Fern & Fig Find my plant
Inside now
74°F
Humidity
68%
Next mist
11:00

Plant shop & 1924 glasshouse · Carytown, Richmond

Grownunderglass.Matched to your room.

Four hundred tropicals, ferns and figs, raised in a century-old greenhouse and sent home with care notes written for your windows, your schedule and your cat.

Find my plantBrowse the bench

Plant of the month · November

Watch a monstera learn to split.

Young monsteras grow plain, heart-shaped leaves. Give one a moss pole and a bright window and every new leaf comes in bigger, then notched, then split toward the midrib, then full of windows. Botanists still argue about why. You can just enjoy it.

$68$58

Monstera deliciosa on a 30-inch moss pole, in a 10-inch celadon pot. November price, plus a free repot any time in the next year.

Hold one at the counter

The bench · restocked Tuesdays

Ten plants we'd vouch for.

Every plant lives in our glasshouse for at least three weeks before it goes home, so it's already used to indoor light. Prices include a care card and the pot shown. Glazed pots on their own start at $14.

Showing all 10 plants

Plant matchmaker

Which plant suits your room?

Three questions. One plant that will actually thrive where you'll put it, with care notes written for how you live. It's the same chat we have at the counter, minus the wait.

01How much light reaches the spot?
02Be honest about watering.
03Anyone at home who chews leaves?

Your match

Snake plant 'Laurentii'

Dracaena trifasciata

It stores water in its leaves and grows in light most plants would sulk in, so a dim corner and a forgetful owner suit it fine.

Light
Anything from a dim hallway to a sunny sill. Growth is faster in brighter light.
Water
Every 2–3 weeks in summer, monthly in winter, and only when the soil is dry all the way down.
Air
Doesn't care. Dry winter heat is fine.
Feed
Twice a year, in spring and midsummer.
Watch
Soft, mushy leaf bases mean too much water. Let it dry out and repot into gritty mix.
Pets
Mildly toxic to cats and dogs.

$388″ fig-glaze potRunner-up: Cast-iron plant

Classes in the glasshouse

Dirt under your nails, Saturday mornings.

Small classes at the long potting bench, twelve people at most. Soil, tools, aprons and coffee are on us; you take home whatever you make.

Taught by Bettye Tolliver, our head grower, and Clement Pryce, who runs the repotting bench.

  1. Repotting 101

    Bring one plant in a pot up to 10 inches. We'll read the roots together, choose the right mix, size up properly, and you'll leave with a plant that won't need you again until spring.

    10:00–11:30 a.m.$354 seats left

  2. The propagation bar

    Snip, dip and root six cuttings (pothos, philodendron, hoya and tradescantia) and carry them home in a row of old apothecary glass. Cider and snacks on the bench.

    6:30–8:00 p.m.$409 seats left

  3. Kokedama: ferns in moss

    Wrap a fern's roots in soil and sheet moss, bind it with cotton string and hang it in your window. It's the Japanese string garden, and it's easier than it looks.

    10:00 a.m.–noon$552 seats left

  4. Winter-proof your tropicals

    Radiators, short days and dry air: what changes for your plants in December, and what to do about it. Bring photos of your sulkiest plant and we'll diagnose it.

    6:30–8:00 p.m.$2511 seats left

  5. Build a Wardian case

    A little glass greenhouse for your table. We supply the brass-framed case, gravel, charcoal, moss and three small ferns. You bring patience with tweezers.

    1:00–3:30 p.m.$856 seats left

Hold a seat

The repotting bench

Rootbound? Bring it in. We'll do the mess.

Roots circling the pot, water running straight through, a plant that stopped growing in July. Drop it off and pick it up in 48 hours in fresh, house-mixed soil, one size up. We text you a photo of the roots.

  1. 1Old root ball, teased loose so roots grow outward, not in circles.
  2. 2Fresh mix matched to the plant: chunky for aroids, gritty for succulents.
  3. 3One size up: two inches wider, never more, so the soil doesn't stay wet.
  4. 4A drainage hole, always. We'll drill a pot you love if it hasn't got one.
  • Up to 6″ potSucculents, peperomia, small ferns$12
  • 8–10″ potMost monsteras, pothos, calatheas$20
  • 12–14″ potFiddle-leaf figs, big snake plants$32
  • 16″ and floor plantsThe ones you need two people for$48
  • House callWe come to you, city of Richmond, plus the size rate$65

Soil, a root check and a trim are included. Pots aren't; ours start at $14, or bring your own. Plants bought here get their first repot free.

Our house soil, by the quart

Mixed on the bench every Monday. $9 a quart, $28 for a four-quart bag.

Aroid mix

    For monstera, pothos and philodendron

    Fern & calathea mix

      For anything that likes to stay damp

      Gritty mix

        For snake plants, peperomia and cacti

        Visit the glasshouse

        Come stand in the humidity.

        The glasshouse behind the shop was built in 1924 for a Carytown florist and stood empty for eleven years. In 2018 Loretta Gaskins re-glazed it by hand, one pane at a time, restarted the old boiler and filled it with the plants she'd been propagating in her apartment for a decade.

        Walk through the shop and out the back door. It's 74 degrees in there in January.

        “If a plant isn't happy in our glasshouse after three weeks, it doesn't go home with you.”Loretta Gaskins, founder
        Year the glasshouse was built
        1924
        Panes re-glazed by hand
        212
        Plants on the bench today
        418
        Humidity, all year
        68%
        W. CARY STS. BELMONT AVES. SHEPPARD STto Byrd Park Fern & Fig2915 W. Cary St P 2-hr parking

        Hours

        Tuesday–Friday10 a.m.–7 p.m.
        Saturday9 a.m.–6 p.m.
        Sunday11 a.m.–5 p.m.
        MondayClosed for watering

        Open Tuesday to Sunday

        Find us

        2915 W. Cary Street
        Carytown, Richmond, VA 23221

        (555) 019-3346
        [email protected]

        Free two-hour parking on the side streets. The glasshouse is straight through the shop.