Meet the Retailers: Your House Plants

North Somerset is home to many wonderful and unique businesses and organisations. This month, we’re delighted to introduce YourHousePlants

How did YourHousePlants start and how has it developed?

It was during the lockdown of 2020 when we [Sean and Deanna Swords and David Rickett] decided to found the business.

Each of us has over thirty years of experience in the horticultural business, with a speciality for houseplants, and, due to the pandemic, it was the first time ever that we weren’t busy supplying the retail industry nationwide with plants. It gave us headroom to think and the idea for YourHousePlants was born.

It dawned on us that our own town of Weston Super Mare didn’t have a specialist retail shop for all things houseplants, so we began by opening a retail shop in our own town centre.

Why did you decide to base yourself in North Somerset?

As mentioned above, we have all worked locally in North Somerset for over 30 years. David grew up in Weston Super Mare, and Sean and Deanna have both been in Weston Super Mare since the 1980s.

What have been your biggest challenges?

COVID was undeniably the greatest challenge, but the ongoing challenge is being able to continue to attract enough customers in to Weston Super Mare town centre, the constant demise of shops and stores nationally is obviously the greatest threat to some of our high streets.

Luckily, we have already established a loyal customer base of plant fans, but if anybody ever asks how long we have been open it usually means that they don`t shop locally. However, once they have discovered us, they tend to become regular customers. From our opening we were surprised to find that we were attracting customers not only from our Weston but from further afield – Bristol to the North and Taunton to the south.

What are your plans for the future?

With our combined experience in the plant trade, including staff training and merchandising, and our ability to access literally thousands of varieties of commercially grown plants from all over Europe, we would like to think that the business model that we have created in Weston-Super-Mare could be replicated anywhere in the country.

As for our Weston Super Mare store we just hope to continue to give our loyal local customers, and the many visitors that Weston still attracts, a little slice of tranquillity and a tropical place to browse and buy quality, affordable plants for their home or office.

Everyone who visits the shop has an encouraging word to say about what we do, these positive remarks make it all worthwhile. Plant people are generally easy going and optimistic, it`s what tends to draw them in to bringing nature in to their homes.

What have been your proudest moments?

We’ve been particularly proud and surprised by the amount of interest and attention that we have had since opening. We have been photographed, filmed, and interviewed by various magazines, newspapers, and online sites, such as this one, and we are genuinely grateful for all of the help and support that we have had.

We’re also proud to be a place that people can visit and unwind. Many people often say they feel better after even a short visit to our shop, thanks to being completely surrounded by nature – something which is scientifically proven to benefit your health and wellbeing.

So remember to please come and pay us a visit.We are open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00 to 5:00

YourHousePlants is open Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 5pm. To find out more, please visit www.yourhouseplants.co