The Story Behind Jiggy Plant Guy
It Started Long Before Anthuriums
My passion for plants didn’t begin with Anthuriums.
I’ve been growing plants for as long as I’ve known how to tie my shoes.
It started with my grandmother. She grew up in Virginia, where gardens weren’t hobbies. They were a way of life. Food came from the soil, and knowing how to grow something meant you could always provide for yourself and your family.
When she moved to Brooklyn, New York, she left behind the fields, but not the lessons.
One thing she always told me was:
“A man should be as gentle as he is tough and never need another person to feed him.”
She taught me how to grow. My grandfather taught me how to hunt and fish. Between the two of them, I learned that providing isn’t just about strength. It’s about patience, stewardship, and respect for life.
Though they’ve both passed on, their lessons remain at the core of who I am today.
In 2016, after my grandmother passed away, I found myself searching for a way to stay connected to her. I didn’t want to honor her through mourning alone. I wanted to honor her by continuing what she taught me.
So I filled my home with the plants she loved.
Monstera.
Pothos.
Tradescantia.
Then one day, thanks to Instagram, I stumbled across an Anthurium.
I still remember seeing a Pap RL for the first time.
That moment changed everything.
Before Plants, There Were Corals
What many people don’t know is that my journey into plants reignited a passion I didn’t even realize was lying dormant.
Before plants became my world, I spent 19 years immersed in reef aquariums.
Corals were my first true obsession.
That hobby taught me lessons I still use every day. Water quality matters. Lighting matters. Airflow matters. Environment matters.
Whether you’re growing coral or growing plants, success is often hidden within the details most people overlook.
Reef keeping taught me to observe closely, adjust slowly, and respect the balance of living systems. Looking back, many of the skills that later helped me grow Anthuriums were already being developed long before I ever owned one.
The Engineer’s Mindset
At the same time, my professional career was developing another skill set that would eventually shape the way I approach growing, selecting, and breeding plants.
In my 9-5 as a hardware engineer for Apple, attention to detail isn’t optional.
It’s everything.
You learn to identify subtle abnormalities before they become major failures. You learn to recognize patterns, diagnose problems, and understand how one small variable can influence an entire system.
Looking back, I realize I brought that same mindset into Anthuriums.
When selecting plants, I don’t just see what is in front of me. I look at structure, venation, growth habit, genetics, consistency, strengths, weaknesses, and long-term potential.
The same applies to breeding.
I’m constantly evaluating combinations, predicting outcomes, balancing traits, and searching for pairings that can create something greater than either parent alone.
Those same analytical skills influence every purchasing decision I make. When I invest in a plant, I’m not only evaluating what it is today. I’m evaluating what it can contribute tomorrow.
Learning the Craft
As my passion deepened, I became a certified horticulturalist in Connecticut.
Ironically, I learned very little about Anthuriums during the process.
Most of what I’ve learned about these plants has come through observation, experimentation, failure, success, and countless conversations with growers around the world.
Like many collectors, my appetite eventually outgrew reality.
I wanted every rare clone.
Every dream plant.
Every exceptional hybrid.
Eventually, I realized there was no realistic way to own everything I admired.
That’s when something shifted.
Instead of chasing what already existed, I became interested in creating what didn’t.
And that’s how the breeder was born.
The Creative Side of Breeding
The funny thing is, when I look back now, it makes perfect sense.
I’ve always been a creative.
As a child, I was constantly drawing, imagining, and creating. In high school, I studied Digital Media Arts. In college, I pursued Graphic Design. Later, I developed a passion for photography and built a portfolio focused on macro underwater coral photography.
The more I bred Anthuriums, the more I realized I wasn’t doing anything all that different.
I was still creating.
Still pursuing beauty.
Still combining shapes, colors, textures, and contrast to bring something new into existence.
The only difference was that my canvas was alive.
When I combined that creative mindset with everything reef keeping had taught me about chemistry, environmental control, and observation, then added a growing fascination with genetics, Jiggy the breeder was born.
What People Don’t See
Today, people see the collection.
They see the rare plants.
They see the business.
What they don’t always see are the decades behind it.
The little boy learning in a garden.
The grandson trying to stay connected to someone he loved.
The reef keeper studying ecosystems.
The creative searching for new ways to create.
The engineer obsessed with details.
The breeder bringing all of those experiences together.
When I look at my journey, the breeder people see today wasn’t built overnight.
He’s the product of a grandmother who taught him to grow, a grandfather who taught him to provide, 19 years of reef keeping, a lifetime of creativity, and a career in engineering that taught him to obsess over the details.
Every chapter contributed something.
Every success, every failure, every lesson, and every person helped shape the path.
None of it was wasted.
Service, Community, and the Bigger Picture
As my journey in the plant world continued, those same values started to grow beyond my personal collection and breeding program.
That is what made joining the International Aroid Society board feel like a natural continuation of the same mission.
For me, it was never just about having rare plants.
It was about stewardship.
Education.
Preservation.
Access.
Community.
The belief that knowledge should be shared, people should be welcomed, and the work we do should create something that lasts beyond us.
In many ways, the values are the same ones my grandparents taught me years ago.
Grow what matters.
Feed your people.
Share what you know.
Leave things better than you found them.
Whether I’m breeding Anthuriums, mentoring new growers, building relationships, or serving within the aroid community, the purpose remains the same.
This was never just about collecting plants.
It was about building something meaningful around them.
Growing More Than Plants
After all these years, I don’t think this journey was ever really about Anthuriums.
It was about carrying forward a lesson that was handed down to me.
Nurture what you love.
Be gentle when you can.
Be tough when you must.
Leave things better than you found them.
The plants were simply the vehicle.
The people were always the purpose.
At Jiggy Plant Guy, we are here to grow more than plants.
We are here to grow people.