Liana Greenwood

Liana Greenwood — Founder of Your Indoor Plant, Portland Oregon

Liana Greenwood

Founder & Lead Plant Care Writer · Your Indoor Plant
Portland, Oregon, USA

I’ve been growing, rescuing, and documenting indoor plants for over a decade — not as a researcher in a lab, but as someone who has killed plants, figured out why, and started over. Today I care for 100+ plants in my Portland home and write every guide on this site from real, first-hand experience.

📸 Instagram @lianaa.greenwood  |  📌 Pinterest  |  ✉️ Contact me

🎓 Education & Formal Training

My plant knowledge comes from three overlapping sources — and I’m transparent about all of them:

  • Formal horticultural training at a national institute focused on plant biology, soil science, and garden management.
  • Intensive program at the International Japanese Garden Training Center — covering traditional plant cultivation, pruning philosophy, and working with plants in confined, controlled environments (directly applicable to indoor growing).
  • Continuous self-directed study: university extension publications (Oregon State, University of Illinois, RHS), peer-reviewed horticultural research, and hands-on testing in my own home.

I cross-check every article against university-level sources before publishing. You’ll find citations at the bottom of guides where relevant.

🌿 10+ Years of Hands-On Experience

  • 10+ years of active indoor plant growing and documentation
  • 100+ plant species currently under my care in my Portland home
  • 500+ articles written and personally tested before publishing
  • Hundreds of plant problems diagnosed via Reddit, Facebook groups, and reader emails — before I launched this site
  • Plants I specialize in: Snake Plants, Monstera, Pothos, Jade Plants, Calathea, and drought-tolerant succulents

I keep a growing journal — tracking watering schedules, soil experiments, fertilizer tests, and propagation results. That journal is the backbone of every guide I write.

✍️ How I Research and Write

Every article on Your Indoor Plant follows the same process:

  1. Personal trial first. I only write about plants I’ve grown myself. If I haven’t tested a soil mix, a fertilizer, or a propagation method in my own home, I don’t publish advice about it.
  2. Document the failures. My first snake plant died within three months. My first calathea attempt failed twice. I write about those failures as much as the successes — because that’s where the real learning happens.
  3. Cross-check with science. Personal experience is a starting point, not the final word. I verify observations against university extension programs (Oregon State, University of Illinois), the Royal Horticultural Society, and horticultural research publications.
  4. Update when I learn more. Every guide on this site shows a “Last Updated” date. I revise articles when I discover better methods, when research changes, or when readers point out something I missed.

See the full details in our Editorial Policy.

🌱 Why I Started This Site

It started in my father’s garden. He spent hours with his plants — and I followed him, turned the soil with him, watched his hands. That’s where I fell in love with growing things.

Years later, neighbors and friends started bringing me their dying plants. I’d take them, diagnose the problem, fix it, and return them healthy. Word spread. The requests grew. I started sharing on Reddit and Facebook — writing about my mistakes as much as my fixes. Strangers started messaging me.

Eventually I realized: I should put all of this in one place, so anyone can access it — not just the people who happen to know me. That’s Your Indoor Plant.

This isn’t a site written by someone who reads about plants. It’s written by someone who has lived with them, lost them, and figured out why.

📚 My Most-Read Guides

📬 Get in Touch

I personally read and reply to plant questions. If your plant is struggling and you can’t find the answer in my guides, contact me directly — I’ll do my best to help.

You can also follow my ongoing plant experiments and day-to-day care notes on Instagram and Pinterest.

All content on Your Indoor Plant is written by me, Liana Greenwood, based on personal experience and verified against trusted horticultural sources. I do not accept payment for positive reviews. Some product links are affiliate links — see our Affiliate Disclosure.