Flora Grubb has mojo
I knew Flora when she was an unemployed dot com dropout.
Back in 2001 she was really struggling. Couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do next, whether it was another tech job or something she hadn’t thought of. You could tell she was something special, that the wheels were spinning in her head. But it hadn’t congealed into a recognizable shape yet.
It didn’t take her long to go back to her roots. She was doing landscape work a few months after losing her job, a job she’d done before coming to the Bay Area. She wasn’t sure she’d be doing it for long, but it was a comfortable old friend, this gardening business. A few more months went by and she’d met Saul, who became her business partner, then the opening of Geurrero Street Gardens. It was then that we all got a glimmer of the visionary that Flora is.
It’s not just that she has a unique perspective on garden design and landscaping. She does, from her heavy bias towards non-flowering succulents and other hardy plants to her eye for alternative materials. What really struck me then was how thoroughly she’d engaged the richly talented people around her, many of which were distinct talents in themselves. And also, her complete willingness to reject the oppressive conventions of her industry to create something special.
Her company, now renamed Flora Grubb Gardens, has just opened a phenomenal new facility which is an order of magnitude or two bigger and more impressive than her last joint. But it has the same DNA, imbued by her wholly unique vision. It comes through in everything she does, from the architecture (recycled, innovative, surprising), to the plants (a distinct array of native and exotics), to the embedded cafe (Ritual Roasters) that turns the design area into a social/creative/play space. The opening party also roped in the same carnivalesque cast of characters that made Geurrero Street so much fun. There was Cyclecide’s Bike Rodeo, clowns, djs, and an accordianist. It made the place feel less like a landscape design store and more like the home of a wealthy local eccentric with a fanatical passion for plants.
Flora is my kind of entrepreneur, and her brilliant career celebrates the kind of retail that is above all a personal statement. A big, shiny new building (solar powered!) is the cherry on top.
Flora Grubb Gardens from Thor on Vimeo