Hilton helps ambitious if under-experienced plant parents care for their green friends and create peaceful havens within their homes.

“People really need to consider plants as living things, as potted pets. And people need to understand that every single plant can't live happily in every single space.” – Hilton Carter

That effort informs his stance today: Ambitious if under-experienced plant owners need to do the work to safeguard their green friends. “I'll hear people talk about a $300 cutting from a variegated monstera, and then they'll go home and spend all their time on that, ignoring the $20 plant they picked up somewhere else," he says. “But these are all living things, and they all need to be cared for." Carter has a fitting idea for his next book's title: "If I do a third book, I'm calling it Plant Rant."

These days, Carter is working to make the most of his extra time at home during this singular cultural moment. Instead of traveling across the county on a book tour in support of Wild Interiors, he’s leading propagation courses online — an endeavor that has proven to be unexpectedly rewarding. “During these propagating classes, I've had people from all over, from South Africa and Singapore, and I’m thinking, why would I ever go back on tour again?’” Now that we’re more tied to our own domestic spaces than ever before, Carter says he’s happy knowing that he’s helped people create peaceful havens within their homes.

“The green community is just so positive. I don’t know what the future will bring, but people find solace in that positivity, and there’s a lot of good energy — even just in going to plant shops and purchasing plants.” As for himself, Carter’s immediate plans for the future are better defined: He married in 2018 and is looking to start a family with his wife Fiona, a dentist. Those future responsibilities, though, haven’t kept him from sketching out his creative ambitions. “My dream is to have a mobile plant shop/coffeeshop,” he says. “My wife is, like, you'll never have time to do that. But we’ll see.”