Succulent Native founder, Shannon Donaldson, was born and raised in Austin, surrounded by makers and a funky art scene. Like most entrepreneurs, succulents, plants, and cacti weren’t the first focus of her business adventure...

 

It all started when Shannon followed her art dreams to college where she majored in sculpture and fine art. She struggled to a find a medium she truly connected with, and found a job as a florist to flex her creative eye for design and beautifying plants. Shannon would sell the flowers from her makeshift ice cream bike on South Congress, where passerbyers would shop, but the Texas heat was not kind to the delicate flowers she was selling, and keeping the flowers fresh became an issue. She needed to sell something more native to the climate — something more Austin...cacti and succulents! And poof, Succulent Native was born!

 

She got her hands dirty right away planting beautiful, sculpture-like arrangements, which she sold from her bike on the weekend. She continued to challenge her abilities, and grew alongside her business, “Plant more. Worry less.” became a personal mantra that carried her through the early days of entrepreneurship and is now the mantra of the business. Plants bring a space to life, and can add so much more than green to someone’s life and living space.

 

As the popularity of the arrangements and unique shopping experience grew, so did Succulent Native. From the bike, she moved into a little shop on east 5th street which she quickly outgrew and opened her current shop on North Lamar, and then expanded to South Lamar.

 

From her humble beginning of succulent street-peddler to full-service plant shop, Shannon not only offers unique and beautiful succulent arrangements and gifts, but workshops and planting parties, a plant club subscription box, house call services, and a program called “Austin Native & Creative” to support local artists and businesses.

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Plants are for everyone, and our local plant community welcomes you to come as you are, to get rooted and grow with us.