Skip to main content

My plant story


Hey there! My name is Victor and I am the owner of The Plant Room. We are a small Denver, CO based latinx plant shop. My love and appreciation for plants began when I was a child as I grew up in a house surrounded by them. My mom, to his day has the most amazing way with plants and I spent my childhood watching her resuscitate plants that she found in the trash, or half dead ones that people gave to her at work. I was always fascinated by my mother's ability to bring things that I was sure were dead back to life. To this day some of those second life plants still hang around her house. 

My mom saw my childhood interest and began to share what she knew with me. She instilled in me that most plants could easily be taken care of if you started with and focused on the basics: water, soil, light, feeding. Of course, taking care of plants can be a very intense, time consuming, and sometimes expensive process but it doesn't have to necessarily be. The main thing my mom taught me about plants is that when it comes to tending to plants patience is a must, that you should never give up on saving a plant too soon, and that tending to them with love and care will always pay off dividends. 

I grew older, went off to college, and graduate school, and spent several years working as a quantitative analyst in the energy sector. The whole time I had a very small collection of plants that I took care of. My collection was just the basics: a Green Queen Pothos, a snake plant, a couple of dracaenas, lots of hardware store succulents. I always kept going back to everything my mom had taught me about them when I was a kid, and to this day those plants still hang around in my apartment. 

Fast forward to the spring of 2017. It was then that I decided to start selling plants as a hobby. It all began on local reselling apps. At the time I lived in a small apartment in downtown Denver, and as the hobby grew my living space decreased! I decided to ask my mom if I could use one of the spare bedrooms of her house to store all the plants I was selling, I figured there was no better place to do so since there would be a plant ninja on the premises. Of course she agreed, and that is when things took off. 

Potted Plants at The Plant Room 2017
At the beginning I did all business under my name but when people came by to buy plants out of the room in my mom's house I repeated the phrase "follow me this way to the plant room" over and over again, and the name stuck.  I began to sell more and more and to share everything I knew about plants and my love for them with the people that came by to buy from me. I wanted to make sure that I gave people the best chance to develop a deep bond with their plants, like my mom had done with me when I was a kid.

I have continued to hone my plant care skills and grow my knowledge of their care over the years. I continue to learn more and more every single day, and I wanted to find a way to share what I know with as many people as possible. I have been incredibly fortunate to have the support of many people over the years and have been deeply accepted into the plant community of Denver. After many years of operating The Plant Room from my mom's house I was able to relocate to a brick and mortar location on October 23rd 2020. 

To this day my main mission at The Plant Room is to do my very best to prepare people to take care of their plants in a way that is not stressful. I want to give people a chance to see just how rewarding tending to house plants can be and make them accessible to as many people as I can. 

At The Plant Room I specialize on indoor foliage from the all-time classics to rare specimens, as well as cacti, and succulents. This blog is intended to be a platform for me to share everything that I know about their care in simple terms that everyone can understand. I want to use this space to address many of the plant care questions that I receive day after day!

The Plant Room, Oct 2020

I appreciate you taking the time to read this. I felt it was important to share some of my background with you all. You can always reach me through the comment section of this blog, or Instagram @theplantroomdenver or Facebook under The Plant Room. 




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Winter Plant Care In Colorado

Winter Care for Plants in Colorado  Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash  One of the questions I receive from people most often lately is, "how do I care for my plants in the winter?" I decided that this was a good first topic to get the blog started! The information I am going to share with you here is based on my personal experience and research over the years.  Why is plant care more difficult in the fall/winter months?  I am not going to fully disagree with the fact that taking care of plants in the winter can be a bit challenging, but I am going to say that I think the problem is often times blown out of proportion. The main challenges in Colorado come from shorter days which leads to less light, colder temperatures, and even less humidity than we normally deal with.  First, it is important to address the topic of dormancy in house plants. In simple terms think of dormancy in house plants as being equivalent to an animal's hibernation season. This is a time of rest for

Alocasia Care Guide

Introduction to Alocasia: Alocasia plants, commonly known as Elephant's Ears, are a stunning genus of rhizomatous or tuberous tropical foliage plants belonging to the Araceae family. Native to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, they are loved for their large, often textured leaves and unique patterns. There are about 90 accepted Alocasia varieties many of which are in constant rotation around the shop!  Caring for Alocasia in Denver: Proper Watering: Alocasia prefer consistently moist soil, that is never waterlogged. Water thoroughly when the top inch of soil feels dry, during the growing season. Usually in the fall and winter I prefer to let them GENTLY dry out throughout the entire pot. When in doubt, a good rule is to allow the plant to dry out at least 50% of the way. Like I always say, more often than not, too dry is preferable to too wet.  Use room temperature water and thoroughly water the soil directly, avoiding the leaves to prevent fungal issues. Using cold water c