Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew King
Hi Andrew, 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?
I was born loving plants. That’s how it all began. Two of my earliest memories involve learning that raspberries grow on shrubs (and that if I woke up early enough in the morning, i could eat them all before anyone else had a shot at them) and that the seeds in the middle of an apple can be planted to grow trees from which more apples would grow. I was four years old, and these two understandings began shaping the rest of my life.
By the time I was 6, my parents had given me the stoop off our back porch as a place to grow and experiment with plants. The stoop was just a concrete slab measuring about 4′ x 4′. I spent endless hours there daydreaming about all of the plants i was going to grow. I didn’t have a purpose for them. I didn’t have any thoughts of selling them or giving them away. I just wanted to grow plants.
I had begun collecting seeds and trying to germinate them in Dixie cups. I had learned somewhere along the way that fertilizer makes plants grow fast, by that point, so the miraculous world of plants was becoming even more fascinating to me. Unfortunately, however, I didn’t know that using too much fertilizer would burn plants into oblivion, but this was the fate of most of my early growing experiments. Fried plants. But the obsession continued.
When I was 7, I was given an Erector set for Christmas. The parts all came in a box very similar to a fishing tackle box. I’m not sure what I did with the erector set, itself, but I used the box to begin germinating seeds. I lined the bottom of the box with paper towels, dropped some seeds and another layer of paper towels on top, got it all damp, and closed it up. Unfortunately, after I slide the box under my bed, I forgot about it.
My mom found that box some months later after a peculiar smell led her to check around my room for a source. Before tossing the box, she showed me that the seeds had germinated, but the box had also grown and impressive crop of mold. The obsession continued, nonetheless.
Though I clearly can’t claim any professional experience from those early years, my love of plants has been a focal point for nearly 45 years, now.
Over the years, and after working for a few landscaping companies, I had developed a passion for landscape design. Art had always been an interest of mine, and the thought of merging plants and art was enticing, to say the least. Beyond this, the concept of self-employment was also a growing interest.
Flyleaf began as a monthly popup market on a borrowed patio a little over five years ago. Our focus was on sales of unique and handmade pottery. I had built a small woodshop and workspace in our basement at home and had been producing designs, prototypes, and startup plans for several months prior. Our plan was to display our pottery with succulent plants to help customers see the potential of our work.
Our first several sales on that patio, however, redirected our attention away from the pottery and toward a greater investment in succulent plants, as they sold out every time. The pottery was appreciated but the succulents were devoured.
By that November, and with the outdoor temperatures falling, the church that owned the patio asked if we would like to move our sales inside. Additionally, they asked if we had any interest in taking over several old classrooms in a long-since abandoned educational wing of the building. We did both. We began holding our sales in the church cafeteria and converted the classrooms into a space to hold, grow, and sell plants.
While our monthly events were extremely well attended – nearly a thousand people per weekend – the lesser attended opening of the classrooms, between the events, allowed us to spend more time teaching and interacting with our customers.
In 2022, we purchased a 15 acre piece of land about an hour south of St. Louis – Flyleaf South. As of today, we’ve built two greenhouses and have a third to go up this fall. The intent with Flyleaf South is to expand, of course – our average monthly sales went from 500 to 5000 plants over the past few years which has required an upgrade or two along the way – but also to provide an experience.
Flyleaf South is currently under development, but the direction we’re heading includes many more plants, local food, a kayaking pond, and in-depth classes ranging from plant propagation to business development, and from forest management to aquaculture.
An unexpected result of our work has been the development of a broad community, and now knowing and cherishing that, we’re developing Flyleaf South to serve this community to the best of our potential. We’re developing self-guided and interactive tours through the forest, preparing curricula for school groups, and working on a job-readiness program.
As much as people have enjoyed our succulent, and now tropical plants, we’ve gained the most from our capacity to teach – my wife, Jill, and I have a couple of decades of horticultural experience each – so teaching has become a virtue that guides our expansion and development.
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?
Flyleaf began just a few months before the covid years, so we had only begun finding our way when it was required of us to find several other ways.
We had started Flyleaf with a digital-first mentality. so turning on shipping and local delivery options came quickly, but learning to manage hundreds of shoppers in a confined space… not so much.
There were masking and social distancing obstacles to deal with, of course. But there was also a limitation on the number of people who could be in a particular room – the cafeteria – at a time. We solved this limitation by asking the church if we could set up throughout the entire building, so shoppers would come in one door, shop their way throughout the building, and exit at another door. We created a one-way traffic pattern and met all of the legal requirements.
Beyond this, the manufacturer of the plastic pots we used to finish our plants went belly-up, materials that we used to blend our soils remained at docks in Italy month after month, and traveling to buy our stock material became an exercise in frustration.
So, the struggles were everywhere and ever more difficult to manage. Regardless, we pulled through and are a much stronger and agile company because of them.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Flyleaf is known, primarily, for plant selection, education, and community. Having owned and managed plant-related companies for more than 20 years, Jill and I know that selection is key, and we’ve leveraged this to our advantage. While many greenhouses carry 20 or so succulent varieties and 40-50 tropical plant varieties, Flyleaf carries an ever-changing inventory of several hundred varieties, and a quantity of each that give our shoppers a fair chance at getting what they want.
Additionally, we’ve baked education into the cake. Whether it’s the signage displayed at our events, the videos we produce for social media, or in a conversation at Flyleaf South, we make a point to help people with all the information they could possibly want to maintain their plants and to find enjoyment in the process.
Lastly, community. The community of plant lovers that we are able to serve is truly just a thing to wonder at. To see a thousand people per event laughing and talking with one another – perfect strangers until they’re not – is something nearly unheard of. What we do hear is that there is chaos in the world and division everywhere and with everyone. What I see when we’re open, however, is a group with every skin color, every background, all ages, all polital stripes, all educational attainments, all faiths, and everything else that can come between us gathered together laughing and talking in the middle of a bunch of plants. Its a beautiful and encouraging thing.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Good to Great – Jim Collins (along with everything else he’s written).
Start with Why – Simon Sinek.
All books written by Michael Dirr.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey.
Harvard Business Review
Shark Tank – TV show
Anything Marcus Lemonis produces.
And the Bible. It has much to say about business, much to say about plants, and much to say about how to serve people well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flyleaf.market
- Instagram: flyleafsucculents
- Facebook: flyleaf succulents & tropical plants
