RENOVATIONS, SPRING AND WHATS NEXT…

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Hey folks

As many of you will know by now, at the end of May we closed down our store front in Left Bank Arcade. There were a few factors that contributed to that decision and while it was sad to see it go it has turned out to be the right move.

Since then we have been a little bit quiet on the information front so I wanted to take this opportunity to fill you all in on what has been happening and what is next for us. It’s going to be a bit of a read but hopefully you will find some answers to your questions below.

We have taken these cold months as a bit of personal quiet time as we had not really had a break over the stores two and a half years of operation. In between sleep ins and rest days we have been steadily working away of renovating our growing space. This is something that was long overdue and with spring basically upon us it feels rewarding to stand in the space ready for a busy growing season.

While there are a few more small jobs to do (and propagations to get up to speed) we feel that by the end of September we should be up and running on our new model.

When we first opened the store we were trying to propagate the majority of plants ourselves but as we got busier there was less time available to grow. Working with other growers around the country to supply plants was actually really helpful, not only did we have more variety but we learned a lot along the way. The downside for us though is that we REALLY LOVED the growing part of the business, that’s what got us into plants in the first place.

Our new model is to refocus on the propagation and plant growing bringing the majority of stock back in house, although we will still be working with other nurseries for specialty items or things we just can’t do ourselves.

More time growing means that we won’t be running a store front that is open daily but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop in for your plant fix. We will be operating open days which will be announced on our website and social media. We will also be posting a weekly selection of plants that you can pick up from our nursery. If you would like to purchase plants outside of that time we are happy to arrange a time to show you through.

We will be attending markets and pop ups in the region over the summer months but we won’t be opening a web store right now as we want to aim for a more bespoke experience and spend more of our time on growing rather than sales and shipping.

As far as our other services go, the consults, repotting and business installs are still all available and we are not too far away from announcing a new series of workshops.

So with that out of the way what’s happening with the plants?

These last few weeks have seen us trying to expand our plant stock to fill all the new shelves as fast as possible. I will be doing a post in the next day or two with more detail on what’s coming up plant wise but here are a few notable mentions.

Firstly (and one of my favorite topics) is the carnivorous plants! We have almost completed repotting the new season’s stock and the variety is about as good as it has ever been. There was a lot of success with our Drosera Binata seeds from last summer and a broad range of other sundews have begun waking up from their winter dormancy. Being an NZ native the Drosera Binata is always a popular plant, partially as a novel Christmas gift. Other carnivorous plants we have on hand include a wide range of Nepenthes types, Cephalotus, Venus fly traps, Sarracenia and Heliamphora. We will be adding to this range over the next couple of months.

For the chilli heads out there we are about to put down some spicy varieties for the summer. I am personally excited to be back at the chilli plants as we were too busy to do them last year. We be doing habanero which is a favorite of mine but we hope to have two insane strains available. These will be Dragons Breath which is a 2.4 Million scoville rated chilli and considered one of the hottest on earth and the good old Carolina Reaper which comes in around the 2 million mark.  Supply will be limited so look out for updates closer to Christmas.

Sophie’s pet project Dahlias have been sleeping all winter but we are about to get stuck into sorting all the tubers out. From memory there were about 20 varieties and some new hybrids at the end of last summer so we have high hopes for a good amount of stock to be ready soon.

For the indoors there is a lot we are still working through but that said our Hoya supply is looking good and we are expanding our Begonia and Peperomia range. There is also a lot of small run and one off plants that we have been sitting on which includes some rare varieties and new hybrids. We are also bulking out the more popular, classic indoor types such as the Philodendrons, Monsteras, Calatheas, Lipstick plants etc..

All in all we are genuinely looking forward to this growing season with a much different pace to our summer.

If you have any questions feel free to reach out and be sure to keep up with us daily on our Instagram.

Back again soon

Shawn