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The story

I may have been green behind the ears, but I certainly didn't have green fingers.

My first plant, a Calathea …., could barely show off on my windowsill for two months before it broke. Why did that happen so quickly? Ten years and many plants later, I can answer with confidence: I had no idea what she needed. When she is thirsty, where is her ideal place to stay, when she needs to be repotted, what food she likes and what I should do if she has 'lice'. Even worse: every plant I bought had its own special needs.

 

After many films, books and conversations about plants, I slowly but surely started to transform my father's house into an urban jungle. Plants can reproduce very quickly and it was fantastic to get started with this. But before I knew it I had an abundance of small cuttings of all kinds of plants. I had to start handing them out to family, friends and anyone who wanted a plant. Sometimes I put some on my front door for free, just to make someone happy.

 

One day I put a grass lily (an easy plant to take cuttings) outside to take away for free. When I got home, to my surprise, there was a note in the mailbox saying 'thank you!' on top. I was delighted to be able to give someone a plant. In the meantime, I know that a well-cared-for plant can bring a lot of joy into your home. After making many people happy with plants, I wanted to expand. No sooner said than done, and Plantjes van Kortrijk was born!

 

 

An online webshop where you can order home grown plants. I came to deliver them to home by bike and gave a word of explanation if necessary. Excellent! But unfortunately not sustainable. Plants need a lot of time to grow and also a lot of space. So in the end I was out of stock. Now that I ran out of plants to sell, I had to look for other ways to keep busy in the plant community! And I thought that too. The idea was simple: I wanted to continue with a webshop

 

I saw a webshop in front of me, with a large assortment of plants directly from the grower, delivered eco-neutral and all over Belgium. An explanation of the care, tailor-made for each plant, was of course indispensable. The name 'Plantjes van Kortrijk' was of course no longer correct. Time for a new one! I took inspiration from my own jungle. My Monstera plant (hole plant) is one of my largest and most healthy plants. 'Stera' was born.

 

 

The project took some time, budget, hard work and patience. With the help of my family and friends, we managed to do it. Stera, an online plant webshop. I was ready to make people happy with plants again! And this is where I stand today. Obviously I don't want to stop here! If you've ever had the chance to speak to a plant fanatic, you'll soon notice that there's a great community of people who share their green passion next to them. And bringing these people together is Stera's mission!