We're celebrating remarkable women in the worlds of food and design throughout Women Are Amazing Month (aka Women's History Month, Food52-style). Is there a woman we should be profiling? Let us know.
Eliza Blank was once a very bad plant parent—a surprising origin story for the founder of the plant business, The Sill. Her quest to make her New York City apartment as plant-filled as her mother’s New England home was initially a bust; she couldn’t keep her Home Depot purchases alive. But out of her frustration came her breakthrough idea to take a dated business model—mail-order plants—and update it for monstera-loving city dwellers who could order houseplants and learn how to take care of them online. Today, The Sill includes four locations that support its nationwide delivery business, and is taking a big leap forward this spring as it begins offering outdoor plants and gardening products alongside its houseplant collection. Below, I asked Eliza—now a bonafide plant queen and mom to two girls—about the joys and challenges of growing her business.