With over two decades of hands-on experience, Tom has nurtured and mastered hundreds of houseplants, making him a trusted authority in the world of indoor gardening.
A member of the Royal Horticultural Society and working towards his Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Plant Growth and Development, he is always learning about plants. He enjoys sharing his horticultural expertise and knowledge to help empower others to cultivate their own thriving green spaces.
Tom Knight - All grown up
In His Own Words
I think that many houseplant enthusiasts have some family history with keeping indoor plants. That's definitely true for me anyway.
All four of my grandparents had an interest in horticulture of some kind, and whether it was outdoor gardening or houseplants, there was greenery in their lives. That passed down to their children (my parents) and eventually onto me, figuratively and literally.
As well as being named after my Gramps, I also inherited a 50-year-old spade from him. (Although my dad tells me it's had two new handles and one new blade over the years, so I'm not really sure it's 50 years old. Is it?)
Baby Tom - Budding Plant Enthusiast
My childhood was green. Giant Rubber Plants in the Dining room and Spider Plants all over the place that had hundreds of babies dangling down. At school, I enjoyed science, Plant Biology in particular. Because I loved the subject, I ended up being pretty good at it, but taking that towards a career with houseplants never crossed my mind.
After obtaining a BA Degree in a totally unrelated subject, I began work in Financial Services. I started just after the business opened a head office in a brand new purpose-built building of about 300 people.
It was very modern but devoid of anything green. I didn't like that, and over the decade or so I worked there, I was busy working hard on the side to turn it into an Urban Jungle.
Whenever a new employee came to work on my floor, I'd try and turn them into a Plant Parent by offering to get them a houseplant. "Every desk should have a plant" was my mantra.
I was fortunate to have a long string of easy-going Bosses and Site Managers. Not one ever put a stop to what I was doing, even when we once had a bad outbreak of Fungus Gnats in the office, which I knew I had brought in by accident! I, of course, had to protect my "plant babies", so I denied it was anything to do with the plants and said it must be somebody hiding moldy food somewhere that was attracting them.
With people's attention diverted, and in between trying not to grin too much at the managers' emails that kept coming around, warning us about not leaving food in the office, I sorted out the Fungus Gnat problem and things went back to normal. Phew.
"Every desk should have a plant" was my mantra.
A Dragon Tree - One of many installed hired plants that were dotted around the building that I worked in.
At some point, perhaps encouraged by my efforts, at least in part (maybe), the business "saw the light" and the benefits of houseplants. They hired a professional gardening company who'd rent out large indoor plants and then they'd come back once a week to look after them.
I was learning a tremendous amount about houseplants by this point. I had my own expanding Urban Jungle to care for, both at work and at home, all those plants I had brought everyone over the years and various propagation experiments to try and get these "welcome to the company" plants for free. I also had access to the wealth of experience and vast knowledge from the gardening company employees that I was thankfully able to tap into.
In hindsight, spending my time and money on the business and strangers might seem a bit odd. But it was worth it for the experiences and cultivating new friendships with like-minded people. Over time my passion for plants and knowledge, kept expanding which ultimately provided the foundations for this website.
While working here, I also learned why good communication and information was important. In particular, how it was presented could impact how it landed with people and ultimately how effective it was. This was another essential component that led to founding Ourhouseplants.com.
You see, before launching the site in 2013, there were only a handful of top rated houseplant websites, but they only resonated with me when combined. Each one had strengths I really liked, but I felt they were missing things in other areas. At this point in my life, I was finally passionate enough about houseplants and delivering good quality information, so the idea that I could perhaps do something around these two things excited me.
We make mistakes with plant ownership too, even after all these years. Learning is what we're about.
So 2013 arrived, and with a few like-minded collaborators, Ourhouseplants.com was founded. A website for anyone looking for success with indoor gardening. Simple right? Since then, we've written over 160 extensive (and totally free) articles.
I can't promise you an endless stream of content covering every single topic and houseplant. But what I can promise, is that each of our articles will be carefully thought about, realistic, and as accurate as possible. That means, no covering topics or plants we don't know anything about.
Just a small number of houseplants featured in our 160 plus articles.
We don't charge anything for our information or advice. But if we've helped you somehow and you want to say thanks, then a simple Bookmark, Social Share or Subscribing to our Mailing List would be amazing and it really helps us reach more like minded people like you.
Tom
Over the years, Tom has helped a number of journalists and publications with articles to help their own readers. Here are a few interviews and features he's been involved in.
The best houseplants to buy if you have pets - The Washington Post
A Zero-Cost Way to Add More Plants to Your Space - Apartment Therapy
The 7 Cutest Houseplants That Stay Small - Best Life
Expert advice on how to grow houseplants - Suttons
7 houseplants to avoid keeping in kitchens - The Express
How to revive a dried out plant - Homes and Gardens
Best tall indoor plants - 10 statement plants - MSN.com
Boston fern care and growing guide: expert tips to master - Gardeningetc
How to propagate a Thanksgiving cactus - expert tips for more seasonal succulents - Homes and Gardens
If you're a journalist looking for help, feel free to reach out.
The rest of the Ourhouseplants.com Team are a group of people (and cats) that all have the burning passion for plant greenery, propagating and stopping to smell the occasional flower.
"Hi Mark here! I started off chipping in with some of the comments on the articles. Since then I've started to take photos for the site. I'm keen to work on my photography skills so this is a brilliant way to practice this.
"Meow dear reader! If I'm honest with you I'm something of a plant connoisseur. I do so love to get among their leaves and attractive foliage. You know how it is I'm sure!" - Toby K
"Hiya, I'm Abby ,a bit of a newbie when it comes to the plant world, although the others have taught me loads (I haven't finished off a plant in the last 12 months)! My role in the team is generally posting our Social Media".
"Purrrr, look at me! I'm on a website. Hello Mother. I do love to play with plants and really that's as much as I can be bothered with them (unless it's catnip!). But I'm so playful and naughty that the team keep me around". - Cleo
"Hi Josephine (Josi) here. I'm quite an old hand when it comes to gardening and plants, so my experiences with this helps shape the plant related content that you see around the site".
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