Tara Soloway, founder of plant care and design business Plantd Life, puts the finishing touches on a client’s indoor garden.Courtesy Janis Lempera Photography
Since the pandemic, interest in tending to houseplants has risen notably, with Statistics Canada reporting increases in the sales of indoor and outdoor potted plants rising 2.4 per cent over the previous year to $1.2-billion in 2023. The reasons for the uptick are myriad, but the happy-making properties of plant ownership are likely the biggest motivator of why we’re so drawn to them. Studies have shown having plants can reduce stress and even lower blood pressure. Plus, they just make surroundings objectively more attractive.
Tara Soloway, founder of the Toronto-based business Plantd Life, has come to understand the benefits of having well-cared for vegetation in our homes on both a personal and professional level. “My dad was an amateur gardener, so our house was full of plants,” she says. Soloway, who formerly worked in the travel industry, found herself longing for a way to pump up her passion during lockdown, and enrolled in an online plant styling course offered by the New York Botanical Garden. From there, her fervour for foliage grew and inspired her to start a company that would “combine creativity and my gardening knowledge.”
Now, Soloway works with clients, both private and commercial, to bring the beauty of the outdoors inside. Plantd Life’s services include maintenance, like watering and repotting clients’ plants, and hosting events such as “Plant Therapy,” which involves a group of folks pruning plants into Bonsai shapes, for example. Increasingly, she finds herself consulting on architectural and interior design projects that require or desire biophilic features – a practice that focuses on the purpose-driven inclusion of plant life in a built structure’s environment.
Soloway’s gusto for incorporating greenery into homes and offices led her to be tapped by the local agency Pencil Design to collaborate on a residential project for entrepreneur Cole Diamond. The build for his family’s new home in Toronto’s Cedarvale neighbourhood included the idea for a cactus garden in Diamond’s office – no small feat given this type of plants’ particular needs, but Soloway and the Pencil Design team took the challenge on with enthusiasm.
Diamond notes that he grew up in the area in a home that had a cactus feature in its entryway; his home office’s design was conceived in homage to that detail. “I’m a serial entrepreneur and innovator,” he says of what value the interior desert scene – visually punctuated by slim, tall Peruvian apple cactuses – affords him. “I get an incredible return out of being inspired and feeling good. And plants make me feel good.”
Jean Pelland, partner at Sid Lee Architecture (SLA) in Montreal, echoes this idea. “Our practice has always prioritized a user-centric approach, focusing on creating environments that meet the needs and enhance the experiences of the people who use them,” he says. “Biophilic design, which incorporates natural elements into built environments, aligns perfectly with this philosophy.”
The Sid Lee Biosquare in Montreal incorporated biophilic design into its office for visual and sensory connections to nature even when indoors.David Boyer
Pelland adds that the results of a thoughtful and well-executed biophilic design are exponential. “It boosts productivity, enhances mood and reduces absenteeism, making it ideal for office projects,” he says.
He and the SLA team took this to heart with the creation of the agency’s impressive Place Ville Marie project, the Sid Lee Biosquare, which was completed in 2022. “We incorporated elements such as bridges and mezzanines to evoke a sense of adventure, while the extensive use of greenery and natural materials like wood and stone creates visual and sensory connections to nature,” Pelland says. “A key feature is the staircase in the southwestern block, which includes a vertical garden with an automatic watering system.”
Likewise, Soloway and Pencil Design strived to craft an ideal environment for Diamond’s desert plants to thrive through the inclusion of a striking skylight, and the home office’s overall layout, which features floor-to-ceiling windows. In addition to the Italian marble that flanks the exterior of the cactus garden’s perimeter, Soloway and Diamond say that a great amount of attention was paid to the rocks that cover the soil (all 13 inches of it) and required several outings to source the perfect ones.
As her clients’ plants bloom, so too does her workload, with a few developer projects on the horizon. “It’s really nice when designers or clients know in advance, from the initial architectural design stage, that they want to incorporate plants,” Soloway says, adding that biophilic design is also helpful for those who have anxiety around plant care. “If you have that ability to think about it from that early point, you can make the conditions so optimal.”