Hilton Carter’s plant styling tips

Instagram’s favourite plant parent shows you how to transform your home

Hilton Carter tending watering a living wall of plants in his apartment hallway

Hilton Carter’s amassed almost 500,000 Instagram followers with his straightforward plantcare advice and images of his plant-filled home. He started just like every other plant enthusiast, by trial and error. He’s not a trained horticulturist, but an artist and stylist with a love of plants, who’s taught himself how to be a responsible plant parent: “Just treat your plant like a living thing, pay it some attention and it will thrive.”

He’s published several books spreading his love for plants and the way they can change the look and feel of your home. His latest, Wild Creations, is packed with projects from how to plant up a terrarium to creating a plant chandelier (you’ll need a canoe).

We asked the master of green interiors for his best styling tips.

Start with a statement plant

Every home should have a hero plant, Carter thinks. “For me, it always starts with the plant that’s going to change the way your home feels instantly: the statement plant,” he says. “Like, ‘Woah, there’s a huge cactus, or a tree in the middle of the room!’ Get a plant that’s going to set the tone of your place.”

A fiddle leaf fig tree in a black clay pot in a living room

Put plants on every level

Carter likes a room that feels enveloped in plants. “Present greenery at every level, as if you’re outside,” he says. “You’re using the floor, you’re using window sills, you’re using hanging plants. By putting plants in all areas of your eyesight you feel completely submerged in plants. It moves your eye from one place to another and makes the space feel more full.”

A peace lily, fiddle leaf fig, Boston fern and a strelitzia nicolai in decorative pots on multiple levels and pieces of furniture in a living room.

Anything can be a plant stand

To create as many levels as possible, Carter says, “Anything can be a plant stand.” So, while you can use actual plant stands on the floor, you can also use tables and other objects to create height on surfaces. “Stack a few books and put a plant on top of them. Now that’s a plant stand.”

A peace lily, an anthurium, a lip stick plant and a Chinese evergreen in clay pots placed on the floor, a side table and on a pile of books on a sideboard.

Pay just as much attention to your pots

Plants are only half the story. Carter says, “Think about the pot you’re placing it in and how that can tie to the decor of your home, whether that’s the colour of it, the shape, or the texture.”

$Two blue and two green fractured pots in a hallway containing a Maidenhair fern, a zz plant, an alocasia stingray and a cycad.$

Create scenes

Carter is a fan of grouping similar plants to create what he calls “scenes”. “I have a window that’s full of cacti, to create like a desert scene. I have an area full of calathea and air plants to create a little jungle scene. Not only does it set the tone for that little area, I also know that all the plants in that area need the same care.”

$A group of cacti and succulents in a range of fracture-patterned and dip-patterened decorative pots on a kitchen counter$