‘Urban jungles’ grow in Valley
Plants add warmth to business spaces
Some days, it can take Jamie Brotzman up to three hours to “entertain” the multitude of plants at her Easton wellness center.
She calls it her meditation time, tending to the hanging baskets, palms, snake plants, crotons, rubber trees and other plants in The Healing and Wellness Corner, 101 N. Fourth St.
“You’re just bringing the outside in,” Brotzman said. “Wherever you’ve been stuck at for the past year, you want to bring life into it because that’s what been taken away from us the last year.”
Brotzman’s is just one of a handful of Lehigh Valley businesses bringing plants into their spaces with the help of Alyssa Higgins, who launched The Urban Jungle Plant Interiors last year. It’s a new service for the region, in which Higgins plans and executes living plant installations to fit commercial and residential spaces, making them warm, welcoming and alive to entice customers and delight residents.
Higgins, 28, started buying and selling plants during COVID-19 shutdowns last year, she said, but after restrictions began to ease, she started working directly with business owners in their spaces.
“I love designing with plants, and that’s what I really got into in my own space over COVID, to make it a place where I wanted to be all day every day,” Higgins said. “I spent so much time learning how to use plants to create an entirely different but useful space.”
It’s a mix of interior design and plants, she explained, taking into consideration the color, texture and needs of the plants “to create something that’s beautiful and doesn’t take away from the business but enhances it.”
Word of mouth has spread quickly through the region. Residents can see her work at businesses in Easton and Allentown.
Alicia Rambo, owner of Easton Yoga, 524 Northampton St., started working with Higgins in October to bring plants into her studio space,
she said.
“I was trying to figure out a way to make it safe and beautiful,” Rambo said, citing restrictions still in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. “I just wanted everyone to feel cozy, because it was already going to feel odd with wearing masks inside.”
So, they created a “yoga jungle” she said, and her clients are really enjoying it.
“I think having live plants — there’s just this sense of tranquility that comes in a space that has very organic elements to it,” Rambo said. “We’ve always had plants in the front of the space, because it gets the most beautiful
light … it’s very lush and inviting. It just feels healthier.”
And Brotzman has had a similar reaction at her center, she said.
“It’s a connection with clear air, and that’s what we need now. It’s a connection with green, and that’s what we need now,” she said. “And everybody got down and out during COVID — whatever you have going on, plants are a cheap way of decorating and plants give back to you, and they always change, they grow, they bloom.”
And there’s no green thumb requirement from business owners, because Higgins offers weekly, semi-weekly and monthly maintenance plans to help keep the installations thriving. But she’s often available to answer questions and help problem-solve
via phone.
With many residents picking up planting or gardening hobbies during the pandemic, as well as several “fantastical plant shops opening” in the region, Higgins calls it a “group effort,” as she sources her plants from local wholesalers or shops, boosting others in the community, too, many of whom are women.
“That’s how my business has grown because it’s been women,” Higgins said. “Women are finding their place in this industry, and I think that’s a very exciting thing, especially for the Lehigh Valley. I think it’s a great representation of where this area is going.”