About us

Welcome to Houseplants Nook!

I’m Anup, a Brooklynite with a deep love for both nurturing creativity and cultivating greenery. For over a decade, I was immersed in the tech world, wearing various hats as a designer, writer, product manager and strategist, accumulating a collection of patents along the way. When the pandemic hit, I saw it as an opportunity to pivot — delving into writing fiction and, as it turned out, becoming completely obsessed with houseplants.


Nestled in Brooklyn’s vibrant community, I share a brownstone with seven fellow plant enthusiasts, blessed with a spacious backyard adorned with raised garden beds. Our home is an urban jungle — we collectively grow and care for over 200 indoor plants, everything from the dependable snake plant, spider plant, and boston fern to the more temperamental tradescantia bubblegum, african violet, cast iron plant, and english ivy. One of us works as a professional gardener in a community garden, enriching our collective expertise with practical hands-on know-how..

Living room with couch and plants hanging from shelves and windows

We grow every plant we write about. The majority of products and plants we review are personally tested in our brownstone, ensuring firsthand experience informs every recommendation. Our approach is rooted in authenticity and a genuine feedback loop — we learn from where we falter as much as where we succeed.

  • We have rooms across four floors with east, west, south, and north facing windows. We rotate plants constantly to understand exactly what light conditions suit each species — which is why we built a light requirements chart for 50 popular houseplants as a reference for ourselves and our readers.
  • We have two cats who roam freely through most of the brownstone, so pet safety is something we take seriously. Our top floor is reserved for plants that aren’t cat-safe. We’ve cross-referenced everything we grow against a cat toxicity chart covering 50 popular houseplants so you never have to guess.
  • We got curious about the oxygen claims made about houseplants and decided to actually look at the data — which led us to build a ranked oxygen production chart for 50 houseplants with estimated daily output in liters. The findings surprised us.
  • Not sure which plant suits your home? We built a plant recommendation quiz that asks six questions about your space, lifestyle, and pets and gives you a personalized shortlist.
  • With our tech and design backgrounds, we also bring a different angle: aggregating diverse opinions, testing products ourselves, and presenting unbiased recommendations so you have everything you need in one place. Easy. Concise. Clear.
  • We don’t accept incentives from companies we feature. Our reviews are uninfluenced, driven solely by our commitment to authentic information. We may earn affiliate commissions from purchases made through our site at no additional cost to you — this helps us keep buying, testing, and keeping this community going.
  • Our mission is simple: to help you grow confidently, transforming your home into a living space you’re genuinely proud of.

Beyond our immediate goals, we want to foster a thriving community of indoor gardening enthusiasts — building spaces where we share experiences, learn from each other, and connect. Community is everything here. We also want to support local small businesses selling plants as our site grows.

Whether you’re caring for your first houseplant or propagating your fiftieth, our guides are built from real experience in a real home. We’re excited to be on this journey alongside you.

Happy planting!

Anup Mutalik.
Founder & Editor, Houseplantsnook.com

PS: Houseplants Nook has been cited and featured as an expert source across a range of national outlets covering home, garden, and lifestyle topics — including Wired, Martha Stewart, House Beautiful, Homes & Gardens, Living Etc, Apartment Therapy, The Pioneer Woman, Family Handyman, MSN, AOL, and Yahoo. From seasonal pruning routines to troubleshooting flowering houseplants, our hands-on experience growing 200+ plants in our Brooklyn brownstone has helped inform reporting for readers well beyond our own site.

As featured in:

  • Wired — How to Keep Plants Alive in Winter
  • Martha Stewart — Is Cinnamon Good for Houseplants?
  • House Beautiful — Plant Quarantine Guide
  • Homes & Gardens — Why Indoor Flowering Plants Aren’t Blooming in Spring
  • Homes & Gardens — How to Get a Monstera to Fruit
  • Living Etc — Slow Watering for Plants
  • Apartment Therapy — Is the Fiddle Leaf Fig a Dated Plant?
  • The Pioneer Woman — Easiest Indoor Plants
  • Family Handyman — What Is Houseplant Insurance?
  • MSN — I Give My Houseplants a Spring Chop Every Year
  • MSN — 10 Types of Ficus That Will Look Amazing in Your Home
  • MSN UK — 5 Places to Never Grow a Peace Lily
  • AOL — 15 Expert-Approved Houseplants
  • AOL — Fiddle Leaf Figs Had a Moment
  • Yahoo — Houseplants Not Flowering? 5 Quick Fixes