It's a Jungle in There
A mother-daughter team is turning a plant obsession into a rapidly growing business venture and having a blast in the process.
Story by Hollye Holbrook Photo by Thomas Boyd
It’s nearly 11 p.m. when she drills a hole in the bottom of the final pot.
Standing up, Braelee O’Connor wipes the sweat from her brow and steps back to scan the array of dark-marbled terracotta vessels at her feet. She smiles and envisions the greenery they’ll soon hold. For tomorrow is delivery day, her favorite day of the week.
O’Connor and her oldest daughter, Sierra Fox, weren’t planning to start a nursery; they were simply collecting plants for their homes. But before long it became an obsession, sending them off to local shops to scour for the best plants.
“We were the ones out back when the shipments came in, pulling them apart,” O’Connor says, laughing. She and her daughter were particularly interested in rare plants. “But we just couldn’t find any,” she says.
So they directed their search online, turning it into an ongoing game of friendly bidding wars, competing with other buyers for plants. Within six months, their collection of houseplants had grown from 30 to 200.
“It was a lot of fun,” says Fox. “I’ve always been super intrigued by house plants. It was my dream to one day sell them from my home.”
Rainforest Northwest, the nursery Fox and her mother eventually opened, isn’t exactly home, but you can see it from there. Planted unassumingly at the end of the gravel driveway leading to the family home, the nursery is only a few feet off busy Harvard Avenue in Roseburg. But stepping through the door feels like being transported to a welcoming, vital oasis.
“Rainforest Northwest, the nursery O’Connor and Fox opened, isn’t exactly home, but you can see it from there.”
“Plants are beneficial not only to the environment but to our health,” says Fox. “It’s cleaner air in our shop. Some people come and stay for an hour, walk around and just talk with us. It’s fun being able to do what we love all day and provide people from our community with plants.”
Plants, indeed. There are hanging plants. Plants on shelves.Tall plants. Small plants. Easy-care plants. Delicate plants. Solid plants. Variegated plants. Rare plants. Healthy plants, of course; all of them.
“As soon as we get the plants in, we inspect every single one,” says Fox. “We pre-treat and wipe down every leaf. We want to make sure that everything we bring in is something we would personally buy. My No. 1 wish-list plant is the variegated monstera adansonii (Swiss cheese plant), which sells for $3,000 to $4,000 for just one leaf!”
It’s clear what O’Connor and Fox offer goes well beyond selling plants. The care and attention they put into every plant in Rainforest Northwest are extended to every person who visits.
“One thing Mom said when we started out that I really loved is she wanted to build a relationship with everybody who walked through the door,” says Fox. “We’ve met a lot of super cool individuals.”
Mother and daughter and Rainforest Northwest co-owners Sierra Fox (left) and Braelee O’Connor have deep roots in Roseburg.
Fox mentions the young girl who came in with her lemonade-stand profits and a dream of turning her room into a jungle. “We sent her away with some goodies,” says Fox.
There was the older gentleman who was simply looking for something to help cheer him up and the 10-year-old boy who knew more about cacti than anyone in the room.
“We really enjoy making those connections,” says O’Connor. “I always try to make people feel at home. If we can help you out, one way or another, we will.”
Adds Fox: “If there’s something we’re not familiar with, we’ll go research it. If there’s something you’re looking for, we’ll do our best to get it in or we will send you in a direction to get one. We’ll even re-pot plants you already have at home.”
With such an encouraging start to their business, O’Connor and Fox are already contemplating what’s ahead for Rainforest Northwest.“There are so many different avenues we could take,” says Fox. “The potential is huge. We want to sell plants online. We want to open a second location. We want to offer more services —designing spaces, setting up and taking care of plants, renting out plants for events and offices. We want to sell our pots and house-made potting mix. We want to turn our barn into a greenhouse and offer more inventory. We’re dreaming; we’re thinking big.”
“We’ve found something Douglas County needs,” adds O’Connor.“Our roots are deep here, which makes it even more exciting to continue to grow them.
Find Rainforest Northwest at 2692 West Harvard Ave. Roseburg,online at rainforestnorthwest.com and on social media@rainforest_northwest.
