These niche plant stores offer foliage of various textures and colors, along with the expertise to find the right one for your home.
by Rachel Simon | photography by Liz Condo
Whether you have a green thumb or don’t know a fern from a fiddle-leaf, it’s never a bad idea to add some beautiful plants into your home. “Plants elevate your space by adding pops of joy and brightness,” according to Will Lin, who with his wife Julie co-owns Green Rabbit Plants.
The Lins are among a handful of local boutique plant store owners that pride themselves on turning choosing a houseplant into more than just a shopping trip. “When our customers need help selecting the perfect plant, we ask a lot of questions to ensure that they’re going to bring home something that will thrive,” says Anna Grace FitzGerald, founder and owner of Copperline Plant Co.
“Each time someone walks through our door, the hope is not that they buy something, but that they learn something.” To that end, these stores often host classes, encourage guests to linger with a beverage or even invite folks to come by at for fun events like yoga, terrarium-building or a plant-centric book club. If you’re in the market for something green inside your home, consider popping into one of these shops.
Urban Pothos Houseplant Shop
Urban Pothos Houseplant Shop opened its doors on W. Peace Street three years ago, and earlier this year, it added a second location in Raleigh Iron Works. Beneath soaring ceilings, dozens of wooden shelves are chock-full of vibrantly colored plants and accessories. “The first thing people notice is how much space we have here,” says founder Jose Harvey. He says longtime fans will find the new shop “minimalist” compared to the comfortably crowded Peace Street store, but that he used the same signature yellow furnishings from the first store “to pull in those vibes.”
At Urban Pothos, guests can enjoy unique features like a Soil Bar, in which they can sift through drawers of various potting mixes like perlite, coir and charcoal to create their own combination. Customers can also take advantage of the shop’s repotting service, which gets old plants into new containers, and a DIY terrarium-building experience. “One of our main goals is to foster community through a shared love of houseplants,” says Harvey.
Harvey’s favorite plant right now: The Monstera Esqueleto, for its wild, lace-like leaves that “remind people of a skeleton, which is where its name comes from; esqueleto means skeleton in Spanish,” he says.
714 W. Peace Street or 1101 E. Whitaker Mill Road; urbanpothoshouseplantshopnc.com
Green Rabbit Plants
A recent arrival to the North Hills Innovation District, Green Rabbit is the brainchild of co-owners and founders Will and Julie Lin, who previously worked as strategy and general management consultants. After starting as a pop-up in North Hills, Green Rabbit is now a cozy, inviting shop that specializes in terra cotta planters and unusual cacti. They also provide free and ticketed monthly events and workshops for newbies and experts alike, like plant mounting and even cookie-decorating classes. “Our aim is to make life beautiful through living décor,” says Julie. Green Rabbit offers free in-store potting services, complete with refreshments. “When customers check out, they can have a seat at our potting bar where they can sit back, relax and chitchat with us while they have a complimentary drink while we pot their plant for them,” says Will, noting that they’ll have rotating, seasonally curated options ranging from cold brews to bourbons.
Julie’s favorite plant right now: Philodendron Micans “because they’re an easy-to-care-for, low-maintenance plant that gives a moody yet sophisticated touch to any space,” she says. “I love how their velvety leaves trail down beautifully from any bookshelf or mantle.”
Will’s favorite plant right now: Variegated Epipremnum Pinnatum, for the “elevated touch it offers with its fenestrations and white and green marbling.”
540 St. Albans Drive; greenrabbitplants.com
Copperline Plant Co.
Founded by Anna Grace FitzGerald in the spring of 2021, Copperline Plant Co. has spent the last few years transforming from a tiny pop-up to a major in-person destination. It recently moved into a large, window-filled corner location that’s filled with indoor plants of all varieties. In addition to selling plants, Copperline offers consultations, classes on subjects like repotting and plant crafting, community plant swaps, and other plant care services. “In 2023 alone, we made over 56 housecalls and in-home consultations, hosted 26 different classes, and helped nearly 2,000 new individuals with their plants in the shop,” says FitzGerald. The store also partners with local businesses to hold plant-adjacent activities like candle-making, macramé hanger tutorials and yoga, and launched a book club in 2022 with picks that loosely revolve around plants.
Despite growing as a business, the company prides itself on its close relationships. “We know our customers by name, we know their dogs by name and we are continually floored by how lucky we are that our shop is so many people’s ‘happy place,’” says FitzGerald.
FitzGerald’s favorite plant right now: Philodendron Brasil, for its “chartreuse-
colored leaves and vibrant stripes of lime green throughout,” she says. “It’s also a really easy plant to care for and is readily available, so you can enjoy uniquely variegated leaves without breaking the bank.”
23 W. Hargett Street; copperlineplants.com
This article originally appeared in the May 2024 issue of WALTER magazine.
