Remington’s B.Willow has nurtured plants, and plant lovers, for almost a decade

The sections of shelved tropical and desert plants against exposed brick and sun-soaked stained-glass windows are a far cry from the start of B.Willow.

B.Willow owner Liz Vayda, 39, started nurturing the budding idea of the houseplant boutique four years before it opened in 2017 in Baltimore’s Remington neighborhood. To get her business going in a previously derelict building, she took out a small-business loan and picked up fixtures from local thrift stores. For a while she didn’t quit her day jobs, which meant working in restaurants and as a nanny.

“I’ve always been a super hard worker and, to my detriment, that really kind of hurt me in the beginning because I didn’t even conceptualize the idea of a day off,” Vayda said.

Vayda, who once lived in Remington but now lives in the Hampden area, wouldn’t call herself a lifelong plant person, and her studies aren’t rooted in that industry either.

She has a master’s degree in environmental science from the Johns Hopkins University and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Vayda has always enjoyed the outdoors and thought her career would lead her to environmental stewardship.

“I‘ve always been really fascinated by the impact of nature on our brains and bodies and how it makes us feel,” Vayda said.

Her fascination with indoor plants began after college, when she was assisting someone whose company seasonally worked on rooftop deck plantings and she noticed an assortment of beautiful succulents and air plants in a client’s home.

She decided to start B.Willow to foster people’s connection to nature and engage their senses with it.

Today, she and her team are building the shop’s home-visit services, hands-on classes and other offerings to keep people engaged and coming back for more than just a new plant. Visitors can reserve the DIY terrarium table, bring a plant to repot during a sidewalk session, or rent plants for special occasions.

Is B.Willow your way of giving people a sensory experience with plants?

I was not finding environmental work that felt like the right fit for me. I was spending a lot of time thrifting. I would go thrifting for interesting containers. Maybe people would want to buy those for their house. And maybe that’s an interesting way to get people engaging with nature, just literally having more plants in their homes.

Now it’s not such a novel idea, but there weren’t any boutique plant shops or people doing workshops or talking about this really in 2013 or 2014. So I really did feel like I might be onto something.

What is something you wish more people knew about this industry?

The most immediate direction my brain goes is the environmental side of it. Nowadays, I think people are a lot more aware of how their food is grown. More people are much more attuned to that these days, and with plants, it’s the same deal.

When they’re grown, plants are pumped with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. But there’s definitely been a change in the industry. You’re seeing more and more beneficial insects being incorporated for pest management.

I do my best to make people aware of why it is important to know how to take care of your plants, how to ask the right questions. That should be standard in the industry for other plant shops.

What have been challenges to running a small business in Baltimore?

Something that has come up in conversations with other small-business owners has been what it looks to kind of plateau in Baltimore, and how to really continue to grow in Baltimore.

It does feel like we’ve kind of plateaued. Our sales have been the same every year, which is good. We’re working our asses off to maintain, but we need to grow, right?

You have to continuously reinvent and pivot and add. It’s just not enough to be like, “I have like a wonderful shoe store, and people come in and buy my shoes!”

What changes have you noticed in people’s relationship with plants over the last decade?

COVID really did create almost like a mass hysteria about plants. That’s where you really started to see way more people on social media getting really into it. There was a huge spike. I’ve talked to lots of other plant shops — they’ve all experienced the same thing. People wanted their homes to be more relaxing and a nicer place to work out of. That was definitely a peak for sales for us and for a lot of other plant shops, and that also drove consumer knowledge.

What’s the appeal of having a small business in Baltimore?

I think the redeeming factor, and why I still do it despite not having the goals met that I’ve had for myself, is the community and the support. At any given time, I can reach out to a slew of different people to bounce ideas off of them.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.