A plant newsletter that bends toward the light
Want to own a plant shop? Here's how to turn over that leaf.
We’re here in February. Do you remember Februaries? Other Februaries that were dreary and terrible and gray and endless? Februaries are February all the way down, and this one is even more Feb-tastic than usual. So, to take the edge off, I have some little things for you. *Opens big raggedy Mary Poppins purse* — ok, here we go.
First up: Do you want to own a plant shop? Then you’d better know what you’re getting into. Today we have a Q&A with the incredibly wonderful Katherine Raz, who was kind enough to send this to me just before Valentine’s Day, which is like the Super Bowl for plants. She owns The Fernseed, in Tacoma. She is a multi-talented creative badass who poured her energy into this beautiful venture. Well, it’s a dirty venture. As you’ll see when we speak to her.
Q&A with Katherine Raz of The Fernseed
Q. What's it like owning a plant shop?
Way dirtier than I expected! When I rounded up all the beautiful images of plant shops on Pinterest in anticipation of opening my own, they didn't seem that dirty. I mean, there's dirt everywhere! We dust and sweep daily and have to do regular deep cleans. It's basically like running a hybrid fancy boutique with a produce stand.
You also end up answering the same questions about plants over and over again for people day after day. What's a good plant that can hang in my bathroom? (Depends on the bathroom.) What plant needs almost no light to live? (All plants need some light but sansevieria and zz plants are pretty low-light tolerant.) How big will this get? (Plants are like goldfish, they'll adjust to the size container you keep them in.) People really want to tell you about all their plants that have either thrived, or died, and why, and sometimes you just want to be like, “dammit I'm a human being here, please talk to me about anything but plants today.” But whatever, we get it. It's a plant shop!
Q. What's your best advice for someone with this dream?
Decide what niche you're going to occupy. I'm not a rare plant person. I don't do orchid or bonsai. Our thing is handmade pots and finding the right (mostly easy care) plants for the right space in your home, and elevating plants to the level of home design. I'm not a rare plant collector, so my shop doesn't reflect that. But maybe yours will! Decide how big you want to get and what you want to specialize in and just go for it.
Q. What's a fave plant of yours, or a plant you'd recommend right now?
This changes all the time for me, but I recently bought an alocasia silver dragon and am really digging it. It really looks like a dragon! My basic loves are false aralia, peperomia hope, fishbone cactus, lepismium cruciforme, ficus tineke, podocarpus, dracaena marginata, all kinds of hoya, and yucca. Plants kind of remind me of music, where when you start getting really into them you realize what you liked before was pretty basic and you get embarrassed about it. Then you go deep into this weird world of what other people think is cool and you try it out but maybe you don't really like it, and then you kind of find your own pace and you don't give a fuck what other people think and you just do your own thing. I think that's where I'm at now.
Look at her pretty shop!
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Thank you, Katherine, for sharing this expertise with us. Although I am absolutely not equipped to ever run such a thing, it is so glorious to know that others are out there, supplying vegetation for home enjoyment. She also did a great breakdown on Insta of the kinds of capital you need to get going with something like this. It’s a lot. Hers came from a bunch of different sources, and I really appreciated the transparency. She now has two locations of The Fernseed, and it’s been super inspiring to watch the progress.
Again, find her at The Fernseed and buy all the things.
What the plants are reading
No one is reading anything around here except the plants, and they are busy, boy.
Just so you know, Venus fly traps generate little magnetic fields, nbd. What happens if you make a secret herbal concoction and never tell anyone the recipe? Then you’d be like these Italian spirit makers, and we’d all be jealous. What about very tiny forests, the size of tennis courts? The British are working on it. As you know this newsletter includes mushrooms in its card catalog under vegetation, which is a controversial move but it allows us to read things like this mushroom explainer.
What else?
Maybe you need a writing prompt to get the creativity flowing. Here’s this one:
A soothing infinity tree, maybe a result of the lightning striking your garden? Maybe the snails live in there? I dunno, I’m trying to help you:
And finally, am torching my quarantine wardrobe and just gonna go outside in this now:
May all your plants remind you of music,
Lindsay
Administrative P.S.
Did you miss the last issue? Here it is.
This newsletter sends on Ẅednesdays because Ẅednesday is a great day to celebrate Vegetation 🌱 It arrived on the right day today.
Feel free to reply to this, and I will get it like a regular email! Send me links or personal blooms for my entertainment. I love them all. Also guess what this is the 20th edition. What a time to be alive!