Chez Camille, plants as sole decoration

Camille, 23, is the latest addition to the Monstera team. A UX designer, her mission is to make the application even more user-friendly. But above all, she's passionate about plants. Some thirty specimens decorate her apartment in Lille. Despite the assaults of her cat.

My sister always had plants in her room. It was more or less her domain, but I wasn't really interested. In my old apartment, I didn't have any plants. But one day, I went into a greenhouse to buy something. And I said to myself, here, I'll take a plant. In the end, I ended up with three to decorate my living room: a Dieffenbachia, a Ficus benjamina and a Ficus elastica. That's how I started.

Today, I have around thirty of them. They're in my living room and kitchen. I mainly have tropical species: two Monstera, two Piléa, a Begonia maculata..

My top three would be my Monstera, my Maranta Lemon Lime and my Bird of Paradise.

Monstera deliciosa was given to me by my boyfriend for my birthday. I've had it for three months now and it's already a beautiful granny. For me, it's the basic tropical plant, the one everyone loves. It's pretty and always will be.

I've killed oneMaranta, and this is my second attempt. This one keeps putting out new leaves and is doing well. I think it's a really beautiful variety. Before I got it, I kept looking at photos. I finally came across it a few months ago in a small store in Lille.

Strelitzia reginae is like the Monstera. I think I especially like the shape of its leaves.

Succulents aren't my thing. I managed to kill an Aloe vera. I don't even know how I did it! I have two other succulents, one of which was a gift. I keep them at a distance. I figure the less I take care of them, the more likely they are to survive. Because even if I don't like a plant, I try to keep it alive.

Maybe a Japanese banana. My boyfriend has one and I love its big, thin leaves. I'd also like to add some hanging plants. But for the moment, I don't have a shelf to put them on.

I'm very proud when I see a plant I had as a child grow. This is the case with my Tradescantia Nanook. When I got it, the stems were just a few centimetres long. They were growing upwards and not yet drooping. Now that it's grown well, I'm quite happy.

I also managed to save my Dracaena. Last summer, it was very bad, full of midges. I don't know whether it had a hard time with the move or whether it was the cat's fault. But I did everything I could to save him. I cut, I repotted, I tried coffee grounds, orange peels... And now I've found him a place he loves. He's off to a flying start and looking great. I work on the principle that if he survived, anyone can survive.

I killed my first Maranta. I don't think I'll ever get over it! Was it the water, which was too hard, or the winter? It's been very cold at home and many of my plants have suffered.

There's also my Dieffenbachia. It hurts just talking about it. I used to have a Dieffenbachia, with big leaves. After leaving my old apartment, I moved back in with my parents for two months. I had a room with a Velux window and the light-loving Diffenbacchia was underneath. I don't know what happened. It lost its leaves. It hurts my heart when I look at it because I remember how beautiful it used to be.

Before buying a plant, even if you really like it, you have to make sure that your home is a good environment for it. We don't all have the same conditions, whether in terms of light or humidity. From one house to another, plants can either thrive or die.

That reminds me, I killed a Calathea velvet. It didn't like anything about my place. Whereas my boyfriend has a magnificent one at home, which he got at the same time.

It's important to be well informed about the plant and its needs before buying, for example by consulting the care advice on the Monstera app. Otherwise, you're hurting them.

I think I'm very lucky. My cat doesn't attack my plants that much. He tends to attack them if their leaves are long and thin, like my dwarf palm.

I try to make sure he always has some catnip available. He falls back on it and doesn't touch my plants. I've put some specimens up high, so he can't get at them.

He preys a little on my bird of paradise, on the only leaf within his reach. When I don't see him, there's nothing I can do. But if I catch him in the act, I scold him. He knows he has no right.