This is PLANT PPL, where we spotlight people of color in the plant world
Here at L.A. Times Plants, we love people who find joy and fresh perspective through plants. In our series, PLANT PPL, we interview people of color in the plant world, such as the voice behind @LatinxWithPlants, Andi Xoch.
When customers buy from Xoch’s pop-up shop in Boyle Heights, they don’t just buy the plant, they support the whole business. They spread the word: “Supporters have expressed that they don’t want to support big corporations, and people are dealing with anxiety caused by COVID and the long history of systemic oppression,” she says. “People are hungry for any sense of normalcy, and plants provide that.”
Here are some of our favorite plantfluencers, plant stylists, floral artists, enthusiasts, experts and plant store owners to follow on Instagram and to perhaps support when you’re looking to add to your plant family. If you have any suggestions for PLANT PPL to include in our series, tag us on Instagram @latimesplants.
Earlier this year, Robert and Jeff Lavia-Garcia opened a San Pedro plant shop called Flower Tortillas. The name is a nod to their catering business and a play on ‘flour tortillas.’
Marissa Engoy of Good Morning, Cactus began posting photos of her plant arrangements on social media and found herself immersed in the online plant community.
Associate curator Brandon Tam keeps watch over at least 10,000 orchids with 1,500 unique species inside the Huntington’s dedicated greenhouses.
The Choto family’s Los Angeles-area greenhouse was built during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been a labor of love filled with plants they also sell.
Brittany Montero and her brother, Jose, reconnected through their shared love for plants. Then they turned a 300-square-foot shop into a lush plant oasis.
Taylor Lindsey connects L.A. to urban farming practices through the Plant Plug, her South Los Angeles nursery and garden. She also hosts monthly gardening workshops.
Barbara Chung fell in love with native plants, but she didn’t have a yard. So she created a habitat garden in pots on her tiny townhouse patio in Santa Monica.
The Plant Chica provides an inclusive space offering poetry open mics, painting nights and children’s book readings in Los Angeles.
Plants sustained Genea Richardson in prison and led to a job after she got out. She now trains formerly incarcerated people to work in landscaping.
Jennifer Aragon infuses the Green Place in Fullerton with homey touches that tap into her Hawaiian, Filipino and Spanish roots.
Run by three siblings, Semilla has become a community gathering place in downtown Fullerton.
Says Louis Easton, aka the Plant Mon: “In the Black community, if you say you work like a Jamaican, it means you wear many hats. And that’s me.”
Physical therapist Terry Richardson, aka the Black Thumb, tends humans by day and rescues orchids by night. He can show you how to keep your orchids alive.
Pasadena Roots, a family-run mobile plant shop, spreads joy on the streets of L.A.
Once the storage room of Torung, a Thai restaurant in Hollywood, Stuff has become a plant shop for Los Angeles creatives.
Brandy Williams is an artistic landscaper who paints with plants — one luscious succulent at a time — through her business Garden Butterfly.
Even when baseball isn’t in season, Dodger Stadium is open for visitors to its botanic garden filled with drought-tolerant plants.
After working 60 hours a week, Sasha Pace was burned out. Then she opened a plant shop in Long Beach.
Gabe Verduzco is the surfing “garden bro” working to save SoCal’s urban forests, one invasive beetle hole at a time.
How Yuko Watanabe’s plant-filled restaurants became L.A.’s most comforting places to eat.
Juan and Susan Sanchez run a plant shop that employs people with special needs, like their teenage daughter. Their mission is spelled out on their awning: Thriving through flowers
At Pippi + Lola plant studio in Long Beach, Dynelly del Valle strives to amplify women and BIPOC vendors and artists. “There are all these talented women out here,” she says. “Why not show their work?”
Tammy Ha sold rare plants for fun at her family’s water store in Santa Ana. Now she has two plant stores of her own.
Forget low-maintenance pothos and trendy fiddle-leaf figs. Yunice Kang’s plant designs will dazzle you like works of art in a museum.
TikTok’s Black forager Alexis Nikole Nelson and Instagram gardener Kamili Bell Hill share how their love for plants connects to Black joy. Plus: Their most joyful plant picks.
At one time, Mipa Shin roomed with more than 100 houseplants in her Koreatown apartment. She now creates ceramic planters to ‘dress up’ plants in the garage of her Cypress Park home.
The designer and author is known for her bohemian decorating sense, with a strong emphasis on plants as a living and ever-changing part of the home environment.
Jon Perdomo and Jerrilyn Peralta are an L.A.-based couple who have decided to take their houseplant passion to the next level.
Plant Creative Co. sells handmade macramé plant hangers along with locally sourced plants in Highland Park.
“I’m discovering who I am in my new garden,” says Chantal Aida Gordon, co-founder of the Horticult and co-author of “How to Windowbox.”
