Spring is coming, and with the weather warming and stores opening up in Burbank, finding a plant and gardening shop is easier than ever.
Officially opening in December of 2020, Alma Stockfish started her business called Burbank Garden Shop. Alma is a proud homeowner and resident of Burbank. Burbank Garden Shop was inspired by the garden victory boxes that Alma and her father made for their friends and family during the lockdown. She realized that once these little gardens were handed out, some people did not know how to take care of them, and Alma started coaching them virtually on how to take care of their plants so that they would thrive.
Alma has created a virtual boutique that offers virtual shopping, plant consultations, and plant repotting sessions. She has also made connections with nurseries and can pass along great savings to her customers. Each plant she sells comes with plant care instructions and a zoom call so that Alma can help customers with where to put the plant and how to water it. Her specialties are the virtual coaching calls with the customers. These calls help to teach people how to correctly take care of their plants or help with maintenance and rehabilitation of plants that have not been taken care of.
I enjoyed finding and looking through the Burbank Garden Shop. I grow lots of plants throughout the year, and when spring comes around its always fun to grow my small collection. But I in no way know how to take care of every plant, or even know what some plants I was gifted are, so being able to make an appointment and ask what to do for some succulents or for a cathedra would have probably helped save some of my plants in the past.
Alma offers a lot of online services because she started her business during a particularly hard time. Everything that is sold has a simmering period and is then wiped down and sent off. The main focus of creating Burbank Garden Shop was to create a business that was virtual and contactless. As the business grew and COVID restrictions changed, it is going to be possible to sell in products in person. Alma is now looking forward to meeting and helping customer sin person. She currently works with realtors to provide plant staging for open houses, and is planning and finalizing details on a co-shared boutique store front in Los Angeles.
