Martha Stewart Dishes on Gardening’s Benefits and the One Flower She’d Never Plant
The lifestyle icon and actress Jameela Jamil had a spirited conversation at the New York Botanical Garden
Martha Stewart has long been an expert on entertaining in style and Woman’s World was recently lucky enough to attend an exclusive event hosted by the queen herself. On May 15, Stewart, in partnership with Miracle-Gro and iHeartPodcasts, invited a number of journalists and influencers to gather at the gorgeous New York Botanical Garden for a botanical-inspired brunch and a live taping of The Martha Stewart Podcast with The Good Place star Jameela Jamil as her special guest.
Stewart (who serves as Miracle-Gro’s Chief Gardening Officer) and Jamil had a funny and free-flowing conversation that covered gardening tips (let’s just say the actress doesn’t quite have a green thumb like Stewart!), the stress-relieving powers of nature and even Stewart’s least-favorite flower. Read on to see the highlights that had the audience laughing and nodding in agreement.
Jameela Jamil had never acted before ‘The Good Place’
When Jamil, who started out as a TV personality and DJ in her native London, landed her role as the hilariously snooty Tahani Al-Jamil on The Good Place, she’d never acted before. She quipped, “I carry the audacity of a straight white man within me, and I go for things that I’m unprepared for and underqualified for, and I think, ‘Why not me?’ And it’s not a mentality that I decry in straight white men. I think we need to adopt more of it,” and said that it was this same impulse that made her want to discuss gardening with Stewart even when she has no gardening experience herself.
Jamil also spoke about how much she learned from her costar, veteran actor Ted Danson, saying, “I think learning on the job how to act from Ted Danson is more powerful than any drama school you could ever go to, because he’s such a genius . . . I really studied him and I really just ripped him off. I copied everything he did, and so if you didn’t like my performance, that’s really on Ted!”
She continued, “It was exciting to jump into something I had no idea how to do and learn that. You know, women are often discouraged from trying new things perchance we fail. And what you get to learn when you throw yourself in unpredictable environments as you’re capable of so much more than you ever thought.”
Martha Stewart shared her favorite motto
During the conversation, Stewart shared her favorite motto: “When you’re through changing, you’re through.” It’s a simple but powerful statement that’s clearly served her well as she’s evolved over the years.
Stewart and Jamil discussed the unexpected benefits of exercise
Jamil spoke about her organization Move for Your Mind, which champions the benefits of movement for mental health, saying, “I’m just trying to get diet culture out of every area of our lives . . . Exercise is something that is pivotal for people’s mental health, and they don’t do it unless they think of it as something to do for weight loss, whereas moving your body for around 150 minutes a week is similar to the impacts of an SSRI. We’re in a country that doesn’t have free healthcare, and then we’ve also made exercise inaccessible . . . People shouldn’t have to feel like they have to be a certain size, a certain age, a certain level of ability to be able to just move their bodies joyously. It takes 15 minutes and nine seconds to get the mental health benefits of exercise, and yet we think of it as this huge ordeal.”
Stewart added, “Gardening is great exercise. When I was working on my roses the other day, I was out there for four hours. Every single muscle in my body ached.”
Stewart said gardening is her meditation
Stewart and Jamil both admitted that they don’t meditate, but Stewart said that gardening is her preferred form of mindfulness, noting, “It’s extremely good for you. I’d be in the insane asylum if I didn’t have my garden. I’m never angry in the garden.”
Martha Stewart revealed her favorite tree—and her least favorite flower!
Stewart said her favorite tree is the Beech tree, which she called “The mother of all trees.” She also talked about her eternal love of roses—there’s even a variety of rose named for her at the New York Botanical Garden, where the podcast was recorded.
Jamil then asked Stewart, “Have you ever met a flower that you didn’t like?,” to which she responded, “I’m famous for not liking red geraniums. I don’t like the smell of a red geranium. I don’t like the look of a red geranium. I’ve never planted a red geranium. There are other geraniums that I like, but not the red geranium.”
Conversation
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