Inspired by her grandparents’ fruit-filled tea garden in Iran, Sorina Vaziri started a grass-roots movement to improve and increase the number of public parks in L.A.’s Mid-City neighborhood.
Jasmine Nicole cofounded the Nice Plant with a mission to show young people of color the importance of self-care and mindfulness through plant care.
To celebrate Plant PPL’s first year, we asked 20 plant parents, gardeners and plant shop owners from our L.A. Times series for their best advice for growing happy, healthy plants.
Through a collaboration with Las Fotos Project, a Boyle Heights nonprofit, we partnered with nine high school students to work on mini Plant PPL profiles.
Meet La Nola Smith, founder of South Central Succs, a succulent arrangement business in L.A.’s Leimert Park Village that has become a community hub.
Meet Sheryl Calipusan Ung, Janessa Molina Maquindang and Melissa Limbago, the Filipina American cousins behind L.A.’s effortlessly cool FlyPlant Shop.
Founders of Ol’ Dirty Planters Karissa Allen and Justin Cox repurpose basketballs into chic planters. Their products land firmly at the intersection of basketball culture and horticulture — sporticulture, if you will.
Siri Lorece Hirth turned the front lawn of her Tiny House rental into a densely planted micro-farm.
Artist Nelson ZêPequéno founded @blackmenwithgardens, an Instagram community that amplifies the voices and stories of Black men who garden and care for and enjoy plants.
Indigenous cultural and plant educator Nicholas Hummingbird is on a mission to spread his knowledge of native plants through the traditional and ongoing knowledge of Indigenous peoples.
Jamiah Hargins wants microfarms to feed Los Angeles one frontyard at a time.
Meadow Carder-Vindel knows the healing effects of gardening firsthand. That’s why she opens her Mount Washington garden to others.
When Shawna Christian turned 50, she left her IT job and invested all her money in Tansy, a Burbank plant store. Then the pandemic hit.
Courtney Warwick amplifies people of color and fashion in the plant community. You may know her from her ‘I Rap to My Plants’ merch or photo series ‘Sneakers and Plants.’
Known as “Mallory With the Flowers’’ on Instagram, Mallory Browne has virtually documented her journey as a self-taught florist.
Maria Luz Lopez sold houseplants out of her car in the 1980s, trying to support her three young children. But when she got fined for selling on the street she took the advice of the officer who cited her, bought a vacant lot in South Park and created Avalon Nursery & Ceramics, South Los Angeles’ only enduring nursery.
In South Los Angeles, where it is easier to find fast food than an apple, master gardener Florence Nishida is on a mission to teach the community how to grow their own food. “There’s a lot more than peas and carrots,” Nishida says.
Graphic designer Nemuel DePaula’s flower truck, Lenita by Grita, has become his lifeline during COVID-19. His motto: ‘Stop and smell the flores.’
Unemployment led her to a dream gig: Floral design that’s not afraid to get political. Alex Floro’s design studio encourages consumers to weaponize their spending power, ensuring that they’re giving their money to businesses that aim to make a difference.
Many Latinx lifestyle brands in Los Angeles are inspired by cultural identity. They are also largely female. Did we miss your favorite? Let us know.
‘I come from nothing.’ From cowboy to corporate manager, Felix Navarro found his niche as a plantsman.
Jamie Renee Williams turned a tiny strip of dirt outside her apartment into an edible garden. You can tour it online during the LA Design Festival.
His East L.A. backyard is mostly concrete, but Ken Sparks has transformed the hardscape into something alive, with chickens, a butterfly garden and organic vegetables.
Following stay-at-home orders, Amorette Brooms pivoted her fashion business to houseplants.
This California-native helped bring “Black Is King” to life. He also runs a floral design studio, a coffee shop and has a new Quibi show.
Plant Man P is an online store, YouTube channel and popular Instagram account with over 14,000 followers.
Farmer Rishi Kumar grows top-tier fruits and offers gardening tips on Instagram: “Gardening is such an important way of connecting with the earth, connecting with ourselves and eating well.”
“As an artist obsessed with plants, it’s natural for plants to seep into my work,” L.A. music producer Mark Redito told us. “I find so much inspiration from them not only from a visual aesthetic standpoint but also from a metaphorical creative standpoint.”
Garden Marcus shares gardening tips and wise words from his garden in Houston. He lives by the motto “kindness, patience and positivity.”
L.A. gardening guru Ron Finley filmed his gardening MasterClass long before the coronavirus and Black Lives Matter protests. But his message is right on time.
A list of our favorite Black plantfluencers, plant stylists, floral artists, enthusiasts, experts, and garden store owners on Instagram.
Christopher Griffin has built an Instagram following of more than 180,000 with an infectious smile and community building through plants.
Andi Xoch, creator of @LatinxWithPlants hosts plant pop-ups on the weekends outside her home in Boyle Heights
