Maria Failla
Author. Speaker. Podcaster. Actress.
Empowering kinder and greener communities
by connecting people to plants.
About Maria
Maria is a "Plant Killer Turned Happy Plant Lady" on a mission to help everyone successfully care for plants and make the world a kinder and greener place.
After learning to care for plants successfully and experiencing the exponential joy that caring for plants brought to her life, she founded the Growing Joy Podcast (formerly called Bloom & Grow Radio Podcast) to learn alongside her listeners as she interviews experts in all aspects of plant care.
Maria spent the last decade as a professional musical theater performer and has been seen in Broadway musicals in New York and around the world.
She's thrilled to now use her voice to help people grow more joy in their lives, through plant care with the podcast, virtual Garden Society, and book, Growing Joy™.
As Featured in
Grow your way to a calm, collected life.
Today's social media and screen addicted society has made it easy to never spend a minute alone with your own thoughts. Burnout, depression, and fear are at an all time high. Recent studies show people spend over 90% of their lives indoors, disconnected from nature.
How do we heal this overstimulation and disconnection?
The solution might be simpler than you think: houseplants. Plants are green teachers: modeling patience, kindness, forgiveness, and beauty - we just have to learn how to open ourselves up to the lessons they teach.
In Maria's debut book, Growing Joy™: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants), she talks about the transformation she went through from overstimulated, over-scheduled millennial who couldn't keep a plant alive if someone paid her, to crazy happy plant lady who found that caring for plants was her number one tool for leading a happier, more connected life.
Maria is now sharing her tools through three talks to help others experience this transformation. Audience members will leave feeling inspired to grow deeper roots by nurturing houseplants and themselves: one leaf at a time.
About the Book
Filled with 60+ practices to help plant lovers step away from their screens and cultivate delight and peace of mind with plants, Growing Joy™ is your guide to transforming plant care into self-care.
Whether you're a plant parent pro or the anxious owner of a single, not-dead-yet succulent, Growing Joy™ will help you reconnect with yourself, bring more smiles to your face and peace in your heart, and inspire a lifelong relationship with plants that will keep you blooming and growing.
Published with St. Martins Press of Macmillan Publishers.
Maria's Keynotes
Grow More Joy in Your Life: How houseplants can be your gateway to reconnecting with nature and yourself
- Look at a plant before you look at a screen to grow deeper roots with yourself
- Plant/Life Parallels to learn from - #itsnotaboutthetomato
- Use plants and Attention Restoration Theory to create restorative moments with nature in your life to regulate your nervous system
Grow More Joy in Your Workday: Use Houseplants to cultivate calm and connection in your workspace
- Plants are scientifically proven to increase creativity and production in the workplace (and how to take advantage of this in your workplace)
- Learn to approach your job like you tend your garden
- Apply the principals of Biophilic Design to your office set-up
Cultivate Kindness with Houseplants: Life lessons from plants
- Caring for plants requires patience and empathy, practice this on plants and bring it into the world and make it a kinder, greener place
- Nurture a plant, nurture yourself and others
- Humans need to act like trees and work together to thrive
Get your hands dirty
Potted plants with our plant partner The Sill (can ship to individual homes)
Immersive plant care and potting workshops available as an add-on to any keynote
What people are saying!
"Maria is amazing! Her infectious joy, practical advice, and story of going from plant killer to plant lady connected with the audience on multiple occasions where we've worked together. A consummate professional, in one interview, she refocused her topic last minute to accommodate an overlap with other content. She did this with enthusiasm, grace, and a get it done attitude that likely comes from her live performance background. She knows her stuff."
—Andrew Edeker, Emmy-Award Winning Producer & Live Streaming Pioneer
"I've seen Maria speak a number of times and knew she had to be a part of Great Grow Along, our virtual garden event. She is a natural entertainer, and has a great presence in front of the camera or on stage. She did a wonderful job getting the audience pumped about plants and inspiring them to grow. We've gotten rave reviews about her session, and I'd see her speak anywhere, anytime."
—Katie Dubow, President of Garden Media Group and Founder of the Great Grow Along
"Really enjoyed Maria speaking. She was passionate and knowledgeable. I left inspired to start paying more attention to her podcast and engage more on Instagram. Even though it was short, it still was a powerful and inspiring story. Please ask her to come back again."
—Audience Member of Cultivate '19
"I loved how actionable this talk was. Just having simple, actionable takeaways was totally helpful - I want to do all of them!"
—Laura, Audience Member of "Grow More Joy in your Workday"
"As far as I'm concerned, there is no other social presence in the houseplant space who is as authentic, connected to her audience, and genuinely inspiring as Maria. Maria is a born performer and energetic speaker who quickly engages her audience to bring them along with her on her plant and wellness journeys. If you want to infuse some real JOY into your event or program, Maria delivers."
