Indoor Plants ​“Pop Up” In 9th Square

As a first-time plant parent, Matthew Matis was anxious. He’d already selected a low-maintenance peperomia. Now he was wondering how soon he should repot.

Ralph Saldi had the answer ready.

Saldi was hosting a plant sale holiday pop-up on Sunday at his new Ninth Square indoor plant shop Bark & Vine, on the corner of Orange and Crown Streets. The business will move permanently into the 49 Orange Street space on Saturday, Feb.6. Sunday’s event offered a taste of what’s to come. (In the meantime, Bark & Vine offers in-store pick-up for online orders.)

“We’re going into dormant season, winter, right now,” Saldi, 34, told Matos amid the strains of ​“Sleigh Ride” and lively chatter in the sleek, sun-drenched shop.

“The roots are dormant. If you repot it now, you’re just disturbing their sleep.” Wait until the end of fall, he advised.

“And then?” Matis asked.

“Make sure you’re repotting to the next size up. You don’t want to unsettle the plant by putting it into a home that’s too big.” Better yet, Saldi said, ​“I’ll be here by then. Just stop by with the plant and ask if it’s ready to be repotted.”

Origin Story

“Growing up, my mom always surrounded our house with beautiful houseplants,” said Saldi, who moved to the United States from the Philippines when he was 11. ​“It was her passion. And it was also, ​‘Hey, water this plant, but don’t water that plant as much,’ and then you look back and realize how much that chore taught you and how much that passion is in you.”

When Covid-19 hit Connecticut in March, Saldi lost his job as a visual merchandiser. He and close friend Raquel Cude (pictured), an illustrator, took to working in Saldi’s Bridgeport backyard garden as a ​“pandemic project,” as Cude put it.

“My job also shut down, and I’m also a houseplant enthusiast. So we’d go on these excursions to nurseries and plant stores, and discover new plants, and learn how to take care of them,” said Cude, who was selling print, T shirts, and books at a booth for her business, Smudge Books. 

One afternoon in May, Saldi’s husband Luis Galindo came to him with an idea.

“We had around 300 house plants just spread out in our home,” Saldi said. ​“So Luis was like, ​‘We have all these plants, they’re so big, and they’re growing so well. If we cut and propagate our own, that’s enough to start a business.’”

Over the next two months, they secured a business license, identified distributors, and created a website with an online shop. Galindo, a construction manager, built a greenhouse in their backyard. The online business launched on Aug. 2. A well-attended ​“open greenhouse” in their driveway followed.

“Around then our goal became to have an open storefront, not just be an online shop,” Saldi said.

In October, he and Galindo looked at the space in Ninth Square. It was love at first sight. The feeling, it seems, was mutual.

“Our landlords, Beacon Communities, came back to us and said, ​‘We took a look at your website, your social media presence, and we want you,’” Saldi said. ​“We never considered it would be possible to have a storefront in the same year we opened our online shop, but here we are.”

Indoor Gardening For City-Dwellers

“We’re at max,” Sakkara Barnwell (pictured), the ​‘bouncer,’ told Stephanie Javarauckas, referring to the 20 people allowed at any one time in the indoor space because of Covid-19 public-health restrictions.

Standing just outside the shop, Javarauckas said she’d learned of Bark & Vine through a Facebook indoor gardeners group. She’d had the holiday pop-up on her calendar for two weeks.

“I live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Hartford,” she said. ​“I need small plants. It’s a space thing.”

Over at the cash register, New Haven’s Frances Osugi was buying a Tradescantia rainbow plant.

“I’ve always been a plant person, but I’m more of an indoor plant person now because I don’t have space for an outdoor plant garden,” she said, before accepting a ​“PLANT HOE” sticker from cashier Meghan Qualey.

“I’m proud to say that we are the first retail store in New Haven that specializes in indoor gardening,” said Saldi. ​“We’ll carry other accessories and gifts, but our entire store is dedicated to the lifestyle of indoor gardeners.”

“Big box stores and nurseries tend to cater to people who have big backyards. We’re interested in people who have limited space.”

Indoor gardening, he said, ​“is about having the outside inside your house, and being able to bring plants, especially tropical house plants, into your house is something that’s missing in this time of Covid.”

Maybe you can’t travel, but ​“you’re still surrounded by plants that are reminiscent of places that you would travel to,” he said.

Pandemic Balm

That refrain was heard throughout the afternoon.

“I got into plants before the pandemic, but I’ve really got into it recently,” Javarauckas said. ​“It gives me something to take care of and watch over everyday.”

Natasha Henry of Hamden headed to the register with two Hoyas and a Starfish snake plant. Henry, who found Bark & Vine on Instagram, said she’s been a plant person for years, but ​“having plants around these days brings me peace of mind.”

Sri, who asked that her last name not be used, traveled from West Hartford with her friend Steve. ​“It’s good for my mental health in the sense that it lets me slow down and gives me a routine,” she said, her unapologetically gorgeous Calathea setosa and Calathea ornata in hand. ​“It’s just relaxing.”

Cude, the illustrator and indoor gardening enthusiast, nodded. ​“When you’re spending so much time at home, you want it to be an environment where it feels safe and beautiful and alive. I think that’s why this has caught on so fast.”

At that moment, a dog barked.

“That’s Coco,” Cude said, referring to the 10-year-old Shih Tzu-Cavalier Spaniel mix of Saldi and Galindo. ​“That’s the bark in ​‘Bark and Vine.’”