Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Pitts.
Hi Laura, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Understanding the importance of native plants came to me later in life. I spent the first 50 years of my life as a horsewoman in the Midwest. I managed horse farms, trained horses and coached riders. My first husband was a horse veterinarian, and we merged businesses at our own farm for about 10 years. As I aged and I knew our split was eminent, I decided I needed to find another passion that I could make a living at for the second half of my life. I had always loved gardening and cooking but chose gardening because it would keep me outdoors.
I went back to school at our community college and started with the basic botany class at night. I was lucky enough to get a wonderful professor, Dr James Ethridge (may he rest in peace) as my instructor for that course. His energy and enthusiasm for horticulture were electric and contagious.
As I continued my education, one class at a time, I learned about native plants and how they support our environment and ecosystems. It made so much sense to me that all the other cultivated plants began to seem superfluous and even gaudy. I knew I wanted to work with native plants at that point but didn’t know in what capacity I could make a living with that focus.
At the time my divorce was proceeding my professor heard of a job opening at a local native nursery that I was familiar with. I hadn’t finished all my classes yet, I didn’t even have a certificate completed in any one area, but I wanted that job. It was for a propagation manager, which meant I would be in charge of starting all the plants that the nursery grew every year for sale. Hundreds of thousands of plants, trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses etc. With my professor’s recommendation and a lot of bravado at my interviews, I talked my way into the job.
It was a classic case of “Fake it ’till you make it”. I had almost no practical experience and had never worked at a nursery. I had interned one summer at the college greenhouse. That was it. Needless to say, I learned on the job, covering my ignorance as I asked the right questions and went home and had a panic attack every night for the first 6 months that they would decide I wasn’t qualified enough. I am forever grateful to the Nursery owner, Connor Shaw for giving me a chance. I stayed there for 5 years until I ended up making my way to Florida with my second husband for his job change.
Here I met Renee Stambaugh, the original owner of Native Plant Consulting at a talk she gave at her home nursery and garden in Elkton. We immediately recognized that we were kindred spirits and talked about working together in some capacity in the future. Fast forward about a year and I started making her appointments and doing her estimates for installations of native plants. She had started the business from scratch and had come a long way, but I saw room for improvements and upgrades to how the business was run. We decided to become partners and we each took care of our end of the business for a few years: She did the consulting and designing and I ran plant sales, did estimates, all scheduling of appointment and installations, hiring, payroll, etc.
When Renee decided to retire, I knew I needed a new designer. I knew plants but I wasn’t an artist by any means.
We interviewed and tried multiple candidates during the year before she retired. We found Debra Mixon right in my own neighborhood. She had been a past client of Renee’s and is also a fine artist that displays and sells her nature inspired artwork at local galleries and shows. She has been the perfect fit, a native Floridian with a lifelong love of nature, particularly native plants and an artistic eye for using those plants in landscape designs. The transition was seamless and stays harmonious to this day.
Debra and I agree that as Native Plant Consulting continues to move forward, our main focus is education of the public on why using native plants is important. Then helping people incorporate natives into their landscapes by consulting, designing, holding plant sales, doing a monthly newsletter and posting on social media. Debra also does many educational programs for groups with presentations and plant walks. Our goal is to improve our local environment and ecosystems one yard at a time for all the bugs, butterflies, birds and other wildlife. It’s also better for humans.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Going back to college as a mature adult was difficult, but I loved learning something new and interacting with the students of all ages and meeting inspiring professors.
Getting that first job at the nursery was definitely a challenge. I was way out of my comfort zone for probably the first year.
Moving to Florida was a difficult transition. The climate was totally different. The variety of native plants was new to me and of course, I didn’t know anyone here. Meeting Renee Stambaugh helped me find the new path.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Native Plant Consulting is primarily focused on education through consultation, thoughtful design, offering native plants for sale, and doing community outreach by offering programs and plant walks. We service all of St John’s and Duval County and some surrounding areas.
My designer/consultant Debra does on site consultation and design appointments for homeowners or businesses then I put together estimates for installation. We also offer pre-order plant sales throughout the year directly from a native grower in central Florida. We are a small niche business that is very passionate about improving our environment one yard at a time and educating our clients with hopes that they will continue to spread the word,
We put out a monthly newsletter to about 2000 people and are active on Facebook and Instagram with informative posting and highlights of what we have been up to or how some of the installations look as they mature.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Dr James Ethridge, head of the Horticulture Department at my community college.
Connor Shaw, owner of Possibility Place Nursery in Illinois
Renee Stambaugh, original owner of Native Plant Consulting
My husband, Randy Pitts for all his support and hard work running my crew since he “retired” from his first career.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nativeplantconsulting.com
- Instagram: @native_plant_consulting
- Facebook: @nativeplantconsulting
