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Paper short abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork with houseplant collectors, this paper focuses on the sensorial engagement between enthusiasts and their vegetal companions. It discusses how learning to see and touch helps collectors to comprehend vegetal needs and desires and, ultimately, recognise plant agency.

Paper long abstract

Houseplants are a ubiquitous part of most households but, for most people, they fade into the background as part of the décor. This paper seeks to elicit the potential of humans to recognise vegetal agency by paying attention to the people who refuse to overlook their plants.

Advanced houseplant collectors often have upwards of one hundred plants in their homes, an amount that demands close and attentive care. Managing the individual needs and desires of so many vegetal beings is only possible through a material engagement that enables interspecific communication. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Euro-American houseplant collectors, this paper will focus on the sensorial engagement between enthusiasts and their vegetal companions. Inspired by debates on the role of touch and vision in multispecies encounters (Haraway 2008; Hayward 2010; Marks 2002), it will discuss how care experiences can become intimate and situated narratives of care. By learning to see and touch, collectors can start to comprehend vegetal needs and desires, enabling them to relate to plants as agentive beings that actively participate in their own care routines.