![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777147275_613_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nCalling aspiring plant parents: A big plant giveaway in Leimert Park is happening Saturday<\/p>\n
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.<\/p>\n
Staff with The Plant Chica were busy the day before the event receiving, labeling and preparing indoor plants at the open-air shop in Leimert Park. The company\u2019s co-founder, Sandra Mejia, said everyone should have a plant in their home.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlants aren’t necessarily something that people are going out of their way to buy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And many people who\u2019ve come to her adopt-a-plant events have never had plants in their homes and, therefore, have not experienced what it\u2019s like to take care of a plant and see it grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we’re giving them out for free, then people come and they take them, and then now they’re plant people,\u201d which means, she said, that some become advocates for more plants indoors and outdoors as well as public green space.<\/p>\n
Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n
If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n
The giveaways have grown<\/p>\n
Mejia\u2019s first plant giveaway started in her home, she said, in 2018. It was an effort to clear out the less popular plants. It didn\u2019t go so well, but after she moved it to her shop, which has been in several locations around South L.A., near where she was raised by Salvadoran parents, the plant giveaway has grown.<\/p>\n
Her family first instilled a love of plants, and she keeps them involved. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad is at home right now, printing the information sheet for the plant so people know how to take care of the plants, and he’s cutting them for me,\u201d Mejia said.<\/p>\n
Some of the plants are donated by local greenhouses and the rest are paid for, about $2,500 she said, out of her business\u2019 marketing budget.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Staff at The Plant Chica, Philip Bucknor and Odessey Osteen-Diluca <\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
LAist<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
What kind of plants are we talking about<\/p>\n
The giveaway includes philodendrons, like pink princess, which are good starter plants because they\u2019re low maintenance, tradescantia plants, which have green and purple leaves, as well as prayer plants, whose scientific name is maranta leuconeura. These get their nickname from the opening of their leaves during the day and closing at night, like hands in prayer.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody deserves a plant that’s cleaning the oxygen around them. Everybody should have some sort of thumb in the green somewhere,\u201d said Philip Bucknor, who started out as DJ at events for The Plant Chica and began working for the shop last year with the unofficial title of \u201cvibe curator.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes helping people through a feeling he hears a lot \u2014 \u201cI don\u2019t want to kill the plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thing is helping people understand the right plant for them and not overthinking these tasks of taking care of a plant,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
That means, he said, don\u2019t overdo watering, be chill and feel your plant\u2019s vibe.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s set to do that with people who come to the plant giveaway Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calling aspiring plant parents: A big plant giveaway in Leimert Park is happening Saturday Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[122488,45964,48,52,51,5831,47,50,49,122487],"class_list":["post-285899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-free-plants","tag-giveaways","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-leimert-park","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-plant-chica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}