0:00

Fandy. I found out from the grapevine

0:02

that you were once upon a time, a flight attendant

0:05

before you got started with Little Botany. How

0:07

did that come about?

0:08

Well, I was a flight attendant for eight

0:11

years prior to Little Botany. I've

0:13

always loved plants since I was a kid since

0:15

I was a child. I've been in the train and buses

0:17

looking at leaves so deep down inside.

0:19

I've always loved nature and leaves and plants

0:22

and I decided in 2017 to

0:24

start the business because I was a bit bored,

0:26

to be honest.

0:28

So, what is the biggest selling point of your

0:30

business then?

0:31

I think it's, um, not just

0:33

selling plants but sharing the hobby,

0:36

um, finding the joy in growing something,

0:38

bring nature into your homes. I like to

0:40

share the aspect of gardening and I think

0:43

most people come to the space with different, different reasons

0:46

and, but we all ultimately share

0:48

the love of growing nature in our homes.

0:51

Yeah. So you said that you were

0:53

a bit bored then? How

0:55

do you feel now?

0:56

Um, now I'm very busy but

0:59

good, busy because it's something that I love to do. I'm very

1:01

passionate about sharing the hobby and

1:04

yes, I've been just spraying the love of gardening

1:07

everywhere around Singapore. That's what I'm

1:09

doing right now. Well,

1:10

you also have a very strong presence

1:13

online and social

1:15

media has obviously played a role

1:17

in your business. Right. But as the founder

1:19

of this plant focused business, what are some of the challenges

1:22

that you faced?

1:24

The challenges I face? Ah, I

1:26

think the weather, the weather right now is really,

1:29

really hot and unpredictable. So as a farm

1:31

owner, you know, you kind of have to predict. When

1:33

do I water next? Uh am

1:35

I gonna like suffer in this heat? So

1:37

these are things that go through my head every day. The

1:40

landscape now in Singapore is really

1:42

unpredictable weather wise. So

1:45

if I'm doing a pop ups, I'm always ready with lots

1:47

of water. Um I'm wearing

1:49

dry feet every day. So these are little challenges

1:51

that we go through in Singapore, selling

1:54

your plants or going through pop ups

1:56

in our free markets and all that.

1:58

And is there anyone

2:00

to help you or are

2:01

you? Yeah. So my mom is working

2:04

right now. She's one of my part timers. So

2:06

she helps me to water the plants at my client's

2:08

offices and helps me at the farm

2:11

to water the plants. When I'm busy, we doing

2:13

workshops. So yes, we do have help from

2:15

even from people from the community that that wants

2:17

to work with us. So it makes my job easier

2:20

to know that there are people that knows plants. So I have to

2:22

train them, just come in and just plug

2:24

and play and ready to go. Can I come to your farm?

2:26

Yes, you can. Where is that? We

2:29

are at? Pol 50 pun is,

2:32

that's one of our branches. We have one more at C that's

2:35

where we call it little botany glass house.

2:37

Everything there is in the semi hydro,

2:39

the soilless glass plants

2:42

and we have one more farm in sun. And

2:46

right

2:47

now you know in a world where where where many

2:49

people struggle to keep their plants

2:52

alive inclusive, right? What

2:54

are some tips you can share for successful

2:56

plant care? I

2:58

always go by the four mantras in

3:00

the garden scene. So light water,

3:02

soil and fertilizer. These are the

3:05

four things that you need to look out for. So

3:07

let's say if you water the plants and the plants are still

3:09

struggling. Look at the next one. Is it fertilizer?

3:11

If you fertilize your plants, what's the next

3:13

one? Is it the soil and

3:15

then you check for sunlight.

3:18

So as long as you go by this four mantras,

3:21

you will not go wrong, you cover all the

3:23

bases of gardening. So soil,

3:25

water fertilizer and light,

3:27

light. But how say for example,

3:30

this always happens to me. I have a big

3:32

fight with my husband all the time about how

3:34

much watering to do. How do

3:36

I know if I'm over

3:37

water? Ok. So if you

3:39

get your soil right for the

3:42

plants, if you are indoors is usually once

3:44

every 3 to 4 days. And if they

3:46

are outdoors under the full sun is daily and

3:48

then in shade is once a week. And

3:51

to know if you water through, if you see water coming

3:53

from the base of the soil or the pot, that means

3:55

if it's already watered through, stop watering immediately.

3:57

Let's not waste any more water. But yeah, that's

3:59

all. So you see the water sipping up from below? That's enough.

4:03

Can you share some of the most fascinating

4:05

or unusual plants you've come across,

4:08

you know, in your work with little botany?

