“People are buying plants now because it fills a void in their lives,” says Blank, who has raised $7.5 million in funding for The Sill since 2017 and is soon adding a storefront in Los Angeles to her two in New York. The Sill markets a collection “easy for beginners” (which can be sent to your home for $35 a month) and offers online classes for newbies like “Watering 101” and “How to Pick a Planter” online for $10. Blank’s online-turned-brick-and-mortar startup, founded in 2012, draws inspiration from women-owned companies like Drybar and Birchbox as opposed to more traditional emporiums like Home Depot. The scaffolding around supporting plant ownership, then, continues to blossom. “It’s something cute to take care of that’s kind of low-risk.”
“We are the Tamagotchi generation,” says Eliza Blank, the 33-year-old founder of Manhattan-based plant store The Sill, referring to the egg-shaped digital pet toy popular in the late ’90s. So while money may not grow on trees, local millennials’ demand for low-maintenance, Instagram-ready plants means there’s ample opportunity for New York’s green thumbs to earn some greenbacks.Īfter all, this cohort is viewed as being wary of long-term responsibility. Tamara Beckwith/NY Postīut it’s not easy to make a garden grow. Health and wellness coach Lauren hired Cutsumpas to fill her Tribeca apartment with a tree, several plants and a microgreen and herb station. Critics have gone as far as to say they’re forgoing traditional milestones like marriage and children to curate photogenic green spaces in their homes. Many millennials, members of the generation born between 1980 and roughly 2000 who have a reputation for being commitment-averse, are opting to raise houseplants.
The 26-year-old Kips Bay resident, who works for Arianna Huffington’s startup Thrive Global, has turned a passion for agriculture - he claims to have grown tomatoes in his apartment with moderate success - into a lucrative side hustle. Nick Cutsumpas calls himself a “plant daddy.”
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