Unlike other plant and gardening apps, PlantLife seeks to connect people through their common passion for plants. The platform has a TikTok-esque style, and enables users to exchange plants, seeds, and care tips with each other. Users can post selfies with their beloved plant babies and search the in-app database for detailed, easy-to-follow plant care instructions. The founders, who are former Nike and Apple employees, started the app to counter the more toxic nature of major social platforms and are banking on the project’s commercial potential. “We see this [expansion as] endless, because everything we have in our lives is connected to plants in some way,” says Leslie Mullins, co-founder and CEO.

Young people are less interested in nights out and gravitating instead to more tranquil gardening and naturescapes. This is especially true post-pandemic, with the number of gardeners growing by 3 million from 2019 to 2020 and many intending to carry on these green routines. With burnout from the pressures of modern life rife, Gen Yers and Zers, especially, are using plant care as a way to counterbalance these daily stressors. Tapping into this shift, Selfridges has boosted its appeal with an in-store garden centre, start-up PlantHero offers plant lovers video consultations from horticulture experts, Miracle-Gro has designed cute onesies for plant ‘babies’, and Patch has launched a Plant Hotel for holidaying plant parents.