and guidance, all while growing alongside your plants, the Bloom and Grow Garden Society is here for you…online and at your fingertips.  

OK but give me the deets, please!

What's the difference between the Garden Party Platform and Garden Society Premium Tier?

The Garden Party Platform & App is rooted in kindness and community. 

Like minded plant friends from around the world can come together in this safe, algorithm and troll free space, to nerd out about plants, post in the dedicated conversation spaces for various planty interests and even connect with local plant friends through the "plant friends near me feature".

The Garden Society is rooted in education and growth. 

It's the premium tier within the Garden Party Platform, for those who are ready to dive deeper into their Plant Parenthood journey. You'll grow your knowledge with exclusive monthly "Node of Knowledge" Lectures on various aspects of plant care and AHA (Ask Our Horticulturist Anything) coaching calls, taught by Horticulturist in Residence, Leslie Halleck. You'll grow yourself and your plant/person connection with monthly "Growing Joy" calls with Garden Society Host, Maria.

What's in store for the Garden Society Curriculum?

Once a month, Society Members will come together virtually to take a deep dive into topics like:

The Science of Plant Dormancy: Learn how light, temperature, water, and time influence development and dormancy in your houseplants and garden plants.

Grow Lights 101 and Beyond: We’ll explore the basics – and specifics – of grow lighting 101. Light and photoperiod play a big role in potential dormancy, or slowed winter growth, of many of your favorite houseplants. Plus, this class will gear you up for your January seed starting activities! 

Indoor and Outdoor Seed Starting Intensive: We’ll be taking a deep dive into Seed Starting techniques and will go into further detail on how to treat seeds and break seed dormancy for difficult species, such as many succulents and wildflowers. This class is for both indoor and outdoor plant parents looking to start seeds.

Plant Transpiration; How Humidity & Temperature Impact Your Plants: Humidity and temperature drive plant transpiration. But how? We'll dig into how plant transpiration works in your plants (indoors and out), and learn the difference between absolute humidity, relative humidity, and vapor pressure deficit. We'll cover strategies for growing more challenging high-humidity species indoors, as well as learn to recognize signs of plant stress in the garden. More to come!

Water Quality & Watering Techniques for Your Plants: The topic of water quality gets thrown around online, a lot. But what is the real difference between tap water, RO water, and rainwater? What's in them, how do you measure their quality, and what impact does each (and what they potentially contain) impact your plants? Water quality and Plant Nutrition go hand in hand. 

Calls will initially be live, with the opportunity to ask questions at the end, and then uploaded into the Garden Society Hub to watch at your convenience. 

What's an AHA?

Stop spending hours weeding through social posts, blogs or videos from random sources, just to find an accurate answer to your pressing houseplant or gardening question

AHAs, or "Ask Our Horticulturist Anythings" are monthly calls with our Horticulturist in Residence, where you can ask her questions directly about what we are learning in the Node of Knowledge lectures, and troubleshoot your own plant care issues with your personal plant collection. (Yes, that's monthly opportunities to meet with a horticulturist about your own specific plant care needs. The opportunity to get ongoing expert advice about your personal collection is worth the entire subscription price alone). 

What's a Growing Joy Call?

Dive into the joy of plants and deepen your relationship to the Plant Community.  

Society Members will hop on a casual call with Maria every month, to explore the plant/person connection, show off their favorite plants, and trade tips and tricks with each other about their growing techniques and deepen their plant friendships.

How does the Garden Party Platform play into my Society Membership?

Your Garden Society Membership gives you access to all of the features of the Garden Party Platform, so in addition to the high quality education and personal and planty development  you'll be getting in the Society, you'll also be able to connect with the greater Bloom & Grow Community, meet local plant parents near you, and explore the special interest conversation topics like houseplants, gardening, planty DIY, planty business, plant ID and the Plant Swap Space! 

"Think of the Garden Society as the coolest Plant School around, and think of the Garden Party as the coolest place to play with your friends at planty recess." - Maria

Maria Failla

• Founder of the Bloom & Grow Garden Party Platform and Garden Society

• Founder of the Bloom & Grow Radio Podcast

• Your new best plant friend

Maria is the Plant Killer Turned Plant Lady behind the Bloom & Grow Radio Podcast and Media. Bloom & Grow Radio is a planty podcast that educates, empowers and inspires everyone to care for plants successfully, grow their indoor jungles and cultivate more joy in their lives. She is on a mission to make the world a kinder and greener place through the practice of plant care, and is so excited to have the Garden Party and Society as a way to house our incredible community of international listeners who are all on this planty journey together.

After struggling to find high quality, science based plant care education on the internet (and hearing the same woes from my community of listeners) she created the Garden Society as a safe space for our community to deepen their plant care knowledge and take their plant parenthood to the next level.

We all can #keepblooming and #keepgrowing together!

Leslie Halleck

• Horticulturist in Residence of the Garden Society

• Degreed & Certified Professional Horticulturist

• Horticulture Consultant, Educator & Book Author

• Your new favorite Plant Nerd (and Teacher)

Leslie F. Halleck is a Certified Professional Horticulturist (ASHS) who has spent her nearly-thirty-year career hybridizing horticulture science with home gardening consumer needs. As a green industry communicator, book author, and horticulture instructor, her specialty is digesting horticultural and botanical science and techniques into formats that are friendly, easily understandable, and executable for both the home hobbyist and budding professional.

Halleck earned a BS in Biology/Botany from the University of North Texas and an MS in Horticulture from Michigan State University. Halleck’s professional experience is well rounded, with time spent in botanical field research, public gardens, landscape design and maintenance, garden writing, garden center retail, and horticulture and green industry consulting. At the end of 2012, Halleck devoted herself full-time to running her company, Halleck Horticultural, LLC, a horticulture industry consulting and marketing agency. Halleck is also currently a UCLA Extension Instructor for the Horticulture & Gardening Program.  

Halleck’s previous positions include Director of Horticulture Research at the Dallas Arboretum, and General Manager for North Haven Gardens (IGC) in Dallas, Texas. Halleck is now a regular feature on the professional speaking and industry publication circuit, but she also continues to offer up common-sense gardening advice and hands-on learning to home gardeners via her Plantgeek Chic blog, public workshops, plant swaps, and consumer publications. During her career, Halleck has written hundreds of articles for local, regional, and national publications, as well as taught countless gardening programs for the home houseplant keeper, indoor grower, flower gardener, edible enthusiast, and backyard farmer.

Halleck is the author of several books, including "Gardening Under Lights: The Complete Guide for Indoor Growers" (2018) and "Plant Parenting: Easy Ways to Make More Houseplants, Vegetables, and Flowers" (2019). Her latest book, "Tiny Plants: Discover the joys of growing and collecting itty bitty houseplants" was released in June, 2021

Whether you are a beginning, intermediate or advanced plant parent...

We want you here, growing alongside us, exactly as you are.

What other Garden Party members are saying....

"A fantastic community with some of the most knowledgeable, nicest folks you'll ever meet"          - Michael

"The Garden Party is a community that was grown just for us. It's a welcoming and warm place for us to learn and grow together, celebrating our wins and fails (learning opportunities)! Since day one, Maria's warmth and openness has cultivated a community of like-minded, Plant People who are instantly welcoming." - Christy

"I love this close-knit community - it definitely feels more personal in a way that other platforms can sometimes lack." - @plantsonpapertowelroll

You're invited.

Come grow with us!