Shops / plants
‘Having green fingers isn’t just a thing – it’s all learnt’
Growing up in a small house in Liverpool, Jessy Edgar never had access to a big garden, just a little yard with a bit of limited sunlight.
Trying (and failing) to grow vegetables there, she cherishes memories of visiting her grandparents’ more expansive green spaces where her fascination with nurturing plants took root.
At university, she remembers filling her third-year bedroom with greenery. The 33-year-old still has a peace lily that her Nan gave her almost a decade and a half ago.
Jessy is the founder of Sprouts of Bristol, an independent plant and lifestyle shop offering houseplants, pots, terrarium kits and sustainable homeware with a strong focus on supporting other local UK makers and ethical practices.
Her aim is to bring the joy of caring for houseplants to customers living in small spaces.
With the original shop in Kingsdown and a new warehouse in Bedminster, it’s a small business empire she has proudly built from scratch after feelings of burnout from the nine-to-five grind as a graphic designer sparked her decision to change her career five years ago.
“The exhaustion of working through a global pandemic without having any say in what we can and can’t do and very much being dictated by our employers made us feel like we should search for something else,” Jessy told Bristol24/7.
“I had had quite a few different ideas of starting my own business, but this idea just stuck.”
Sprouts of Bristol opened their first store in a former fish and chip shop on Kingsdown Parade in 2020 – photo: Yuup
Indoor plant sales have been booming for the last few years as a result of urbanisation, interior design trends and a desire to have something to nurture and care for.
The story was no different in Bristol: the market was ripe, and in September 2020, Sprouts of Bristol was launched.
In the early days, life consisted of Jessy and her husband selling plants online and delivering them around the city in their car while they were furloughed from their day jobs. They advertised by telling friends and posting on Facebook groups.
“Amazingly, it was purely word of mouth,” she remembers.
A year later, Jessy quit her job, and she opened a shop on Kingsdown Parade.
Looking back, Jessy says: “It was a big moment when we did our first plant order from Dutch auctions. When you add something to your basket, you can’t remove it, so I put the £2,000 order on my credit card.
“It was a big, scary leap, but because we’ve never really had big savings, there was less to lose.”
Sprouts of Bristol hosts a number of different workshops – photo: Yuup
What are Jessy’s top tips for looking after houseplants?
“I don’t think having green fingers is a thing – it’s all learnt,” she says.
“Sometimes the concept can put people off. I’ve got ADHD, and that means I can really love stuff, and then I’ll just ignore it.
“Quite a lot of plants just want to be left alone, so I think that’s just worked for me.
“In the wild, plans get whatever the environment throws at them, and I think people often forget that. Has anyone got time for watering daily? I doubt it!”
Five years on from launching, to meet growing demand, the brand recently took on a warehouse space in Willway Yard in Bedminster to help stock more products, process orders faster and host meetings and events.
It’s a big move, but the vision of the business remains the same as the beginning: to provide relief from hectic city life and help people connect with nature in their homes no matter how small – one pot plant at a time.
Main photo: Sprouts of Bristol
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