Nena Von Flow decided that not a single floor would be left in her apartment in Brunswick (Germany). He had invested so much time and love in each one that giving up those cuttings was non-negotiable. She traveled to Galicia with her husband and son. He left seven-year-old Jon with his family. They rented a van and drove 2,413 kilometers back to the second largest city in Lower Saxony to collect all that green universe that they had created from scratch. “When we moved to Germany, I needed to connect with something that would make the hours go by. Fill the time. I began to decorate the house with plants, to be interested in them, to read about their needs, to understand why some died and others did not, and that world captured me ”, he recalls. In addition to the plants, Nena was kept company by the 100,000 followers she had accumulated on Instagram. But he said goodbye to them. “It was a photography profile and I no longer felt comfortable. I wanted to create something to share and that would provide interesting information ”, he points out. So he created @nenaplantsflow. Through this new profile he was going to tell about his adventures with plants. In a short time a community of 30,000 people was waiting for their updates.

Nena Von Flow (Vigo, 41 years old) is something of an exotic species. He refers to plants by their scientific names, but gives advice without technicalities. She is a photographer by training and her tutorials are hypnotic. Nothing fails, but at the same time everything is real: the light is correct, the plans impeccable and the plants are incredible. But their hands have soil, their sweatshirts substrate, and sometimes the cuttings do not survive.

“We get tired of the lack of light, the cold and the hectic pace of life in Germany. Plants without light go out. The same thing was happening to us. And I am Galician, that also influenced ”, he explains. Upon reaching Nigrán (Pontevedra), the plants were transferred to the garage of the family home and the pandemic began. And confinement. “Do you know what happened then? That people felt the need to bring nature into their homes to connect with the outside world ”. At that time, Nena had already launched Instinto Planternal, the digital store for plants, consulting and decoration. It made up to 30 daily shipments to Spain and the rest of Europe. “In a way it was good that something made us stop. We lived a rhythm that did not even allow you to take a breath to ask yourself if you are where you want to be. Everything is too urgent, and it is so brutal to see a seed germinate… ”. Two years ago he created the hastag #Aflowcado with a video tutorial in which he taught how to germinate avocado bones. Today the Net is full of sprouted avocados under that hashtag.

The Galician woman carries out in-depth research work to locate sustainable suppliers in Europe and look for strange and exotic plants that can grow in the new greenhouse that she has set up on her home grounds with views of the Atlantic. He plants the seeds, takes care of them in his greenhouse and sells them at a much more affordable price than if they were transported from Indonesia or Kazakhstan. “I think my work has been, in part, to democratize the world of plants. Virality is confused with quality content. Almost everything on the Net is copy and paste. People should be more attentive about who advises them ”.

“One last piece of advice?”

-Yes. Never buy plants at Wallapop.