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December 02, 2021 14 min read
Vivien, known on Instagram as Siloliage ('sigh', 'low' + 'liage')
Vivien is a Malaysian living in Brooklyn, NY. She is in the midst of creating an indoor tropical jungle to remind her of home.
Where you can find Vivien:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siloliage/
Web Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/siloliage
Thank you to our drink sponsor Blue Ridge Winery. The Dream of Blue Ridge Estate Vineyard and Winery took root in 2010 with a trip to the West coast, where Randy and Tiffany’s hearts were captured by the beauty of sprawling vineyards and magnificent wineries. Their vision was to create a relaxing, elegant yet informal experience where hand crafted small batch wines are enjoyed. Blue Ridge Winery is nestled in the country side of Saylorsburg, PA, overlooking the Vineyards, with a beautiful valley view of a Christmas tree farm. You can find more information at https://blueridgeestatewinery.com/
Wine Down the Week is created in partnership with:
Soltech Solutions: https://soltechsolutions.com/
Steel City Plant Co: https://steelcityplantco.com
Domaci Home: https://domacihome.com
Lehigh Valley With Love: https://lehighvalleywithlovemedia.com
Transcript:
Angie 0:10
Hey Plant Fam! Welcome to Wine Down the Week With Angie, I'm your host Angie and owner of Steel City Plant Company here in Downtown Bethlehem. This podcast is brought to you by SolTech Solutions. Today we chat with Vivian - Vivian known on Instagram as Siloliage is a Malaysian, living in Brooklyn, New York. She's in the midst of creating an indoor tropical jungle to remind her of home. Welcome, Vivian.
Vivian 0:35
Hi, everybody. Thanks for having me. I'm Vivian, and this is Lila, my little sidekick.
Angie 0:44
Hi Lila! Aaaw, so cute! How old is Lila?
Vivian 0:51
Um, she's actually one and a half years old... she's a pandemic puppy.
Angie 0:57
Pandemic plants and puppies... They go hand in hand.
Vivian 1:00
Yeaaah for sure!
Angie 1:03
Well, thank you so much for being here with us today. So excited to have you. Your backdrop is beautiful, of course. Oh, my goodness.
Vivian 1:11
It's still work in progress. I actually just moved a month ago. So everything is still like ....everywhere. Yeah. Yeah.
Angie 1:21
Are you still in Brooklyn?
Vivian 1:23
I am still in Brooklyn! Yeah, I don't think I'll ever move from Brooklyn.
Angie 1:29
Yeah. Oh, I wouldn't either. Well... we're gonna kick it off with an icebreaker called Petal and Bud. So Petal is something that happened recently that you're excited about... and Bud is something coming up that you're excited about. Okay, so I'll kick it off. Petal.... something recently that was exciting is: I just went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for my birthday. So that was a lot of fun! Really fun little cold, Hallmark-y getaway. Love Christmas, so everything there is just so Christmas-y and beautiful! And coming up, that I'm excited for? I would say... Christmas itself. So just love the Christmas season, especially here in Bethlehem. It's so beautiful in the Christmas City. So - soaking it up! How about you?
Vivian 2:20
Nice! Um, so like something that... something that happened recently that I was excited about? I ran my first half marathon! And yeah! I just started training 14 weeks before the marathon.... And it's honestly quite an achievement for me because I do not like running at all. I'm still not sure if I like it that much...haha.
Angie 2:44
But you can do it! That's incredible! Congratulations.
Vivian 2:48
Thank you! Yeah, and then six days after the marathon, I went to Zion National Park. Not too far away from Wyoming. But, But yeah! And we hiked Angel's Landing. Yeah, so my legs were really tired that week haah!
Angie 3:05
Oh my god, I bet! That's a lot!
Vivian 3:08
Yeah! And something that I'm excited that's coming up is: I guess Christmas. Just some time to like wind down and, you know, just like chill.
Angie 3:21
There's nothing like it... do you travel? Or do you stay in New York?
