Verdant: A Cozy Board Game About Houseplants

I love houseplants. My home is filled with them in every nook and cranny. I also love cooking with herbs. Drinking herbal tea. So I am especially attracted to cozy board games with plant-themes. In fact, I made a list of garden-themed cozy board games to try.

So far, I’ve purchased two games off the list to play. It was hard to just choose two as they all look fun. But I selected Botanical and Verdant to play first. I recently tried Verdant, so grab a cup of tea and lets talk about Verdant.

But first, some details:

Here’s the official description: Verdant is a gorgeous spatial puzzle game for the whole family. Take on the role of a houseplant enthusiast – collecting and caring for plants as you compete to create the coziest, most verdant home! Turns are simple – select a card/token set and place each into your expanding home.

Players: 1-5
Age: 10+
Playtime: 30-45 minutes

Right off the bat, I’ll say that this is one of my favorite cozy games. It has a solo-player mode which I us often, it’s not too difficult to understand, and I find the playing of the game to be very satisfying.

I love the illustrations and colors of this game. They are beautifully drawn. Always a must when I’m selecting a game.

I also love games with lots of pieces of things I can touch. Especially cutouts of the object. Playing cozy games is sensory for me, so I’m really looking for reasons to move my hands, pick up pieces, feel things… probably comes from me working on computers and in digital spaces all day.

Verdant is a card game. No board, though you make a type of board with your cards. I enjoy the visual layout of the cards.

The colors are soothing and even looking at the plants feels calming. And honestly, that’s what I’m looking for in a cozy board game. Something soothing and calm, a calming cup of tea in a game that appeals to me esthetically as well as thematically.

If I’m playing a game with plants, I want visualizations of those elements. Not just drawings on cards but also in hard pieces I can pick up. Verdant has that with pieces that represent flower pots, home furnishings and more.

Just like fiddling with your house plants, watering them, moving them around for more or less sunlight, playing a game about plants is equally relaxing.

I paired this game with a cup herbal tea, woodsy nature sounds, macaroons and a candle that smelled like the forest.