For the love of flora

Henriette Lamprecht – Always fascinated by lush, green tropical forests and large, leafy plants - a passion she shares with her mom - it was during the Covid-19 pandemic and the following worldwide lockdowns that her appreciation for nature and plants was re-ignited. Up to her late thirties, Amorey Pote’s life was consumed by her studies, corporate ambition, and the rat race most people call their daily lives.

“I worked from home, sometimes outside in my garden, which allowed me to find peace and tranquility during a very turbulent time,” says Amorey, who now is the proud owner of Foliage Boutique Nursery, boasting with rare and collectable plants.

While “going down the internet rabbit hole”, Amorey found many gorgeous exotic plants Namibians don’t have access to. Going back and forth quite a bit, she finally found a feasible way to legally import plants for her personal collection. Wanting to share the joy it brought her, she decided to do her first wholesale import.

“Managing the stock and the orders quickly became difficult and I realized I needed to be more organized. I taught myself to build an e-commerce platform on my iPhone at two o'clock in the morning!”

On 3 April 2021, Amorey launched the Foliage Boutique Nursery online store. The platform was a hit in the market, and the demand for exotic plants started growing.

At the time, she was still working from 08:00 to 17:00 in her corporate job, running the online business after hours. This meant many late nights packing plants for couriering, caring for the plants, and managing admin, orders, and supplier research, but Amorey loved every minute of it.

She admits importing plants is a risky business, “because you are dealing with a living thing”.

“I have had many plants arrive dead or destroyed in the shipping process.”

She has also ordered stock that did not sell as well and missed out on some great suppliers due to shipping restrictions.

“This business is trial and error - you have to test what works in our market.”

Namibia’s exotic market is also not as mature and therefore the prices have to be lower than in South Africa, Amorey explains. Admitting she has made some good money, she also invested a lot of capital and lost a lot of money.

“But, with every order and every shipment, you take the lesson and move on.”

The shift from the corporate world to her new, green adventure came at the right time, says Amorey. She had reached a peak in her career and no longer felt the need to prove herself to anyone - professionally or personally. The drive and ambition that pushed her throughout her professional journey seemed to have dissipated. “Corporate politics and drama suffocated my soul and stole my joy. I worked with complex, strategic matters and felt cognitively burnt out. I knew that was not how I wanted to feel every day.”

Working with plants was “such a simple, sensory activity” and gave her brain and body a desperately needed break. Amorey got a glimpse of the joy working with plants gave her, and she wanted more.

“This was the moment I knew I had to have a go at this business, for my own personal health and well-being and for the flexibility that came with not having an eight-to-five job.”

However, this does not mean running your own business is easy - quite the contrary, she says.

Sometimes she works long hours and pretty much seven days a week. But, now and again, she can spontaneously do something fun with her son or just for herself on a random weekday afternoon.

Loving so many plants for very different reasons, she admits it is difficult to pick a favourite. One is the jewel Alocasia - which is very difficult to grow but has the “most intricately interesting and complex leaf structures”.

“Philodendrons are so unassuming and can thrive with very little care, and the varieties are endless, which makes them so fun to collect.” Amorey’s very first most expensive plant was a Monstera albo (white variegated delicious monster) and, because it was her first expensive one, costing from N$2 000 upwards, they remain some of her favourite plants.

“But, with every shipment of plants, I get something new that triggers my fancy and becomes a favourite for a while... until the next shipment comes!”

Plants are complex and there is no magical care recipe, says Amorey. It all depends on the potting medium, the location of the plant in your home, how much airflow there is, etc. A common mistake made by owners is planting an indoor potted plant in garden soil or outdoor potting medium, leading to it not drying out fast enough and the roots rotting due to a lack of oxygen.

Putting heavy stones on top of your potting mix as decoration compacts the soil, also leading to root rot.

Most indoor plants only need to be watered once a week or so - depending on pot size, medium, location, etc.

“If the internet says ‘full sun’, it does not mean full Namibian sun. Very few plants can handle our direct midday sun. Also, most commercial plants are grown in greenhouses, out of direct sunlight, and need to be transitioned slowly to handle the direct sun.”

When re-potting, do not go up more than one or a maximum of two sizes. If a plant is potted in a pot much bigger than the previous one, it will put all its energy into trying to fill the new pot with roots. This stresses the plant and impacts leaf health, explains Amorey. Also, very large pots take a long time to dry out at the bottom, increasing the likelihood of the roots rotting.

Yellowing leaves tend to point to overwatering and the onset of root rot, but sometimes a plant’s oldest leaves turn yellow and fall off just because it is putting energy into new growth.

“Plants are resilient, so don’t fuss too much."

She admits she used to worry about what people thought of her and whether she was good enough at her job or as a friend, amongst others.

“Luckily, with age and hopefully a bit of wisdom, you realise this is not sustainable. I have lost the urge to prove myself to anyone, which has turned me into a more relaxed and content person. I experience joy, peace, excitement, stress, and oneness with nature on a daily basis. This leaves me feeling fulfilled in a way I have never felt before.”

She can’t keep everyone happy, says Amorey.

“That was really the daily feeling in my corporate job. You compromise so much to navigate the corporate world to try and make a difference whilst focusing on business profitability and sustainability. It just felt like a never-ending battle with no end in sight, and I felt like I wasn’t really making a tangible difference.” With so many horrible things going on in the world, being able to brighten someone’s day by offering them one of their wish list plants is just so much simpler and rewarding, she admits. A happy bonus to this journey has been the amazing people she has met along the way, as well as the incredible support from the Namibian plant community.

Serving in many roles - from being the boss to the marketer and the web designer, Amorey gets to teach herself a new skill almost daily.

“Those that know me, know I love to learn new things, figure things out, and be able to do - almost - everything myself.”

We have been conditioned to think that the standard eight-to-five and the security that comes with it is the norm, says Amorey. Although Covid resulted in so much loss and sadness, it was also an incredible social experiment that showed us a different reality.

“My best advice is to hold on to those lessons. Don’t simply ‘go back to normal’. Try incorporating the good that came from a bad situation into your everyday life and make the changes you and your family so desperately need. Life really is short, and we need to spend our time on things that give us meaning and purpose. Do not allow a job or relationship or whatever else to steal your joy, your health, and your peace of mind. It really isn’t worth it in the end.” – www.foliagenam.com; Facebook: Foliage; [email protected]