For the Love of Plants...
To nurture plants is an interesting thing. We put such concern and will into a being that is propagated as a commercial product. The little green friends we keep warm on our window sills wouldn’t last long on their own here. Meanwhile, deciduous trees are overlooked in winter because of their crude nudity, bulbs go completely dormant and unnoticed while flowers become a distant memory!
As plant parents, we take home plants, aiming to provide the ideal environment for them while improving our connection to nature. We grow attached to our plant families and feel the urge to nurture them- though, sometimes we neglect them b/c we are human! We make an investment and are rewarded with the responsibility of keeping something alive & thriving! These little responsibilities we take on teach us life lessons and offer us beautiful experiences in exchange.
All plants are different and uniquely beautiful but there are occasions when we cannot place the same value on all products. Our nursery is a stop over for plant babies! We take our jobs pretty seriously in stewarding them until they find forever homes. But as commercial products they are required to retain their value. As a result there are plants that need to be taken out of inventory. What happens next is seemingly mundane and surprisingly unsettling.
This feeling is familiar for me (Lisa). I’ve had it before while farming. You have lower quality product and a considerable amount of it. This product received the same amount of attention and input as the acceptable product. Selling the lower quality product is bad for marketing and not fair to customers. Labor is paid for and emotional investments are made when we depend on living things for an income. On top of that you feel, see and understand the value of this thing you must now discard. One arrives at this point of impasse where you know you cannot sell the three pounds of carrots or the house plant or the annual vegetable start for full value but you cannot bring yourself to just chuck that little life into the compost. It’s too wasteful, it just seems wrong. We’ve decided to launch a Plant Adoption Program! Come see us to learn more!