The Return of the Wish Tree
Botany Wish Tree for 2025. Come into the shop and hang a wish on the tree!
A few weeks ago, I introduced you to The Lot Next Door, a new space we’ve been cultivating adjacent to the Shop for the past three and a half years. I might suggest starting with this story first, before diving in to this note. Think of this as part 2.
Building The Lot Next Door and getting ready to sell Christmas Trees for the very first time are big, new lifts on their own. They’re also only half the story. Here’s what’s been happening behind the scenes, and why you haven’t seen or heard from me very much in the past few months.
Back in July, I set out to raise $300,000 to help bring Botany into our next phase. I nicknamed the business plan and the fundraising campaign Cotyledon, and it lays out our hopes and dreams for the next three-ish years. Cotyledon, by the way, is a botanical term referring to: “An embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first leaves to appear from a germinating seed.”
A cornerstone of the Cotyledon plan involves space and place: putting down permanent roots and nurturing a stable base for us to grow on.
It’s clear to me that Botany is meant to be grounded in the Near Northwest Neighborhood (NNN). We’re meant to have one location, and this is it. This is where we’re meant to do the work of our next chapter: right plant, right place.
In this spirit, it gives me the greatest joy and utmost relief to finally, at long last, publicly share the good news, shout it from the rooftops, and just say it out loud… (deep breath)
We’re buying our building (and the lot next door ).
909 & 911 Portage Avenue will soon be the permanent home of Botany, and we’re closing on the properties next week.
It’s also a sincere joy to share that a few weeks ago we met our fundraising goal, thanks in large part to a cadre of community-based investors who share our belief in the power and potential of plants to regrow communities. Wow. (Gotta sit with that one for a minute… feels!)
These people – your actual neighbors – are making projects like The Lot Next Door possible and real. They share our belief that investing in community, place, connection, and empowerment is not only possible, it is vital and indispensable.
We need more of this. Everywhere.
A few weeks ago, I talked about crowdsourcing solutions in a broken world. Maybe this could be the start of one of them? Let me know if this idea of community-based investing is something we should keep learning about and talking about.
I think what’s surprised me most in 2024 is coming to see in practice that Botany is so much more than just a plant shop: we’re also neighborhood builders. Actively, intentionally: learning, trying, listening. I’ve always wanted this for Botany, and it’s one thing to dream about it – it’s an entirely different feeling when you’re suddenly hit with the gut punch of, “Oh, wow, this is real life, and this is actually happening.”
It seems fitting to mark this moment in time in the context of plants. I’ve long drawn inspiration and precedent from the natural world, and as I consider the future of Botany, with so many paths and possibilities before us, it’s clear to me we’re just beginning. Like a newly-germinated plant, our cotyledons have fully emerged, and we’re about to produce our first set of true leaves - an expression of our ultimate identity and pattern of future growth.
It's also worth noting that all of this has come about in large part as a response to our Wish Tree back in 2022, part of our first annual Plant Pride event. If you aren’t familiar with this story, check out my Studebaker Talk from October of that year.
The Wish Tree then was basically a big focus group – a little over 100 people were in the room that night, and they were the only ones we invited to participate and contribute at the time. The wishes were exceptional, and we still reference them from time to time as we’re evaluating new ideas and future directions. They’ve become our North Star.
In many ways, the Cotyledon plan and fundraising campaign, along with The Lot Next Door (and other things still brewing I can’t talk about yet), feel like the wishes that were “sown” back in 2022 have now germinated and begun to take shape. There’s plenty of growth yet to do – and we need your help to find the light. Where’s the window? Which direction do we grow next? What matters to you most right now?
What do you wish for 2025?
I really hope you’ll give this some thought, and I especially hope you’ll stop in soon to share it on our new Wish Tree, making a return inside the Shop for anyone to contribute – and, perhaps most important, to read the wishes of others. To connect with strangers and neighbors, family and friends, coworkers and collaborators – through a plant, covered in wishes.
And yes, I’ll be reading each and every one of them, too.
What does all of this have to do with Saturday? Well, Saturday is more than just an “Open House” – it’s an invitation to discover a new room that we’ve built in the heart of this neighborhood we call home, the NNN. But, here’s the thing – the room isn’t quite done yet.
We may have built the walls and put down the floor, but we haven’t ordered the furniture yet…
Yes, the Lot will be a space to learn and get inspired when it comes to hardy, outdoor plants and how to use them in your own gardens. It will be a space to access these plants on the regular. I know it will be a space for us to gather and connect, learn and grow together.
It’s also so much more than just a retail space - what else could it be? What else should it be?
This round of wishes will be sowing the next round of seeds for the future of The Lot Next Door and so much more. What you share will matter. We’ll take our cues and prioritize what we do next based on what you share. We want and need to hear from you. Saturday will be a great time to see and feel this new space in action, and it would also be great to say hello in person, too.
Plants are hopeful, and they are powerful. They multiply the love we put in to them, and our task as gardeners is simply to pay it forward. Plants remind us of our agency and the importance of reclaiming our time, intention, and relationship with the natural world and with one another. Plants remind us we’re connected while helping us to connect, and I hope you’ll agree we need to nurture those connections.
It takes a village, and I remain grateful you’re ours.
Ben | Botany Founder & CEO
