I feel like I have so many stories of how my journey into growing started and all of them have come from the most inspirational people and times I have had in my life. I also feel like this is a pivotal time to be writing this piece as I am very aware that my roots are calling me back to where it all began. I grew up always being outdoors, getting dirty in the garden and watching my mum and dad grow food, albeit at the time, I wasn’t really that interested. It wasn’t until I decided to take a backpack and start travelling in my early 20’s that I really got into the swing of plants and how important they are. I had been working at a supermarket since I was 16, saved as much money as I could and bought a one way ticket with no real expectation of how long I would last or even if I would ever come back to England.
Quite frankly, living abroad changed me completely. I met all kinds of people that inspired me in the plant world; growers, cafe owners, chefs, gardeners, yoga teachers, nature wanderers, hikers…the list goes on. With every connection I made, plants were discussed, plants were grown and it was extremely clear to me that plants held so much power in each individual's life. This is something that has only grown within me and I have never felt more in awe of plants, than I do at this moment.
Fast forward to my return to England where I studied plant science at the Eden Project in Cornwall, focused my attention to sustainability within horticulture and built Harriets Plants straight after. I remember not thinking I knew much about growing on the scale I wanted to grow, but once I had acquired a rented and slightly dilapidated greenhouse, I realised quickly that it was within me to grow and that plants were my teacher. Houseplants at the time were my focus, they were my passion and it felt right to be growing wonderful tropical plants, that seemed to be making a difference. I enjoyed delving deeper in to sustainability and how I wanted to spark conversation and make a change within horticulture. I completed the foundation degree in plant science as a way of expanding my scientific knowledge on plants and how they work, but little did I know that it would be starting the business that would teach me so much more. I believe the plants that I have worked with over the years have actually taught me, in a way that no educational programme could have. I obviously gained so much from the degree and though I will definitely say that it definitely spurred me on to try and make change within an industry that so drastically needed it.
My inspiration
The wisdom that came from talking to people that used plants all the time in completely different ways all around the world was astounding and I think my whole travelling life brought me to where I am today. I have worked with plants in my personal life since living abroad and have never had a stronger connection with how plants make me feel and how beneficial they are for our overall health. They connect us to the land, our ancestors, community and to the people around us in a way that I never felt possible.
So plants is where it started and I can honestly say it’s been the biggest journey. When I began my degree, I had no idea of the negative impact growing houseplants on the scale that we are was having on our environment, but when I started delving into peat bogs and how we use this wonderful land as a product for growing plants, I was truly worried by my findings. This is why how I grow is so very important and integral not only to the business but also to me as an individual. The concept of not wanting to harm the environment whilst raising a business from the ground up, should not be the different way, it should be the only way. It’s so very, very important that we understand where our food, plants and flowers come from, how they are grown and who’s grown them, because it has never mattered more. There is just too much at stake. Peoples lives, animals lives, the environments life, precious peat bogs and all that frequent them and so much more. This is why I pride myself in knowing that I am growing in a way that is beneficial to the environment. I also have plans in my head that will hopefully keep Harriets Plants improving year upon year.
How do I grow?
I cant get across enough that the way in which we grow plants has to change. I believe in grass roots growing, community growing and seasonal growing and this is where Harriets Plants started and what I plan to consistently be aware of. The way I grow has the environment at its core. Peat free, chemical free, without the use of heat and always in-house, either from seed or propagation.
Peat free: For the life that frequents them. When we extract peat from our wonderful peat bogs we not only harm the life that ONLY survives in these conditions, we also increase the risk of flooding to local areas and release such a large amount of C02 into the atmosphere which is directly affecting climate change.
Chemical free: My plants aren’t sprayed at all, in fact I haven't had to use any kind of control for two maybe even three years and the controls I used before were natural predators. The in-house spiders, newts and birds are there to eat anything I don’t want in the nursery. I have frequent dragonflies that live in and around the space, I’ve even been known to have a deer in there overnight, which obviously isn’t ideal but it’s definitely happened on more than one occasion. The likelihood of getting overseas plants having not had some control placed on them before shipping is very low. This then leads on to no imports.
No imports: The nursery doesn’t import any plants from overseas. The reason for this is because I personally don’t believe that we should be buying plants from overseas when we can grow them here, albeit not on the same scale, but that also leads to an important over consumption conversation too, do we really need the amount of plants that we import on a yearly basis? I realise I sell plants and therefore am asking my customers to buy plants, however if we all supported our UK growers and celebrated each niche I think it would be a completely different conversation. I sow many seeds from my own nursery and I propagate in-house. I didn’t start this way but I can comfortably say that I have for at least 2 years now. I started off Harriets Plants with 75% importing and 25% in house grown, the second year it was down to 50/50 and so on until I’ve been able to grow 100% in house. Let me caveat that, for full transparency, to say that not all seeds are sourced in house, but this will only grow in the years to come as I expand the range of plants that I grow. This definitely stops me from being able to grow as many plants, as a lot of houseplant seeds are inaccessible and hard to germinate in our current climate, especially as I also don’t use any heat in the greenhouse.
