Shoutout to Polly!!

Imagine this: You’re going on a vacation for a couple weeks, and you need someone to babysit your plants while you’re enjoying life. If you asked Adam Coshal in 2020 if they could watch your plants, they would have absolutely rejected you and your plant babies!

In the good year of 2023, Adam Coshal has a thriving indoor jungle with nearly two-hundred plants and is one of the co-founders of Plants, Plants, Plants LLC.

This all started with my boyfriend and co-founder, Diego, introducing me to his three Golden Pothos propagations when we first met in Syracuse, New York. The cuttings had already rooted in water and were easy to care for, and I still refused to babysit them when Diego went away for holidays. Plants were scary to me back then! During my time as an undergraduate student, I had done my time with a couple infamous “easy-to-care-for” succulents – all of which shriveled up and died in my care. 

I started my life in Durham, North Carolina, with this hesitation around plants, even though those three sentimental Pothos cuttings joined me and Diego in our new apartment. Diego started to find more houseplants to add to his little collection, including an Aloe named “Bob.” This Aloe quickly became my partner’s favorite; Bob started my growing appreciation for plants. The Aloe was purchased from the leftover section in our local Home Depot, and seeing Diego invest the time and energy into Bob to rejuvenate it was heartwarming and sparked my own interest.

Shortly after the turn of the new year, Diego and I found ourselves wandering around a local Lowe’s, and my eyes landed on the most stunning plant in the store – an Alocasia Polly!

There was only one Alocasia Polly left, and it was healthy and beautiful. The plant stood proudly at approximately 8” tall and had leaves that looked like jagged, upside-down triangles; they were purple-green in color with striking white veining. This gorgeous Alocasia Polly stood out amidst the solid green of the Pothos, Philodendron, and Syngonium – I was immediately drawn to Polly. With an unparalleled swiftness, I plucked the Alocasia from the Lowe’s Indoor Garden Section. 

When I got home that day, I selected what felt like the most perfect pot for the Alocasia Polly, and I repotted the plant the same day with all of my excitement. I couldn’t stop staring at the newest member of our plant family! The journey of learning how to best care for this plant occupied much of my brain space for the following week, and so, I invested in a humidifier to run next to Polly, situated Polly next to my bathroom window for the brightest indirect light in my apartment, and started to experiment with fertilizer on Polly. 

From there, I started my dive into the world of plants! I continued to expand my indoor plant collection, took on the mission of studying the best care practices for each plant, and explored different ways to display them for our indoor jungle apartment. 

Today, my Alocasia Polly remains vibrant and beautiful! Several new leaves of various heights and widths have emerged throughout our year together. Polly remains my favorite plant to-date; Alocasia is my favorite genus of plants to-date; and my love for plants remains strong and vibrant just as my Polly does!