Plant Kween, Bringing Green to the Scene
“I pretty much know all the owners of all the plant shops in Brooklyn at this point,” says Christopher Griffin, aka Plant Kween.
The “plantfluencer” has been cultivating those relationships in earnest since late 2015, when they launched their Instagram account to document their journey as a New York City plant owner. What started with one houseplant purchase for a new apartment has since grown into a full-fledged social media career.
More from WWD
A Look Inside Alessandro Maria Ferreri's Gorgeous Rome Apartment
Inside Habitas on Hudson: Photos of the Hotel's Design and Property
“And I still have that plant,” says Griffin, walking over to what they describe as their “plant nook,” a greenery-filled apartment corner that serves as a backdrop for many of their Instagram videos.
“She was like three leaves when I bought her,” adds Griffin, gesturing to the pothos plant trailing across one wall. “It kind of turned into, ‘Oh, I can give love and care this plant, and the response is it grows — that feels so wonderful and simplistic.’”
As they continued to share their love of plants on Instagram, they saw an opportunity to grow a new community on the social media platform.
“I started looking for folks, and I didn’t really see any folks like me. I was like, ‘Where are the Black queer nonbinary individuals?’” Griffin says. “And then I realized, ‘Well, girl, people don’t know who Plant Kween is’ — because at that time I was just showing the plants. Once I started putting myself into the mix and showing my personality, that’s when the community started coming.”
Their account has since bloomed to just shy of 400,000 followers through educational and colloquial content like their “read that green gurl” series, which highlights various house plants and offers care tips — often while they are dressed to the nines. (Griffin is particularly fond of Christopher John Rogers, wearing the designer’s looks to recent benefits for the New York Botanical Garden and Aurora James’ Fifteen Percent Pledge.)
In an effort to expand plant appreciation in unexpected places, Griffin teamed this month with Kimpton Hotels to launch “Plant Pals,” a program that offers hotel guests an opportunity to spruce up their rooms with a plant to enjoy in-room during their stay.
“I thought it was really brilliant,” Griffin says of the initiative, which emphasizes plants native to each hotel’s region, with a subtle educational component. Options on the Plant Kween-curated menus include a prickly pear cactus in San Francisco, English ivy at European Kimpton locations and pothos in the Asia Pacific region. “Which is native to Asia; one of the fun facts is that it is an invasive species in other parts of the world,” Griffin says of the popular houseplant. “So little moments to allow folks to get into the geekiness of it all, but then also provide them with an opportunity to have some lushness in their room.”
The hotels will care for and maintain the plants, which Griffin hopes will create additional opportunities for horticultural specialists within the hospitality space.
“I don’t think I do standard partnerships. I really try to make them fun, approachable and campy and add a little humor to it,” says Griffin, who also launched a partnership with 1-800-Flowers earlier this year. “Some of my best partnerships have been like, ‘Hey Christopher, we love what you do, do exactly what you do; here’s the product, have fun.’ And then I get to engage in storytelling in my own way and share how I incorporate that particular product or piece into my everyday life.”
Griffin continues to seek partnerships that align with their mission of helping people connect with nature, while ensuring that the company’s mission is aligned.
“’You’re telling me that you want me to say that this is environmentally friendly, but what is your product’s formula? Is the plastic recycled?’ And so those are some of the things that I like asking because it gives me an opportunity to really see if they’re about the business and being authentic about it,” Griffin says. “I also understand the identities that I bring to a space,” they add. “So I’m always asking, ‘What other initiatives have you done to highlight folks of other underrepresented communities?’”
A Philadelphia native, Griffin cultivated a love for plants from a young age via his grandmother, who maintained a garden in the neighborhood and was known locally as “the plant lady.” After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Griffin moved to New York to earn a master’s degree from NYU and work in the social justice space. Now Griffin is balancing their career as a plant influencer alongside work as a global diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging program specialist for Headspace, a mindfulness platform.
Last year, Griffin released a plant care how-to book, “You Grow, Gurl,” and they are in the midst of developing a television project. They recently partnered with Freight Farms in Boston, which produces a hydroponic growing system in shipping containers and highlights access to fresh produce. Griffin notes that plants are the gateway to a broader conversation around access to food and green spaces.
“I joke with people where I’m like, ‘I want to be the next David Attenborough,’” Griffin says of their ambition for Plant Kween. “I admire everything that he’s done, really bringing us into nature in an amazing way for so many years. I feel like I wanna be on that pathway.”
Best of WWD
