Ornetta Waldron has always loved plants but it is only in recent years that she started a very intimate relationship with them that has now moved from providing a therapeutic outlet for her into a business.
Ornetta and her husband Dwayn can work for hours in their Diamond, East Bank Demerera yard – she said they can go a day without eating – tending to their many plants and deriving the greatest satisfaction from seeing them flourish.
“Growing plants is beneficial to us in more than one way. It is therapeutic, it caresses and expands your knowledge,” the mother of three told Stabroek Weekend in a recent sit down interview.
The plant lover explained that at times they would go online and check up on new plants and “new knowledge unfolds when you discover a new plant. The scientific names can sometimes be long and difficult to pronounce but you are always looking for this unique plant.”
Waldron pointed out that not only do plants beautify the surroundings and purify the air but there are others that actually give oxygen. “You get therapy, you get air freshener, you got colour and of course it also contributes to your financial position. It builds your asset,” she added.
“It is beautiful,” she said of a plant she was sitting next to which is called the whale fin because of the shape of the leaf. Its scientific name is actually sansevieria masoniana.
Waldron and her husband have a registered business called Green Thumbs and at times she is referred to as the ‘cactus lady’.
But while her business is recent, Waldron’s love relationship with plants started when she was a child because both of her parents were into plants.
“I grew up among plants. Mom was into ornamental plants and dad was into vegetables, ground provision and fruit trees. Our yard had about 20-something fruit trees,” she said of the Festival City address where she grew up.
“It followed me. Everywhere I have lived, I have kept plants, more ornamental than vegetable or fruit trees,” she said.
Business
It was in the third year of her social work degree studies that the business idea was birthed. She recalled that as part of their studies they had to teach each other three skills that could be used to generate income. She decided to use plants and later the class had a big exhibition on the University of Guyana’s catwalk, where they displayed their items, which were labelled and priced. In addition to the plants, Waldron also displayed a floral arrangement and mauby drink.
She gave a talk on caring for plants and at the end of the exhibition all of the plants were sold. Her lecturer, Barbara Holder, pointed out that she was good with plants and she should explore starting a Facebook page to sell them.
She followed the advice and in October 2018 they launched the business at the Green Expo and the following year it was registered.
“We mainly started with cactus and succulents but since then we have been adding other plants. We have been building our collection,” she said.
She was high in praise of her husband, who is self-employed. She worked and studied so often it was he who tended to the plants and transplanted them. Now, on the weekends and holidays, Waldron said they would propagate, repot and transplant.
The couple not only find the process of growing plants therapeutic, but they are also happy that it can generate additional income. But she was quick to add, “we just love it, we love plants. Sometimes when we go outside in the morning at 5 am we would not come back inside until about 8 pm… when mosquitos chase us in. We would just go into the house for something to drink or use the bathroom but we would go the entire day without eating and it is only at night when we would have had our baths that we would realize how hungry we are,” Waldron said laughing.
Faith
For the Waldrons, what started out as a hobby has evolved into a business. According to Waldron what is paramount to their business is their faith as many customers would ask why they sell their plants cheaply.
“… For us, you can plant so much and how you want but it is God who makes them grow and it is based on that philosophy that our plants will always be affordable,” she added.
She added that they always believe that the plants will grow, and their faith is exercised daily even when they have pests. And while many people are into the plant business, Waldron believes that the competition is good since there is room for everyone. She explained that customers would order a specific plant but as soon as they get new ones, they would also order those as well.
And now like many people around the world, Waldron, who is employed with an international agency, is working from home and she finds her plants are a great source of joy in the now imposed quarantine life because of COVID-19.
While she is now completing a Master’s Degree in social work, Waldron said she has never worked in the public sector field of social work but has done so with a religious organisation. Her working life has been spent in administration, but she believes in building genuine relationships that transcend age, gender and class.
Waldron said she is embracing self-isolation life and the mornings can find her outside tending to her plants. Her small plants, she said, are like babies who have to be given extra care.
“I talk to my plants. I sing to my plants. I kiss them, and I tell them they are beautiful,” she said, probably sharing the secret of her flourishing plant business.
Her husband, she said, also talks to the plants and they often mix their own soil to suit an individual plant with the help of the internet and this can result in the plants growing much faster.
“We have about 100 cacti and succulents,” she said, in addition to the other plants they grow.
Customers order plants online and persons in the neighbourhood would purchase but the big business really comes from exhibitions. The plants are labelled, and customers are told how to take care of them and there are many times when the couple exchange plants if a customer found it difficult in caring for them.
“We encourage them to call if they have any problem with the plant,” Waldron said sharing the experience of woman who was given one of their plants as a gift and she later contacted them and ask them to help her to care for the plant, which she had given a name. Waldron said she took the plant, gave it a new pot with new soil and returned it to the customer and it is now thriving.
During the interview, Waldron indicated that she was looking forward to the four-day weekend, which started on Friday and ends tomorrow, as she would not have to be in the range of her laptop for work purposes and instead would be with her plants.
She encouraged persons to turn to plants or something that they find joy in as they go through the mandatory social distancing.
