Envy Grows, a store that sells plants, pots and patio furniture, plans to move to the space next to Anchovies & Olives in the Pearl mid-July 2009. Envy Grows’ owner Jay Longtin agreed to answer a few questions from Capitol Hill Seattle about the planned move:

About me… Well, I’m 29 years old. I’ve been in Seattle for 5 years now. I moved here from VT with a friend. It was just time for something new. I’ve been with my partner, David, now for a little over 3 years. When I was a child I remember my Mom having a bunch of plants in the house. I think that may be where it all started. But when I moved to Seattle, I just started collecting again. I have well over 50 plants in my house… Over 100 now (all the plants from the CD store are now in my house until the new space is ready). The plant store just kind of happened. I had always talked about having a plant shop, seeing how I manage to keep all the plants in my house alive and well. So when I hurt myself (nothing major anymore) I decided to stop doing remodel work and focus on something that I’m passionate about, and something a lot easier on my body. So between David and I, we’ve made a go of the plant business.

We’re moving from the CD to Capitol Hill primarily due to foot traffic issues. We live in the CD, so we were excited to bring a new business to the hood. A lot of the community was a great support. However, it’s just not a busy enough location. We had hoped when we moved into the space that the other retail spaces would also be filled…. A year later, they are still pretty much empty. Capitol Hill is our regular stomping ground. The Pearl is a beautiful building. It makes sense for us to be in an area where there are other businesses, and where at any time of the day there are different people out walking around and shopping. As far as the shop goes…

We’re doubling in size from where we are now. So we will for sure have a much larger inventory. Our focus is still going to be indoor tropical plants and pots, but we’re also branching out with some new ideas. We’re going to sell patio furniture, both from Fermob and Loll Designs. We’re going to sell garden games from Jaques of London, including a 4’ jenga set, croquet, and badminton. We will also carry a selection of outdoor plants and gardening tools. I don’t want to give it all away, but it should be a fun, bright space. I’m not sure we’ll have an open lounge area, but there will be plenty of room for folks to hang around; maybe try out some of the games or watch a landscape show on HGTV.