Transparency

Most websites bury this stuff in legal pages nobody reads. We're putting it front and center because we think you deserve to know how this site works, how it's funded, and what we do (and don't do) with your attention.

How we keep the lights on

Let's get this out of the way: this is a passion project. I'm a plant nerd in Columbus, OH who spent years Googling the same questions over and over, getting the same recycled advice from sites that clearly never grew the plant they were writing about. "Bright indirect light" tells you nothing when your apartment faces north and you're trying to keep a Calathea alive through an Ohio winter.

So I built the resource I wished existed. Every care guide on this site comes from actually growing the plant. The mistakes are real, the advice is tested, and if I don't know something, I say so instead of making it up.

This entire site is ad-free. No banners, no pop-ups, no "watch this 30-second video to read about Pothos care." Corporations have ruined every corner of the internet they've touched. They're not touching this one. No ads, no trackers, no deals. Piss off. I'd rather build something worth visiting than something optimized for impressions.

No paywalls, no premium tiers, no "subscribe to see the full care guide." Every plant, every guide, every comparison, all of it, free forever. The internet used to be like this before everyone figured out they could monetize your attention span. Consider this a small act of rebellion against the man.

I want more people in this hobby to get the same experience and feel the same joy I do by being a good plant parent.

Running a website costs a little bit of money and time, but I'm fine with that. I cover the hosting and domain costs two ways:

1. I sell plants. A small shop, locally propagated right here in Columbus.
2. Affiliate links. More on this below, but the short version: I link to products I actually use, and if you buy through that link, I get a small cut. You pay the same price either way.

That's it. No ads. No sponsored content. No selling your data.

What are affiliate links, exactly?

When I recommend a product, I include a link to it on Amazon. That link has a little tag in it that tells Amazon "this person came from Encyclopedia Botannica." If you end up buying something, Amazon pays me a small percentage. The price you pay is exactly the same whether you use my link or find the product yourself. It's just Amazon sharing a slice of their cut with me instead of keeping all of it.

Here's what matters: these are products I actually own and use. Not sponsored. Nobody is paying me to say nice things about their soil mix. No company has ever sent me a free product in exchange for a review, and if that ever changes, I'll tell you.

My commitment to you is this: the only sponsorships I will ever take are for products I personally use, can vouch for, and genuinely think are worth having, even if they're not required. If I wouldn't buy it with my own money, it's not going on this site.

Every affiliate link is labeled "(affiliate link)" right next to it, and every page that has one gets a disclosure banner at the top. I made it literally impossible to add an affiliate link without the disclosure showing up. That was on purpose.

Down the road I may add a way to donate directly if you want to support the site. But I'll never guilt you into it, and the content stays free regardless.

We don't track you

No Google Analytics. No Facebook Pixel. No tracking cookies. No behavioral profiling. Nothing.

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which tells us things like "47 people looked at the Monstera page today." It can't tell us who those people are, where they came from, or what they did before or after. It doesn't use cookies. It doesn't collect personal information. We picked it specifically because it's the least invasive analytics tool we could find.

Your plant research is yours. It doesn't need to follow you around the internet as retargeting ads.

For the full details, read our privacy policy.