Today we’d like to introduce you to Shelena Scott.
Hi Shelena, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, I was unable to work and began dedicating a lot of my time and energy to taking care of my older sister’s plants. She had been a passionate plant collector for the past several years. She had and still has a lot of experience and knowledge about all kinds of plants.
I experienced the therapeutic aspects of taking care of plants and nurturing them. It became an everyday outlet that caused me to ask myself the question “Why didn’t I grow up nurturing my plants?”
As a result, I became more and more passionate about sharing this experience with others and desired to empower people with plants! So that they too could experience the many benefits of caring for plants and experience the effects of having and seeing greenery in their space. One day, my sister Shekyla encouraged me to consider turning our hobby and love of plants into a business.
This led me on a journey to learn as much as I could about the benefits of house plants, horticultural therapy, air purifying plants, growing and propagating, and ultimately transforming homes and businesses with plants!
Through research, I learned more and more about how plants can affect us improving mental health, relieving stress and anxiety, increasing productivity, accelerating healing, removing toxins in the atmosphere, purifying the air in our homes, and so much more.
My love for plants grew and what started as a hobby evolved into a vibrant business between my sisters and me. In the fall of 2022, I participated in “Startup Circle”, which is a free 9-session business and project planning course designed for aspiring and newly established entrepreneurs. This helped us improve every aspect of our business.
Today, we specialize in a vast assortment of tropical and exotic plants that can be grown indoors/ outdoors. Some examples include a variety of Aroids, Monsteras, Philodendrons, Hoyas, Aglaonema, Calathea, Dieffenbachia, Anthuriums, Orchids, Dracaena, Peperomia, Chlorophytum, Palms, Ferns, Bromeliads, Succulents, Cacti and more.
We regularly participate in pop-up markets and plant shows throughout the Tampa Bay Area, Sarasota, Bradenton, and Ellenton, and we’ve even gone as far as Punta Gorda and Venice. We bring the plants to the people! We have also developed business-to-business relationships where we’ve helped elevate businesses to incorporate live plants in their space through planterior design. We also partnered with The Vintage Vine Market to make our plants available for purchase in their retail space. And they will also be available soon inside “Orange Blossom” located in the heart of downtown Bradenton.
We are passionate about highlighting the health and wellness that is associated with plants and art. We feel that incorporating Healing Arts by Von at the markets and plant shows helps us to provide another avenue of health and wellness to our customers as they strive to find peaceful ways to deal with the stress of life. Shvonne Townsend is our sister and the creator of Healing Arts by Von.
In addition to offering a wide-ranging variety, we often educate and empower people to learn how to properly take care of their plants so they can thrive and grow!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Sometimes I liken the experience of starting a business from the ground up to the experience of riding a roller coaster. There have been some amazing highs, and some lows as well in between. Here’s what I like to call ebbs and flows.
Some of the struggles have been learning how to balance the finances, marketing, advertising, plant care, and even the planning of participating in markets in advance. Finding various channels such as grants, and funding to start the business has not been easy. We’ve had to use a lot of our finances to help grow the business.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Scott’s Exotic Plants?
We are passionate about growing and selling healthy vibrant plants that range in all sizes starting from 2-inch pots, all the way up to 25-gallon specimens. Many of the plants we offer range from indoor/house varieties to plants that can be used for landscaping designs.
We aim to be able to offer a plant for literally everyone from beginner-friendly, all the way to plants for the serious plant collectors out there looking for some of the most exotic, unusual, rare plants. We also offer planterior design services for businesses and homes. This is something we are also passionate about.
What sets us apart the most is that we offer such a vast range of tropical and exotic plants, and we’re a small family-owned black-owned business that has been growing from the ground up so to speak. Sometimes you can find us playing great music at the markets we participate in as well. It makes us happy to be able to help make others happy and enjoy their time visiting our booth.
Any big plans?
In the future, we’d like to create more grow-house greenhouses and expand. We’d also love to collaborate with other organizations to address mental health and wellness and partner with schools.
We’re looking forward to future collaborations that will continue to enlighten and educate people about the amazing benefits of plants and art.
We are still on the fence about potentially opening up our brick-and-mortar location, but you never know.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Scottsexoticplants.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/Scotts_Exotic_Plants
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/937431060397841/
