Our Roots

I owe much of our start to my beloved late grandfather, a nature lover whose passion for gardening and love of all things leafy deeply influenced my own. On the anniversary of his passing, I bought two plants - one for him and one for me - as a way to celebrate him.

Within five years, I had gone from two plants to over 200. And just when I promised myself I’d buy no more… I applied for our nursery license. Even though we have thousands now, I still can't help but get excited every time I see a new leaf. Or stop myself from buying half of the new cultivars I come across.

As we continue to expand our diverse collection and venture into uncharted territories, our fundamental values remain the same.

Rare Roots is not merely a purveyor of plants; it embodies our commitment to making the extraordinary accessible and honoring my grandfather's memory. Through our meticulously curated selection of mothers, careful propagation, and thoughtful inventory selection, we aim to ignite wonder, celebrate beauty, and chase perfection.

We strive to offer incredible plants at fair prices. Because that's what my grandfather did, and that's what makes the hobby better for everyone.

FAQ

Where do you source your plants? What makes them ethical?

We source stock from all over the world, including Thailand, Singapore, UK, The Netherlands, and private collectors here in the US.

This gives us an amazing opportunity for genetic diversity within our collection of mother plants, which we use to produce over 75% of our stock here in the US. It also gives us plenty of opportunity to grab rare plants our competitors aren’t seeing yet.

We do not work with poachers, predatory plant dealers, or nurseries whose environmental impact is not their priority. We carbon offset all of our shipments and try (when possible) to use recycled and biodegradable materials in our packaging and marketing materials.

What growing medium do you use?

We grow exclusively in hydroponics – cloners, leca, and stratum, mostly. However, everything we ship out is acclimated to LECA (Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate.) This is for a few reasons – namely for ease of compliance with our license to operate as a nursery in the state of NH and to make it easier to comply with other countries’ regulations when we start expanding outside of the US.

Since all the invasive and destructive pest species we have here in NH live and/or reproduce in soil, this is the best way for us to guarantee we don’t contribute to their spread.

What conditions do you grow under?

Our grow areas are kept at 75% humidity and 80F year-round. Full spectrum LEDs are on a 16/8 hour cycle. Once transitioned, all our plants receive at least 400FC. But the intensity depends on the stage of transition, level of variegation, and the species. All our lights are on a dimmer, so we adjust individual units as needed.

Because they’re grown in hydro, water quality is important. Every plant gets filterer water with nutrients added back in. By the time they leave they’re on a diet of at least 210 PPM of nitrogen with an EC of around 2.5, so they’ll have a reserve of nutrients to help them handle shipping and acclimation stress.

We also add silica, potassium, humic acid, and several other trace minerals to help develop a more resilient leaf structure that holds up to shipping and neglect a little better.

Full FAQ