4:11

Um, I'm currently enjoying

4:13

this plant called Opera Pus.

4:18

Opera Opera Pus. So it's

4:20

a tree for it.

4:21

Got like a regular name. I

4:23

don't think so. It's a tree for Madagascar

4:25

to write that down. Yeah. So it has this very nice

4:28

big bottle shaped body

4:30

eventually. And

4:32

it's just the idea of something from Madagascar

4:34

in your house growing. I'm just mind

4:37

blown. I can keep something like that in my house. So

4:39

they are grown from seed, the ones I have in my, in my farm

4:41

and they just do a little antique

4:44

vintage looking trees

4:46

that have been around for so, so many years. So

4:49

I just like the idea of this something prehistoric in my

4:51

house. Yeah. Wow. I

4:52

would like to see that plant one day.

4:55

But did you, did you say that you grew them from

4:57

seed?

4:57

No, I wish I grew them from seed. We

5:00

bought them as seedlings from Thailand.

5:02

We, unfortunately, we don't have a space to grow a lot

5:04

of plants in Singapore because we have limited space.

5:06

So I go to my friend's farm in Thailand and buy

5:08

it from them. They grow it from seed is

5:11

more sustainably harvested

5:13

as compared from taking them from the wild. Yeah.

5:15

Speaking of seeds, right? So, Amanda was

5:17

here earlier and I, she asked

5:20

me to ask this question on her behalf.

5:22

She's got some, I can't remember whether it was chili

5:24

or what, ah, how do

5:26

you actually grow from seeds?

5:28

I sound like a real amateur but

5:31

I know I dry the seeds

5:33

and then put them in a shallow tray.

5:37

So it's not germination. Germination.

5:39

Yeah. So you just put them in a, in a fluffy mix.

5:41

They have the ceiling mix or you can put

5:43

them in a saw mix with perlite

5:46

and then put them on a tray and

5:48

once you see the tiny bit sprouting out and

5:50

there's a lot more leaves, you can transfer them to

5:53

a pot. Yeah. And then,

5:55

and then good luck to you from there.

5:57

Good luck, Amanda. Um

6:00

OK. So we were talking about earlier,

6:03

you know, these prehistoric plants

6:05

and the sustainability of it, right?

6:08

How does, how do you

6:10

think you can contribute to a

6:12

greener future.

6:14

I'll be honest, if your gardening is not

6:16

a sustainable hobby. But as our part,

6:18

we can do a lot of things, little

6:21

botany itself. If we use about

6:23

20,000 plastic pots, we

6:25

don't buy any new plastic pots. We reuse them from,

6:27

from our customers to give it to us or we

6:29

never buy anything new so we can use the plastic

6:31

pots as one person I've

6:34

contributed, saving 20,000 plastic pots. So you

6:36

can do it to. And we are now

6:38

moving forward to using soilless mix. So we

6:40

stop taking salt from the earth. We

6:42

are saving lots of water. Now, that's another

6:44

way of watering as well. So yeah, we can

6:46

do our part in doing these little changes

6:49

that makes gardening more ecofriendly

6:51

and yes, now you can use all your, your

6:54

glass jars at home and your cups to

6:56

change them into indoor plant homes.

6:59

Yeah. So I know you also

7:01

offer various other plant related

7:03

products besides the soil

7:05

that we were talking about. Um, can

7:08

you share some of your other

7:10

offerings?

7:11

So I always love going to the

7:13

organic route because most

7:16

of my most people like even like my house, I have a lot

7:18

of animals, birds and cats. So I want

7:20

them to be safe and I want me to be safe. So

7:22

we use a lot of organic produce for

7:24

our um pesticide

7:27

and also fertilizers. So

7:29

that's, that's what we do. We have cedar

7:31

wood oil, we have wood vinegar.

7:33

These are things that we use. That's,

7:36

that's not chemicals and

7:38

they are clean, clean for the air. So

7:40

these are little things that we can use to help

7:42

gardening to be more sustainable as well.

7:44

So, what's next for you? Any exciting projects

7:47

in the horizon right now? On the horizon?

7:49

Yes. Right now we are doing a lot of the vending machines.

7:51

I'm not sure if you've seen them. So we

7:53

have two more vending machines coming up, selling the plants.

7:56

If you not heard them, they call little bots because

7:58

like, you know, little, little robot machines and

8:01

we drew them. The idea came from a paper that

8:03

I drew out a vending machine and it came to life

8:05

a year later after much research.

8:07

And now we have about three vending machines and

8:10

two more coming up.