I STARTED AS A PLANT RESCUER. NOW I GROW ANTHURIUMS. HERE'S HOW THAT HAPPENED.

South Florida, 2020. A congratulations plant arrangement, a pandemic, and a snake plant that survived everything I put it through.

That's where this started.

Anthurium clarinevium | the og

I grew up in South Florida, but South Carolina is home. I'd moved back to Florida for a new job, and on my first day, someone gave me a plant arrangement to celebrate. A few weeks later the offices shut down for COVID and I took it home. The plants outgrew the container fast. I separated and repotted them, and managed to keep exactly one alive. The snake plant. She's still with me.

From there I got predictable. Home Depot clearance racks. Lowes on a Tuesday. I was the person who pocketed a node when she learned you could propagate in water, who drove down to Homestead just to walk through nurseries on a weekend. My budget was maybe $20. My eyes were bigger than my wallet.

Then I found Perfect Choice Nursery, ten minutes from where I lived in Weston. They had a room, an actual aroid greenhouse built like a tropical jungle, complete with a waterfall. I walked in and immediately understood why people lost their minds over these plants. I also looked at the price tags and walked back out. I wasn't there yet.

But the idea of them stayed with me.

In 2024, I came back to South Carolina, home, with a U-Haul full of houseplants and an anthurium problem I hadn't fully accounted for. Within weeks, I found my first anthurium, a clarinervium. She's still in my collection. She's the OG.

Then I found Palmstreet, and that was it. One Ikea cabinet became two stacked Rudsta cabinets. Then a grow tent in the garage. The collection got bigger, then more intentional. My taste refined. I knew I was a goner when I started attending plant shows, the Big Plant Expo in 2024, then the International Aroid Society show that September. A career pivot last year gave me the time to go all in, and I did.

Now I know exactly what I'm looking for. Flat sinus. Dark foliage with minimal veining, or the opposite extreme, dramatic crystal veins on something moody and deep. I'm building toward a breeding program, working toward my own crosses, growing plants that will eventually become mother plants.

This spring I was back at the Big Plant Expo and bought plants from Perfect Choice, the same nursery with the waterfall room. I stood in that aroid greenhouse, this time on the other side of the price tags, and thought about the person who walked out empty-handed five years ago. She had no idea what was coming.

FROM CLEARANCE RACKS TO COLLECTOR PLANTS.

ABOUT ME

"Then I found Perfect Choice Nursery in Weston. An actual aroid greenhouse built like a tropical jungle, complete with a waterfall. I looked at the price tags and walked back out. I wasn't there yet."

THE VALUES BEHIND MY BRAND

NO GATEKEEPING

Ornate wrought iron gate with decorative circular patterns.
Ornate wrought iron gate with decorative circular patterns.
An open book sitting on top of a lush green field
An open book sitting on top of a lush green field

I was on the outside of this world for a long time. Rare plants felt like a club with a cover charge. That's not what I'm running here. Same information, honest prices, no intimidation.

EDUCATION FIRST

The guides come before any sale. If you learn something useful here and never buy a plant from me, that's fine.

COMMUNITY OVER EVERYTHING

I show up at local expos, run Palmstreet lives with real interaction, and share the unglamorous side of collecting.

what this is about

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© 2026 Grown with love in South Carolina