Wow. 2018 has been quite the year for us at Plantables HQ!
But we wanted to kick off this post by thanking you for all of your support over the last year. We really appreciate every message you send us, every like on social media and especially every photo you send us of your plants growing!
🌱 A quick recap 🌱
After opening our (virtual) doors for the first time, sent fruit and veggie plants to the far corners of North America and introduced exciting new varieties of plants.
But it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing. Like any new business, we’ve had a couple of stumbling blocks as we’ve launched our exciting new approach to growing fruits and veggies.
So, we thought we’d look back on everything that’s happened this year, share some behind the scenes details and give you all a little sneak peek at some exciting things in store for 2019…
🌱 Early 2018: Plantables is still a little seedling 🌱
This time last year, Plantables was in the process of growing from an idea into a fully formed business.
We had the logo, we had most of the website built and we’d written a whole of arsenal of plant puns, but there was still lots of work to do.
We still had delivery boxes to prototype and produce (more on that later), videos to make and — of course — lots of happy, healthy plants to grow.
But, after a month or two, we finally crossed the finish line and, on the 12th of February, our site went live.
🌱 From February onwards: Plantables starts to take root 🌱
Even during the first couple of months, we started boxing up and sending garden-ready fruit and veggie plants across North America.
Here’s a happy little one getting stuck into one of our earliest deliveries:
🌱 Then in July: we start shipping herbal tea! 🌱
Let it never be said that we lack ambition here at Plantables. After just a few months of getting our heads around this new business idea — there aren’t very many brands that do what we do anywhere — we thought, why not add something else to the mix too?
Ryan — our resident Plant Whisperer — had just got back from the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas and was giddy with excitement about the idea of helping you (our awesome Plantables customers) grow your own herbal tea from home.
So we got straight to work, experimenting with different flowers and herbs to see which ones grew well, travelled well and — most importantly — tasted awesome.
And, after a little while, the Tea Kit was born. It’s all we’ve been drinking around the office ever since.
🌱 Now, as we’re getting towards the end of the year… 🌱
We’ve got some really exciting plans in the works for the end of 2018 and the build-up to growing season in 2019.
We’ve just launched our school programme to help schools across North America raise money and we’ve added gift certificates to the website so you can give your favourite green-thumb the choice of all of our high-quality, garden-ready fruit and veggie plants.
And next year, we’re adding a tonne of exciting new products. We can’t talk about them all yet (because we’re trying to be all mysterious…) but we can say this: if you’re a fan of spicy foods, Asian cuisine or exotic, exciting plants, you’re in for a treat.
Keep your eyes peeled on social media in the early stages of next year as we start to reveal our new plants, one by one.
🌱But it’s not all been plain sailing…🌱
Remember we mentioned earlier how we spent a long time designing the boxes and testing them?
Well, even after all the testing, extreme conditions and the rough and tumble of their road trip to your front door was still too much for some of the little plants inside, and, sadly, a few of you ended up getting sad and unhealthy plants arrive at your door.
So we got to work designing Plantables boxes version 2.0.
We wanted these boxes to keep your plants 100% safe, sound and happy for their journey from our front door to yours, and we’re happy to announce that — as of next year — we’re going to be sending out our plants in cases specially designed to protect them on the road, so they’ll arrive at your door as healthy as possible (they’ll just need a little drink and time to get used to their new home before they go into the ground).
🌱 What’s next for Plantables? 🌱
Well, aside from the exciting, oh-so-secret details we mentioned earlier, we hope you’re going to be seeing a lot more of us next year.
If you’re a podcast fanatic, you might be hearing our voices and sponsorships through your earphones, if you follow us on social media, expect more behind-the-scenes videos and you might even see a few ads popping up in gardening magazines, seed catalogues and wherever else you guys hang out.
And of course, we’re hoping to keep you all stocked with the highest-quality (and tastiest) fruits and veggies all season long.
We can’t wait to see what 2019 has in store!
Until then, happy planting and a very happy New Year from all of us here at Plantables!
Is there something you want to see us do? A plant you’d love us to grow or a podcast you’d love to hear us on? Let us know in the comments!
