Our Story
When we first met, we discussed our mutual dreams of opening our own businesses. Little did we know that precisely one year later, we would have our first retail location together.
Emily was in school and working on a design research project to envision the future of garden retail. At the same time, Brian was a freelancer and full-time high school teacher working on his PhD. The research project initially sparked our combined interest and imagination to think about what the future of plant retail could look like and how we could play a part in its future.
We knew how much joy plants had brought to our lives. Still, being previous non-green thumbs, we also knew plant care could be an overwhelming and often intimidating experience.
Through our rocky experience of learning to care for plants, we realized that anyone can succeed with houseplants. The most important part is choosing a plant compatible with the amount of natural light in your space and how often you’d like to water the plant. That’s where we knew we could help.
With this in mind, we decided to open a small shop selling only houseplants and planters. Narrowing the focus to houseplants made it possible for us and our team to be knowledgeable about every plant we carry and then pass that knowledge along to our guests. Having a small space would make it easier for us to have one-on-one conversations with each of our guests to ensure we guide them in choosing the right houseplants for their space and lifestyle.
One day in May 2015, we drove past a vacant retail space down the street from Emily’s apartment and thought, “Hey, this might be our chance to really go for it!”
Though we didn’t end up opening in this exact location, we did find a space a month later that became our first shop: STUMP Italian Village.
In September 2015, we opened our first retail location in Columbus, OH, to bring plants into people’s lives by providing plant care education and thoughtfully designed products.
Today, with a few more shop additions, we’re grateful to have a brilliant team with shared values working towards sharing plant education with the communities where our shops are located.
As for our long-term goal, we hope each step of our process gets us closer to connecting others with Mother Nature.
