FRONDERE PLANTS
(frondere: to be in leaf)
Connecting People to Plants
We are passionate about plants, but more so about the environment, customer care and our community. We offer quality plants and products, some of which are handmade in store, exceptional customer care, personal service and advice. The goal of the business for the future is to engage with the community on a much wider basis, employing more people from sectors of society that find it harder to get work, and working with local schools to educate children and encourage the next generation of horticulturists.
Our shop is local and part of the community and that's how we like it. Our ethos is built around community and education. We have donated plants to charities to brighten shelter gardens, sponsored the local football team and animal charities, and work with the local school to help educated the children.
As the business grows we aim to employee people from the local area that might otherwise struggle to find meaningful employment, like ex-offenders and those with special needs.
How we Work with the Community
HOW IT ALL STARTED
I've always loved gardening and nature, even as a child. Plants have always been my thing. I started making terrariums back in 2018 after seeing them on Pinterest for the first time. After doing a few trade shows I started selling a small selection of plants as well, and then covid hit. During this time I was able to sell and deliver garden plants to customers across Suffolk and the shop was borne! I opened a small shop at home and traded there for a year before securing some land. The shop is now a fully fledged plant centre with a small cafe, set in a marina overlooking the water.
The shop harvests as much rainwater as possible from its buildings to water the shop plant stock. It's better for the plants!! We have several buildings on site, and all of them that can collect water have water butts. Our plant benches have matting on them so that when they are watered the water stays on the benches and the plants can keep taking this water up as long as it is there, meaning less watering is required.
Our Shop
We are really proud of our shop. We built it ourselves out of used pallets and timber. It's a big thing in the USA, so we thought we'd try it here. It's insulated with used insulation, has two used double glazed windows and most of the internal fittings are used too. A sustainable and recycled building! We believe the only one in Lowestoft!
Our Plants
Our plants come from various places. Our indoor plants come from the Netherlands. This is because the UK doesn’t grow houseplant on a commercial scale, so they have to be imported. Some of our rarer plants come from further abroad like Indonesia.
Our perennial garden plants come from two suppliers. One is based near Diss in Norfolk and is around 25miles from the shop. These are grown on their site and they are an award winning nursery who supply the Chelsea Flower Show. The second is a small nursery in Beccles, around 5miles away. The third supplier is in Cornwall. They are a very large commercial grower that supplies our plug plants, which we grow on ready for each season.
All of our plants are supplied to the shop with plant passports as per UK legislation.
We are by no means fully sustainable yet but we have lots of ideas in the pipeline. We hope you will join and support us on our journey
The world is not what it once was. Industrialisation and humans have created a planet drowning in pollutants over the last century and we need to do all we can to protect what we have left. Everything we do revolves around the environment, from ensuring our products and business processes are sustainable, to disposing of our waste responsibly. As a business, it is our duty to lessen the impact we have on earth and encourage and educate our customers to do the same. There are a number of things we do to try and play our part in helping to keep our impact as low as possible, and we will continue to work towards being a sustainable as possible. Read below for specifics on our current progress.
Our Green Credentials
