Today we’d like to introduce you to Enid Offolter
Hi Enid, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In 1999 I started NSE Tropicals. I began selling plants online and at local plant shows, mostly to make enough to buy more plants to support my plant collecting habit. Not a lot of other people sold plants online at the time, and there wasn’t a lot of competition. I’ve always liked unusual plants and got hooked on aroids like philodendrons and anthuriums right away. Coincidently most of them grow very well indoors. In South Florida, these tropicals plants happily grow outdoors year ’round.
I met a lot of like-minded people through the International Aroid society based in Miami. I’m still close friends with many to this day. I was considered the bridge to the younger generation since the older crowd didn’t use the internet as much and it brought in a lot of new members and attention.
Business started really picking up out of nowhere in 2017. When Covid hit, rather than being sidelined, everyone suddenly needed plants!
I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to write for journals and magazines, and in 2021, my book, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ was published.
I wanted to show people that a lot of these rare plants are really quite easy to grow and not to be scared to give them a try.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There’s been a lot to keep working through over the years. Hurricanes and plants don’t get along, to say nothing of hurricanes and shade house structures. I also had a few cold nights in 2009 that destroyed a lot of my collection. Many of those plants were irreplaceable since they were from plant collectors that are no longer with us.
Covid hit when business was already taking off and I wasn’t prepared to need 1000’s of plants that I only had a few of for for the new houseplant craze. I am a one woman operation and it was really only my love for the plants and the desire to have work that would keep me home to raise my son that kept me going. Plus it’s hot.
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?
For more than two decades, NSE Tropicals has been one of the world’s best known and trusted suppliers of rare and unusual tropical foliage plants. From the beginning, we have strived to sell only the highest-quality, responsibly sourced living material from both our own in-house propagation program and collector friends located throughout the world’s tropics. Over time, we have painstakingly built and curated our own collections to assemble a vast inventory of some of the world’s most exotic, beautiful and desirable tropical plants.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I love the book ‘Houseplant Warrior’ by Raffaele Di Lallo (@Ohiotropics)
and Daryl Cheng’s book ‘The New Plant Parent’. (@houseplantjournal)
Craig Miller-Randle ‘Green-Thumb’ (@craigmilran)
Summer Rayne Oakes ‘How to Make a Plant Love You’ (@homesteadbrooklyn)
These just a few of the authors and plantstagrams I follow. All of them have such useful information for people just starting out or even more advanced growers looking for new ideas.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nsetropicals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsetropicals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NSEtropicals
Image Credits
Enid Offolter