Without the use of heat: This hasn’t always been the case. I had minus 13 degree nights in 2022 which forced my hand and the year before that was extremely cold. By moving the nursery
down to Cornwall, there is definitely a difference in length of season and temperature during the winter months. It’s so important to me that I grow seasonal houseplants that don’t harm the environment in the process. This obviously means that I can’t grow things that are otherwise grown elsewhere, but I don’t see this as a negative, I see this as beneficial to our wider environment. I focus on plants that are easier to grow in people's homes so that I’m setting people up for success.
The way I grow is completely different to overseas large scale growing but I can imagine it isn’ that much different from most other small scale growers of most plants that care for the environment. Small scale growers tend to use their hands, maybe small machines if necessary to improve productivity, tend to their plants as if they are part of them rather than as a commodity, we care and we nurture. I’m not saying big nurseries don’t care but nowadays they often have to be so focused on selling and making as much money as possible. I’ve been in large scale nurseries and they are incredible to walk around, but not once have I walked away feeling like it’s something that I would ever want to take part in.
I'm very hopeful that change will happen, there has definitely been a change in conversation around the importance of being peat free and how to protect our land by not digging up and degrading our bogs as they are the slowest to regenerate and they hold so much life within them, but I really do think we have such a long way to go, especially as greenwashing is so rife.
At the beginning I threw my whole life into Harriets Plants. I worked every single hour I could in the nursery and worked on all my paperwork in the evenings. Without those sacrificial hours, there is no way I would have been able to make it all work for this long. I didn’t start Harriets Plants with money or an idea about actually how to run a business. I simply wanted to grow and be in and around plants and share this passion, knowledge and understanding of plants to other people that also care about the environment and the world that we live in. I’d be lying if I said that my original passion was houseplants, it wasn’t, it was food. The people that inspired me the most were people that worked the land, grew in the ground using permaculture as their method of growing. Permaculture growing and good land management is so wonderful and is an extremely big passion of mine now. There is definitely a shift happening within Harriets Plants to go back to my roots.
I think we have a long way to go in this industry and nothing is as simple as it looks. I think having open communication with suppliers when buying products is imperative for the consumer to fully be able to understand what it is they are paying for. It’s not good enough for garden centres, plant shops, florists etc. to not understand what their plants are grown in, what controls have been in place on their plants and where they have come from. Who has grown your plants? I’m a researcher when I buy products. I want to know every last detail so that I can feel like I am supporting something that is beneficial to this planet and certainly not harming it. I like to think that Harriets Plants is truly transparent with all aspects of the growing practices so that it
takes the hard work away from someone buying from me. I’d also like to think that that’s why I have regular repeat customers too. Greenwashing has become such a huge part of horticulture that as a consumer and lover of plants, it’s hard to tell what’s what anymore, that goes for most industries too.
Moving forward
2024 has been the hardest on the business so far but also on me too, for a few reasons. The current financial climate has really affected small business and small scale growers. I also had a wonderful baby girl in September of 2023 and quite frankly didn’t realise how much this would wholeheartedly change my inner workings. She is my priority always but especially in these young, formative years. Being a self employed mum and business owner, that started a business with my own small amount of savings has been such a huge effort and has been the best, but the hardest time of my life. As always though I know I need to work with and most importantly grow plants and I cant see this ever changing.
The focus for 2025 is community. I dipped my toes into a full growing community this year but there is so much more I want to do. The word community isn’t a buzzword for me and shouldn't ever be used as one. We are whole and as one and we should be respecting this within growing, with inclusivity at the heart and bringing people together through shared grass root growing. What I mean by this is, by nurturing each other from below the ground up we can hopefully learn to communicate through plants and learn to come together as plants are such an integral part of our souls and our health.
If we are to listen and learn from plants we can encourage others to do the same. Living seasonally, learning to slow down, to buy less, buy better and grow together, I truly believe we have the ability to live harmoniously with nature by our side.
Plants have guided us throughout history, have so many uses and are important to so many different cultures around the world. This is the way plants have healed and helped me and I will be encouraging these kinds of conversations throughout 2025 as well as growing lots more plants with many more benefits.
Top tips for buying houseplants? How to make more ethical/ecological choices etc.?
I think it’s extremely important to ask questions about the plants you are interested in. The more questions we ask, the more retailers understand that it is important. I once was told by a retailer that peat free wasn’t important to their customers and there they weren’t going to make the switch. I find this desperately sad, as without the retailers making the change and talking about such issues, there wont be demand for it. There are also people repotting or growing on in peat free compost and not disclosing that the original plant is grown in peat and this deceives customers into thinking they are making a great purchase when in fact they aren’t.
Buying direct from the grower is also extremely important or finding a retailer stocks a reputable grower. This way you'll know where your plants are grown and by who and you can even ask questions about the growers practices too.
Plants are life. We are nothing without the environment so I feel it is my duty to protect it as best as possible in all aspects of my life.
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