About

Hi! I'm JP, co-founder of Cal Plants.

True story: For a long time, although I appreciated the beauty of house plants, I gave up on them after each and every one of them died under my care.

Everything changed when I moved to a house where the previous owners were clearly plant lovers. Because they had so many, they left quite a few for me to enjoy. Vowing not to kill all of them, I hit up the library and got to studying. In just a short time, I realized that although there is no limit to plant knowledge, a few fundamentals can get you really far when it comes to plant care.

With that realization, I started taking better care of the plants they left and also started adding to my plant collection, which brings me joy every day.

However! House plant shopping was not always fun.

The local shops only carried a few of the usual collection, so I turned to online shops. Although I did have a couple of good experiences, most were unpleasant. Some online shop prices were marked up very high, some plants arrived dead, and some plants were a lot smaller than I had expected.

Could I provide a better online plant shopping experience?

After extensive research, the answer was yes! And that's how Cal Plants was born.

Here's how we're different:

Quality plants. The utmost care goes into these plants, which are grown in a professional greenhouse setting. Even though Cal Plants was just launched in year 2023, the nursery managers have been in this industry for decades and have a wealth of knowledge that only comes with experience. Also, the plant sizes follow the average industry standard. We're not going to send you a teeny tiny plant with barely any roots (unless maybe they're meant to be a teeny tiny air plant?).

Fair prices. Many plants online are marked up at very high prices to make up for the money the sellers spend on advertising or marketplace fees, such as for Etsy shops or Instagram advertising. We're running an experiment to see if we can be a viable business with minimal marketing spend. Also, we ship directly from the greenhouse to your home, thus saving on extra retail costs. Having said all of this, we do have operating fees and want everyone to be paid fairly, so we have a small markup, but our priority is to keep costs low and pass on these savings to you.

Professional shipping. We take pride in ensuring that the plants you receive are as good quality as if you purchased directly from the greenhouse. The nursery team selectively picks the plants at the greenhouse before carefully packing in custom boxes for a healthy plant delivered. Each plant is securely placed in a cardboard sleeve for protection. The entire packaging process is based on extensive experience and training. Also, we have a shipping guarantee to ensure that your order is accurate and the plants are healthy.

Wow, if you've read this far, please give yourself pat on the back :) If you have any questions, please feel free to email (preferable) or call us.

Thank you for supporting small business!