Aside from being an actress and a fitness guru, Aubrey Miles also takes pride in being a certified “Mother Plant,” for she now has innumerable beautiful, rare, and expensive plants in her continuously growing plants collection as seen in some of her posts on Instagram.
While many of us has only begun our journey as plantitas or plantitos (a portmanteau of plant and the Filipino word for aunt or “tita”) this pandemic in our pursuit of killing our boredom or loneliness, hers actually started when she was still a kid, as what she revealed in her recent guesting in Magandang Buhay.
“Kapag outdoor, ‘yong lola ko kasi bata pa ako, assistant niya ako sa paghahawak ng hose [at] tabo. [Tapos] ako ‘yong tagalinis. So, sanay ako sa greens kasi sa Bulacan, tapos sa Marikina meron na kaming mga garden-garden so sanay na talaga ako sa [gardening],” she recalled. However, with regards to indoor gardening, which will always be her first love based on her Instagram posts, she imparted that it was already around 12 years ago when she was still pregnant with her second child Hunter.
When asked by momshie-host Karla Estrada how being a plant lover has created an impact on her, the 41-year-old actress related, “Before noong wala pang bentahan, puro swapping lang ako, I like it because siguro kapag nagwo-workout ako, it’s a good stress sa katawan ko. And ‘yong good stress na ‘yon, kapag naghahalaman ako, nakaka-relax naman.”
She also added how this hobby has turned out to be her “me time”, to which her husband Troy Montero and their kids Maurie, Hunter, and Rocket have been very much supportive. “’Yon ang time alone ko. Wala kasi akong source ng time alone e, I need to do something. At least meron kang good excuse din na ‘maghahalaman muna ako’. Then ngayon, I like it because they respect it. So may routine kami,” she said.
Some of the rare finds included in Aubrey’s plants collection are ecuadorian rare plants, dwarf variegated billietiae, martianum (or “fat boy”), variegated subhastatum, silver mamei, aglaonema pictum tricolor, cissus discolor, calatheas, variegated philodendron billietiae, philodendron caramel marble, gloriosum, as well as various types of begonias and anthuriums. She also has little trees planted in huge pots that her kids get to enjoy and their visitors revel on.
Apart from simply putting up an outdoor garden and aesthetically placing her ornamental plants all around their abode, she also has mini greenhouses built inside and outside their house for her other plants that need extra care.
When her schedule permits, the self-confessed “Mother Plant” also hosts Facebook and Instagram Live to virtually interact with her fans and fellow plant enthusiasts by generously sharing gardening secrets and plant care tips, as well as bestowing giveaways to some viewers.
Going through her Instagram account actually feels like having a garden tour as she proudly displays several parts of her plants collection. And we collated some of them on this gallery for you to see!