INDIANAPOLIS — What better way to grow your business during a pandemic than by planting flowers?
Two central Indiana women, Mary Starnes and Gretchen Jacobs, have planted the proper seeds over the past 18 months to take advantage of so many Hoosiers working from home, and now their Windowbox Gardener and Porch Pot Direct businesses are truly starting to bloom.
“I started the business in 2004,” Starnes said. “It was a hobby, honestly, just container gardening. I loved it, and I was just doing it for friends and family. Next thing you know, landscapers were calling me and we just grew organically.”
Starnes founded “The Windowbox Gardener,” which is a custom, full-service container gardening company, which has been designing and creating custom window boxes and containers professionally for almost two decades.
“I never intended to be where we are now,” Starnes said. “I'm blessed, and I feel lucky. We have just grown and grown!”
As her business continued to grow, Starnes brought Jacobs on board in 2015.
“We refer to ourselves as ‘Soil Sisters,’” Jacobs proudly says. “We have a lot of long hard hot days, but we’re working women.”
As some businesses struggled during the pandemic, Starnes and Jacobs saw their flower business flourish.
“More clients were staying at home, so they might have added on additional containers, or they might have referred us to their neighbor who was also at home,” Jacobs said. “I think that was huge for our Windowbox business. The Porch Pods Direct business was a delivery-only business. Clients were able to be in the comfort of their own home, go online, choose what they wanted, and then have that delivered to their front doors service the clients.”
And the ladies also offer a service where they attend to and care for your flowers after they sell them to you.
“We will come back with our maintenance package, pruning, fertilizing and trimming,” Jacobs said.
So what’s next for them?
“World domination,” said Starnes with a laugh, perhaps only half kidding.
Along with world domination, Mary and Gretchen are now successful enough to expand their flower delivery service beyond just the north side of Marion County to all the way down to Greenwood.