Vivian 3:25
I stay. I think I'll probably be like hosting my friends who are leftovers in the city. Because, I have a group of Malaysian friends as well, and I guess international travel is kind of difficult right now....so...
Angie 3:39
Yeah. Well there's nowhere like New York at Christmas, so it's not a bad place to be.
Vivian 3:46
It really isn't... Yeah.
Angie 3:48
All right - Well, what are you drinking today?
Vivian 3:52
Okay, I am actually not drinking wine... I have tea here, in my flamingo cup from... I bought it from Cracker Barrel, so...
Angie 4:04
The best. Yeah, they have my favorite wine glasses, speaking of wine! And I'm drinking red wine today from Blue Ridge Winery. Really, really good. They're a local winery. And this is a cab sav and it is delicious. So thank you to Blue Ridge for being our sponsor today and cheers!
Vivian 4:25
Cheeers!
Angie 4:28
Okay, we're gonna play a drinking game.
Vivian 4:31
Okay...
Angie 4:32
Not as fair for you haha!
Vivian 4:35
I didn't know we were playing a drinking game! So...
Angie 4:38
Okay, so we're going to take turns naming plants or plant-related items. And the last letter of your word has to be the first letter of the next person's word.
Vivian 4:52
Okay. Okay, I'll try it.
Angie 4:54
So, I'll start off with 'plant'
Vivian 4:58
Uhh...'Tetra sperma'.
Angie 5:00
Oooh, yeah, that was good. Yeah. 'Air plant'. Ooh I just gave you another 'T' word!
Vivian 5:13
um...this is not easy. 'Totem pole'. Wait, wait is it? I guess... yeah.... this is not an easy game.
Angie 5:30
This is not easy. Now I need to drink. Alright, throw another word at me. I'll try again!
Vivian 5:37
Okay, um... begonia. It's an A! haha
Angie 5:44
Aralia.
Vivian 5:45
Okay.... what, sorry, what did you say? Aralia? So a? Uuuuh... Auria? This is hard. Yeah. 'Serrana!' another a?
Angie 6:05
Yeah. uuuhhh... All right...I lose! Moving on! I always lose drinking games.
Vivian 6:19
It is not easy!
Angie 6:22
So tell us about how you got started with plants!
Vivian 6:25
Okay! Well, I'm moved from Malaysia two years ago, and then like our first apartment in Brooklyn, it's actually on the ground floor and a brownstone. So it was like, you know, like - a window and then a little bit of like a little front thing (entryway) before the street. And so I... I didn't want to have the blinds down all the time. So I bought some plants and like - from Ikea - because I was shopping for furniture there. And I actually killed my first plant, I think from overwatering! But I did not give up! And then I went plant shopping and discovered that there's so many like different plants, textures, colors. I'm very drawn to like pattern and color... so like, I think my first few plants were like, colletia, which is kind of like a rookie mistake. Yeah. And also so my mother-in-law gave us a fiddle leaf fig, which is like...
Angie 7:29
Oh my god, like the hardest things to start with! What?
Vivian 7:33
I know! So anyways, like- they did not die! I mean, like they were not thriving, but they did not die either. And then I started following like, Instagram accounts and like, especially plant shops and like......I'm very easy to be... influenced? So like, every time I see like a plant, I'm like: 'Oh, this is so pretty! I have to have it'. So anyways, yeah, the plants provided like a, you know, natural shade from the street. And that's how it started! Yeah, basically that.
Angie 8:12
I'm impressed that you are still... you powered through! Like you had difficult beginner plants and you did it.
Vivian 8:19
Yeah. I mean, I don't have them anymore. Yeah, and I don't think I will get those plants anymore!! Haha yeah...
Angie 8:30
I don't blame you. So how many plants would you say you have now?
Vivian 8:35
Um, I would say like 150 to 200 I think? Yeah, I have a lot of like, propagations and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah.
Angie 8:46
How was it moving....all of those?
Vivian 8:48
Oh my god, NOT fun.
Angie 8:52
I guess give some tips for our listeners. Like how did you literally do it?
Vivian 8:57
I would suggest....
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