b'rience walking in. Theyknowwho youare.Theyre like,Hey,hows yourZZplant thatyoubought amonthagodo-ing?Theywould have events. So Ithinkthatwas ourinitialvision bringingthat vibe.Itmakes sense,then,that deVINE Planterys slogan is Turning plantcareintoa lifestyle.Initially,the womenenvi-sionedabrick-and-mortarstore. But when the pan-demichit,they shifted their focus to an online shop. Brown and Haynie built a greenhouse to store their plants. TheThismeantde-calathea ornata is a big seller. signingawebsite that could feature did not dampen their enthusiasm fortheir products and plants. In fact, Brown and Haynie wereprocess online orders. They also had to hoping to join an active plant commu- curate a selection of houseplants, line nity like the one to which they hadupplantsuppliers,comeupwitha belongedinPhiladelphia,butfoundplant delivery model (they personally nothing. As Haynie explains, Theresdeliver the plants), and find a place to notreallyanythingsmallthatsfo- store their inventory. To accommodate cused on the customer and what theirthe latter, they built a six by eight-foot needsare.Andthatwaspartofthegreenhouse in Haynies backyard. reason we loved going to those plantAs the women put their processes shops because it was just a nice expe- in place this past spring, Haynie used deVINE Plantery has recently leased space at Maplewood Mercantile enablingcustomers to browse, get plant care tips, and carry their purchases home.feature story /21'