Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Wolf.
Hi Kristen, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Zack and I started City Roots in 2017 as a way to engage more with native plants. He had nursery experience and was currently running a landscaping business where as I was exiting out of a meat distribution business and looking to sell native plants as food. The landscaping business always needed more native plants for designs, so we decided to start growing plants for the landscaping business. We started with a few varieties from seed, realized we really liked growing plants and it took off from there.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
While the business has been fun, we are very tired. For the last few years, we have been running the landscaping business with help from a few friends and the nursery with help here and there from friends and family. I would say our biggest challenge is working long hours 7 days a week during the growing season. Another downside is that nursery work is just like farming: It’s seasonal work, so if your seed crop doesn’t germinate in spring for some reason, you have to wait an entire year to learn from and fix your mistake. We grow over 200 species of plants, so we also have trouble learning how to care for more delicate species of plants. We have definitely lost a few crops of species along the way.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a native plant nursery that specializes in plants from Missouri and Kansas. These plants provide habitat and food for wildlife such as butterflies, birds, and other pollinators. We grow all of our plants as organically as possible while still supporting local suppliers. We don’t use any herbicides, pesticides, or peat moss. All of our plants are grown on in the Ivanhoe neighborhood, where we are a member of the Ivanhoe farmers market and the Woodland Greenway initiative. Our retail space, which is open from March-October every year and has a display garden of native plants that have particularly stunning landscape value. The garden is a place to learn, relax and find ideas for your own native landscapes.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
For anyone just starting out, I would say stay focused, do your research, and prepare yourself for some very long hours ahead.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.cityrootsnursery.com
- Instagram: @cityrootsnursery
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CityRootsNursery
Image Credits
Zachary Herrmann
