The Plant shelter takes care of abandoned plants and prepares them for a new home

Everyone can leave their plants at the plant shelter, where they’re taken care of until the plant finds a new home.

A shelter for plants

Every year many plants are being bought, but unfortunately not all of them stay with their original owner. People move to smaller places or there’s other changes that causes them to have to get rid of the plant. These plants can be placed in the plant shelter, where they’re nurtured back to health until they’re ready for adoption.

half a shelter already

The Plant shelter in Utrecht takes care of plants that are discarded or brought to the shelter. The goal is to nurture the plants and have them grow until they’re taken home by a new owner for a small fee. About three years ago, the Plant Shelter was founded by Femke, who has a great love for plants.

‘There was a time we found lots of plants in the streets. My boyfriend at the time came to me with a plant he had found somewhere and he said: “i’m bringing you this because i know you’d never leave it in the street, you’re basically a plant shelter already.” And then it hit me.’

Ever since, people can bring their old plants to the shelter. here Femke and Esther take care of the plant and make sure it is adopted by a suitable new owner. They try to educate people on the needs of the plant to make sure the owner doesn’t face surprises and increases the chance of succes.

Everyone can take care of a plant

Femke and Esther, who run the Plant Shelter together, are now experts when it comes to plants. But that’s only because they read and learned about it and listened to the plant. Like Esther says, they once started from the bottom as well.

‘At first you don’t really know that much about it, but you like it so much and it’s so important to you that you want to learn about it. And you see that when you read and know more about it, the plants do better. And by looking at it and giving it attention, a plant secretly conveys what it wants. And you can respond to that. You can give him a different spot, or different soil, or different water; boiled water or spraying the plants. All that ‘misery’ some of my plants have… I really enjoy taking care of them like that.’

The key is to just start and read and learn: everyone can take care of a plant with a little goodwill.

‘For people who don’t know how to start, or say or think they don’t have green thumbs, I think it starts with knowledge. And when you buy a plant at a garden centre, that it at least says its name, so you can look it up on the internet and you at least know how much light it needs, and water. Pay close attention to your plant; don’t drown it in water. Often when there’s something wrong with their plant, people think: It needs more water, that’s not always the case.’