b"Childhood Friendship Grows into a Business PartnershipdeVINE Plantery opens to share the love of plantsBY ELLEN DONKER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA MALOOF VERDEROSAMaya Haynie and Kelly Brown's shared love of plants led to a joint business endeavor.K ellyBrownandbusinesstheymostappropriatelynameddeVINEwood andthe city, and finding new thingsand MayaHayniere- itwasareallynicecommunitytoo. memberexactlyThats kind of what I think fostered whentheydecidedour interest in plants.to go into businessWhenthewomengraduatedin witheachother.December 2019Haynie with a de-Itwasmid-Aprilgree in marketing and Brown with a when, in a series of text messages to her close groupPlantery. They are also capitalizing on a huge boomdegree in engineeringthey came home to Maple-of five friends, Brown laid out an idea she had got- in houseplants that has only gotten stronger sinceimmediately ten from her sister Devina. Whos in? she asked.thepandemicbegan.Trendwatchersattributeitfoundjobsintheir Haynie was the one to raise her hand, with the en- to a convergence of interior design style, urbaniza- fields. Brown works as a thusiasm I was looking for, Brown says. tion and a desire to nurture a living thing, especiallytest engineer technician FriendssincesecondgradeatClintonSchool,among young people.atBecton,Dickinson, these newly-minted college graduates have spent aBrown laughs when she describes how Haynie gotoneofthetopmedi-lot of time together. Even when they went off to col- her into plant collecting. She dragged me to IKEA,caldevicecompanies. lege, they stayed close, as Brown attended TempleBrown says, and then she was like, Oh, why dontHaynie,adigitalmar-University and Haynie was just a few blocks northyou take a plant home. That was all it took to startketingprofessional,is at La Salle University.filling every surface of their apartments with plants.an associate with Nanit, TheirlatestinterestplantsbeganduringHaynie says, We started going to brunch and thena baby monitor startup.college. Now the two friends have turned it into agoing to the cute locally owned plant shops aroundFull-timecareers 20/ matters magazine / fall 2020"