Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanner and Erika Mitchell.
Hi Tanner and Erika, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Tanner grew up in Pilot Rock, Oregon, always surrounded by beautiful greenery and the mountains. He loved it there, but as the saying goes, he got to Texas as fast as he could! He liked Texas because of the people and the culture. It’s where his daughter was born and where he met me, but he always felt like that connection to nature was missing. But he found the solution. Tanner started bringing plants into our home and pretty quickly became a collector of sorts. As he started to delve into the world of plant care, he found that there was so much conflicting and downright bad information out there. Determined to change that fact, he started sharing his plant collecting hobby on social media, along with some plant care that he had learned along the way. He was just happy to pass along the plant knowledge! As he was already a business owner, going into any kind of plant business was never on Tanner’s radar. Over the next year and a half or so, he was asked over and over on Instagram if he’d be interested in selling any of his plants. He took it as a compliment that somebody would want something he grew but never really thought about it much. Until he did. One day he approached me about it, but it took me a while to come around. We lived comfortably already with our party rental business and my direct selling business, but he knew I was always up for an adventure and that he could talk me into anything.
After a while, I agreed, and shortly after, Tanner The Planter was born. We filed for a business license and got connected to suppliers in our area, and we began to sign up for farmers’ markets and vendor events. Although markets were a great way to get our name out there, oftentimes, our four kids would eat more in food at the markets than we earned for the day! We remember how those market days made us tougher. Tanner does a great impression of how people would walk by our booth, trying their hardest not to make eye contact. Ask him to do his impression for you sometime! We then started to sell plants out of our home and did Facebook live sales. We were just so happy when anyone would get on and watch, let alone buy any plants! I have lived in the area for a long time and am lucky to have so many supportive friends. Our first customers were basically just my friends. But word of mouth traveled fast and things really started to take off. We had boxes waiting to ship outlining our hallways. Plants completely took over our living room, and our kids started to get annoyed. We then decided to look for a storefront. Through a series of serendipitous events, we landed the cutest location in our whole town! I have watched our high school’s homecoming parade from the corner Famous In Oregon is on since I moved to Prosper in 2005, never in a million years thinking it would be ours one day. Full circle event in my life for sure! We struggled to open because we were in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic at that point. We were scared and unsure of our future, but remember that adventure I said I liked? We went for it anyway.
Famous In Oregon opened May 2020, mid-pandemic, and wow, did our community come out for us! We were so floored by the support and good sentiments showered upon us. I’ll never forget the sense of relief we felt as we realized people actually wanted what we sell. Such a surreal weekend. But we wanted to provide more than just plants. We wanted to do what nobody else does, and that’s our after-care program. Many sell plants, but how many would you say are true experts that will help you troubleshoot long after the purchase? That’s what we do! We give you the tools for success from the moment you purchase and make care videos for every plant we sell. Along with that is our very active Facebook community. It’s a great place to connect with other customers of ours that are in all stages of their plant hobby. We just love seeing friendships form there! As we come upon a year with the shop, we are seeing that more and more people are falling in love with plants, and we don’t anticipate it stopping any time soon. Famous In Oregon is our family’s pride and joy. Family owned and operated. Any given day you will see a combination of our family working the shop. Our oldest daughter, Maya, officially works with us as a horticulture assistant but our other three kids have no issue rolling their sleeves up and pitching in any time we need them. Our college boy was home from Texas State due to the pandemic, and he even had a part in our shop opening. We feel very lucky that it has been a whole family endeavor. We feel so blessed to be able to work amongst such beauty every day. We love our plants and our customers, and we are just so happy to help promote the houseplant hobby in the way that we do. If you read all of that, you ROCK!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have been so fortunate in that houseplants and the houseplant hobby, in general, gained a lot of popularity during the pandemic. People started to crave that same connection to nature that Tanner craved when he moved to Texas and started doing exactly what he did, which is bring nature indoors. None of it was planned but we were perfectly poised at that point to take on what we considered as the next step, which was opening a storefront. It has overall been pretty great but there have definitely been challenges. We had to realize that although we love this business and want to do all the things with the business we have built, we aren’t actually accountants, tax gurus, human resources experts, logistics coordinators, media correspondents, etc. What we have found is that hiring help is really hard but also so necessary to be able to keep doing what we do best which is create, build relationships, buy, educate, hold classes and promote.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Famous In Oregon?
We, at Famous In Oregon, are houseplant experts. We offer a different experience than we have ever seen at any other plant shop-and we have been to many. Our staff is trained to help you pick the right plant for your conditions. Once you become a customer, we will plug you into resources created by US to care for your plant. The best part for a nervous new plant parent? We are available via our social media outlets to help answer any questions you may have. We are proud to be able to confidently say that nobody has the after-care program we do.
Along with having a retail location, we also offer subscription boxes and we have shipped plants to almost every state! You can shop online! We take a lot of pride and care in our packing and our plants arrive beautifully! Tanner The Planter also offers personalized video consults as well for any stage of your plant hobby, from 15 minutes to an hour in length. If you’re local and would rather have an in person consult, he can accommodate for that, too. Sometimes you just need to call in an expert. We are here! Another unique service we offer is orchid boarding. Most people say “What is THAT?” but plant people know once their orchid isn’t in bloom any more, it’s difficult to give it prime light real estate because all that is left after it blooms out are bottom leaves. Customers ship us their orchids from all over the country to care for, or, if you’re local you can bring them in to the shop. Boarders get new medium and orchid food and the comfort of our dedicated orchid greenhouse where Tanner cares for them daily. Once they are budding, we contact you to come pick it up or we ship it back for you to enjoy. We have lots of sentimental orchids in the program and Tanner enjoys caring for them.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Since opening the shop, we have been spread a little too thin for hobby reading but we both enjoy MBTI personality Facebook groups, plant groups, of course, mystery podcasts and Tik Tok is definitely a guilty pleasure for both of us. Plantopedia is a store favorite and Tanner considers Savage Garden the “bible” for carnivorous plant knowledge.
Contact Info:
- Email: famousinoregon@gmail.com
- Website: www.famousinoregon.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/famousinoregon
- Facebook: Famous In Oregon & Tanner The Planter
- Youtube: Tanner The Planter
- Yelp: Famous In Oregon
- Other: Tik Tok: tannertheplanter
