(ABOVE) Proprietor Zoe Zhang at Plantoem, the nursery/cafe in Kaimuki fusing her twin passions for poetry and plants.
You might not notice it from the street, but traverse the scorching pavement to the second floor of Lafite Plaza, and you'll find a charming nursery/cafe. Entering Plantoem feels like stumbling upon a spontaneous rainforest, part garden, part coffee shop. Patrons lounge, read and compute among the verdure in the breezy cafe, sipping yerba mate and lavender spritzers to strains of jazz. The work of up-and-coming Island artists adorns the walls. It has the feel of what coffee shops were like before the big chains came to town-if said coffee shop were in the Amazon.
The name Plantoem, a portmanteau of "plant" and "poem," illustrates what founder Zoe Zhang set out to create: a relaxed, verdant environment for the community, one that fosters creativity and blends her two favorite things, plants and poetry. The green-thumbed Zhang began selling plants online when the pandemic hit, and was so successful that she decided to open the shop. "I had no idea people loved plants as much as I do," she says.
“It’s so rewarding to have people come in and pick what they’re drawn to. There’s a plant for everyone. We offer plants for people that don’t have a lot of time, plants that are safe for pets, plants for people with children or with limited space. The list goes on.”
With scores of rare and beautiful indoor plants (some current favorites include the Thai Constellation Monstera, Pink Princess Philodendron and Living Stones), Plantoem is a place for both beginning and advanced plantsmen (yes, that's a word) to discover and acquire new greenery. "Plants are like people-they have their own personalities," Zhang says. "It's so rewarding to have people come in and pick what they're drawn to. There's a plant for everyone. We offer plants for people that don't have a lot of time, plants that are safe for pets, plants for people with children or with limited space. The list goes on."
Plantoem hosts monthly jazz and poetry reading nights, yoga classes among the plants, a terrarium workshop where kids learn to make their own tiny forests (Zhang says some of her most enthusiastic plant people are as young as eight), and pop-up events influenced by customer interests-like tango lessons, painting classes and an upcoming poetry workshop for kids. And, of course, classes on how to care for plants. The schedule of events, along with striking photos of current plants for sale, can be accessed via Plantoem's Instagram.
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