EASTON, Pa. — One of the Lehigh Valley’s favorite flora shops is taking root in Easton’s Belleville Market this Saturday.
Steel City Plant Co. will be in bloom this weekend after some time in dormancy, offering up plenty of plants for just about any greenery fans, from expert enthusiasts to those who can barely keep a cactus alive.
Owner Angie DelGrosso Stein has been a plant fanatic since her childhood, when her mother filled the house with plants. When she grew up, she wanted to be able to fill her own space with lush life, but found it was a bit more difficult in her situation.
- Steel City Plant Co. will burst into bloom this Saturday at Belleville Market in Easton
- The boutique plant shop features expert staff and easy instructions for everyone from plant aficionados to first-timers
- Owner Angie DelGrosso Stein says the store will feature plenty of easy-access information for care, and warnings for pet owners as well
Living in downtown Bethlehem, there weren’t many options for a well-resourced plant shop – “you had to drive almost 30 minutes away at that point to go to a greenhouse to get plants, then you had to make a different stop at another store to find the right pot for your home that was a nice home décor pot, and make another stop for grow lights and soil,” Stein said.
“Because it is boutique style, and we're a smaller space, are able to really give that one-on-one plant care for all the plants that we carry. We pride ourselves on having really healthy plants that have had custom care to their needs instead of blanket watering or sprinkler systems that can overwater or underwater certain plants."Steel City Plant Co. owner Angie DelGrosso Stein
“It just was not as simple of a process, and I just found myself complaining about it like, ‘Oh man, I just wish I could go grab a plant and have the finished product in my home a lot quicker.’ So I figured I would try to do something about that and fill that gap that I was seeing in the plant space,” Stein said.
That decision led to a series of pop-up shops in Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley region in 2020. By 2021, Stein had established a brick-and-mortar storefront on Bethlehem’s downtown Main Street, in a partnership with Domaci Home owners and operators Warren and Derrick Clark, who had been in business since 2015.
“We had partnered together on a project in Bethlehem called Plants Plus Vintage, so it was her Still Co. plant company brand, and then our vintage aspect of our brand, which we refer to as Domaci Flea. So we established that business in 2021, and we focused on that for about a year and a half,” Warren Clark said.
When the Clarks opted to shut down Domaci’s physical location, an idea was blossoming in their minds – what about a space reminiscent of the Belleville Market in Paris – “very artsy, very working class, very diverse, and lots of street art and murals if you walk around, and they have fun street markets throughout,” Clark said.
“This idea had been in the back of our minds for a little bit, of having a multi-merchant space where we kind of invited some of the people that we thought complimented our brand, and what we're fans of, just as a way to bring even more handmade options and more work with local makers, and kind of be a small business incubator of sorts for people that were just looking to get their business off the ground,” Clark said.
Stein was one of the very first people the Clarks contacted when the new space, previously the Easton Antique Emporium, came into being. As Steel City’s former location had shuttered last summer – not that she wasn’t busy, in fact, she got married and found out she was pregnant in the interim – the opportunity was perfect.
Since May 1, the space has been coming together with local artists and entrepreneurs, and as of Saturday, Steel City Plant Co. will be part of the pack.
Growing a productive little plant business
Entering the world of plant care might appear daunting to some, but Steel City Plant Co. is dedicated to making the process as easy as possible.
“So the nice thing in our new space is that if you're walking in and you don't even know where to start, we have a QR code on our wall that you can scan right off the bat that takes you to the entire plant care blog. You can kind of skim through that and look for a plant that works in your space,” Stein said, noting customers can easily find information concerning lighting and watering conditions, care regimens, and more.
As a pet owner, Stein has always been cautious about what she keeps in her home, so she opted to simplify the process for her fellow fur parents and make it very easy to find cat and dog-friendly flowers and ferns.
“When I would be shopping for plants, it would take such a long time for me to be standing there Googling every long plant name that they have on the tag to see if it's toxic to pets or not before I would bring it into my home, and that extends your trip to an hour or two hours,” Stein said.
“So we do specialize in pet-friendly houseplants. We do carry some toxic plants, but they are marked as such on the label, it will tell you right on the label that it is toxic to pets with a symbol on it. Every plant also has a QR code that takes you to our customized plant care blog on our website.”
And for those who may think they’re hopeless when it comes to taking care of a plant, don’t fret, Stein’s store has you covered.
“Because it is boutique style, and we're a smaller space, are able to really give that one-on-one plant care for all the plants that we carry. We pride ourselves on having really healthy plants that have had custom care to their needs instead of blanket watering or sprinkler systems that can overwater or underwater certain plants,” Stein said.
While Stein is already busy as can be – she currently works as the director of initiatives at Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds’s administration in addition to being pregnant – Steel City Plant Co. will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
But there’s no question you can count on finding the best plant life and expertise in Lehigh Valley at Stein’s new store, a sentiment shared by gardenerds, horticulturalists, and every other green-thumbed person in the area.
“She's a hustler. I mean she has a full-time job in the mayor's office, and she's doing this on the side. She has some great support from her family network,” Clark said. “It's very rewarding to see her do this because you can tell it's a passion of hers.”
