Meet the Plant Whisperer

Haylee Magendans' life has always been filled with plants, so it only made sense that her career eventually came back to one of her earliest loves.

Hailing from a long lineage of ‘plant whisperers’, Haylee now spends her days tending to her green pals and teaching others how to do the same. Drawing on five years of workshop hosting and lessons learned as a yoga teacher, she has come to realise that her students are craving one thing: connection.

With that in mind, step inside one of her buzzing workshops and expect to learn not only how to make a terrarium but the benefits of tapping into the serene experience surrounding their making.

With a new funky new studio in Brunswick and a workshop repertoire expanding well beyond the humble terrarium, Haylee aims to show Melburnians and all Aussies that plants have so much more to offer than meets the eye.

I first fell in love with plants…

“When I was a child. I've just always been obsessed with plants and always had an indoor jungle in my home, it's just been a natural thing.”

They call me ‘The Plant Whisperer’ because…

“A friend of mine called me ‘The Plant Whisperer’ and it just kind of stuck. A lot of friends would come to me because something would be wrong with a plant and I'd be able to tell them how to fix it. So what started out as a joke eventually became my business name.”

Plants make the best pals because…

“They help you de-stress. In fact, just looking at them is good for you! If you want to look at it on a scientific level, plants purify the air, making it a lot cleaner and more oxygenated. We have a symbiotic relationship with plants, so plants expel oxygen and they breathe in carbon dioxide. By having plants in your space you benefit each other.”

My top tip for ‘brown thumbs’...

“Try and connect with your plant. It's not just an ornament, it's a living thing and you're bringing life into your space and you need to connect with it in that sense. Other than that, it’s usually one of two things: light or water. We can turn the brown thumbs to green thumbs by breaking things down into simple steps at our plant parenthood workshops.”

Step inside my studio and you’ll find…

“A vintage, seventies-inspired plant-filled oasis. Think lots of lush plants displayed—we want it to feel warm and welcoming.”