Get to Know
PLANT WHISPERER / THERAPIST, MARYAH GREENE
Story by Diana Keeler, Photography by Jeroen Van Der Spek @jeroenvanderspek, Chris Gellein Photography @_chrislein, Anders Royneberg @articgardener, Hanna Puech Marin, and Benjamin Edwards
As one of Brooklyn's most passionate plant consultants, Maryah Greene — founder of the nature-centric Greene Piece — knows her job is part greenery advisor and part therapist. The main thing she wants would-be plant owners to know? "You don't have to be a 'plant person' to have plants in your home," she says.
The way I explain it to clients is that it's similar to how we have an idea in our society that either you're good at math or you're bad at it — and my experience in the classroom has really taught me that that's not true. It's the same thing for our spaces.
We all have different needs, and schedules, and sunlight in our homes. It’s not your fault if you’re super busy at work and the plants didn’t get watered — you just didn’t have the right plants for your space." Greene's job is to intuit what her clients need — and what their schedules and homes will permit. She practices a philosophy that, for plant novitiates, begins with self-forgiveness: “You don't need a 'green thumb'. You just need what works for you."
"THE WAY I EXPLAIN IT TO CLIENTS IS THAT IT'S SIMILAR TO HOW WE HAVE AN IDEA IN OUR SOCIETY THAT EITHER YOU'RE GOOD AT MATH OR YOU'RE BAD AT IT—AND MY EXPERIENCE IN THE CLASSROOM HAS REALLY TAUGHT ME THAT THAT'S NOT TRUE."
– Maryah Greene
Greene’s stance is the product of a cross-cultural experience with nature. She moved with her family to Japan following 9/11, when Greene was just six. There, she grew up within a culture with a thoroughly different — and more holistic — concept of the organic world. "Growing up in Japan, I didn't have a really strong connection to houseplants — it was more about having a really strong connection to nature." Greene and her family wouldn't return to the United States for nearly a decade, when she was 15. During that time, she developed an appreciation for greenery and the role it can play in shaping a home environment.
In Japan, my parents had the chance to think about how we could make a space purposeful — and they really had to, since living spaces in Japan are so small. Intentionality and purpose were the key to furnishing our home. That was when I really started to see how they appreciated the space we were living in," Greene says.
Greene returned to those ideas — setting up a home, using greenery to enhance it — after she completed her bachelor's degree at George Washington University in Washington D.C, and moved to New York, into an apartment in Manhattan's upper reaches — on 211th Street in the city's Inwood neighborhood. "It was a very quiet building with not a lot going on, and I became really interested in creating my own space,” she says. “It felt like the only places where greenery is valued in New York were little community gardens and Central Park. That was really different from what I'd grown up with in Japan, where nature wasn't so separate from everyday life."
"In Japan, my parents had the chance to think about how we could make a space purposeful — and they really had to, since living spaces in Japan are so small. Intentionality and purpose were the key to furnishing our home. That was when I really started to see how they appreciated the space we were living in."
She started buying plants, one by one, gradually coming to know their likes and dislikes. "There was a store in Harlem that looked like the most unassuming place from the outside but as soon as you opened the door, it looked like Fiji," she says. "The owner had an amazing number of plants, and every time I went, I had to get one — and when I asked him how to care for them, he gave me more information than was on the label." The appeal was multifold. "I saw a connection to education and how he was teaching — it's so rare as an adult to be taught something outside of a classroom," she says. She shared this with friends who visited her apartment — and thus inspired, asked her to figure out the right plants for their own spaces. Greene Piece — now located in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood — was born.
Two years in, Greene looks forward to expanding her repertoire, and her clients, with commercial commissions, and partnerships in lower-income corners of the city, where greenery might still be viewed as a luxury. She’s dedicated to spreading the love of plants — and sharing her gift for finding beauty in empty spaces — or for coaxing life from even the most defeated plant. “My favorite of all my plants is my Monstera plant, which I found at a plant shop — it was definitely from the bottom of the barrel,” she says. “This was my first year of grad school, when I was on the definition of a budget — I think I had $30 in my pocket. But the guy gave me a deal.” With care and attention, the plant came back: “I love the challenge of making them better.”
For more information about Maryah and her services please visit Greene Piece.
