Lady Fern

Nestled along the busy streets of Norfolk sits Lady Fern’s Native Plants, a plant shop that specializes in, you guessed it, native plants. 

Nicole Knudson never actually intended on becoming a local plant spot - her roots are actually in working with animals - but after realizing how important flora was for indigenous wildlife, something clicked. 

“Once you start getting that, you start appreciating…And so I just got more interested in native plants and kind of plants in general, but I just found that I wanted to help the native wildlife.”

Nicole strives to be environmentally conscious in her work, setting up things like her pot takeback program to reduce waste. She also wants to start encouraging people to take on native plants as houseplants. 

Coming up with ideas like this that benefit both her customers and the environment is one of her favorite things about the job. 

“It doesn't feel like going to work…I like inspiring people, being able to utilize the knowledge that I've acquired over so many years in a very practical hands-on way, especially showing them that things are not as hard as they think.”

A film by Laura Christian.

Produced by Kendahl Huber.

Edited by Charlie Pierson.