Before there was Plant Gallery, there was a ZZ plant.

In 2024, Julian gave me a ZZ plant for my birthday.

That was it.

I didn’t have some grand plan to start a plant business. I didn’t know that one plant would turn into me wanting to learn about another one…and another one…and apparently another 250 after that. 😂

It started pretty simply. Visiting plant shops. Learning alongside friends. Our weekly “plant therapy” sessions. Experimenting with terrariums, mounted pieces and different ways of bringing plants into the spaces around me.

Then I discovered the collector side of plants.

Rare species. Anthuriums. Hybrids. Plants I had never seen sitting in a normal garden center. I found Palmstreet, growers and specialty shops around the country, and suddenly I wasn’t just decorating with plants anymore. I was collecting them.

And somewhere in all of that, an idea started forming.

Over the last two years I’ve learned how to mix my own growing media, propagate, pollinate and grow plants from seed. I’ve added grow lights, humidifiers, shelves and equipment all over my apartment. I’ve killed plants. A lot of plants. 😂 I’ve spent entirely too much money, changed things that didn’t work, learned from people who knew far more than I did, and kept going.

My once very specifically curated Harlem apartment slowly transformed into an art-inspired botanical greenhouse that I just happen to live in.

And quietly, while the collection continued growing, I started building something around it.

A name.

An identity.

Packaging.

A website.

A way of sharing some of the plants and experiences I’ve fallen in love with.

Plant Gallery.

Today I’m incredibly proud to say that after a lot of work, time, money, learning, second-guessing and probably a little insanity, Plant Gallery is officially live.

It’s an extension of ARTBYJCON and, in many ways, another expression of the same thing I’ve always loved doing - creating a world around the things that inspire me.

Except this time, the art is alive.

Thank you to everybody who has contributed to this journey in big ways and small ones. The people who visited plant shops with me, sat around my kitchen making things, answered my endless plant questions, bought something, encouraged an idea, shared a post or simply watched this apartment become increasingly impossible to walk through. 😂🫶🏾

This is only the beginning.

Welcome to Plant Gallery.

Curated in Harlem, NYC.

The Gallery is now open...