Good Talk Series: Urban Gardening Made Easy ft. The Green Capsule

Hey there, green thumbs and nature lovers! 

Today, we’re chatting with Ricky, one of the creative forces behind The Green Capsule. Learn how a landscape architect and a horticulturist teamed up to bring the joy of urban gardening to everyone. The Green Capsule’s story is a delightful mix of passion, innovation, and a deep love for all things green.

Happy reading, and don’t miss out on their amazing products for your next gift-giving occasion.

GiftGood: Hello! It's great to have you here. We're eager to hear more about your green adventures and The Green Capsule. First of all, can you share a bit about yourself and any particular experiences or influences in your early days that sparked your idea for a business of urban gardening and nature? What inspired this beautiful venture?

Ricky: Good day everyone! My name is Ricky and I am one of the co-founders of The Green Capsule. How we started Green Capsule was purely out of giving. My wife was a horticulturist and I was a Landscape Architect. Both of us love nature and plants. One day, while going for a housewarming, instead of the usual household gifts or red packet, we decided to make a terrarium for them. Back then, terrariums were quite unusual and everyone was surprised by the gift. With our friend's urge, we decided to set up a pop up to showcase our handcrafted terrariums. Soon after, the craze for terrariums caught up and eventually, we decided to focus on doing this full time. For us, we believe that nature may not be just wild, untouchable, and mysterious, it can also be a gift with well position of plants, rocks, pebbles, sand. Giving a piece of nature to someone you love and care. 

GiftGood: Your selection of plants is incredible! Can you share more about some of the unique varieties you offer that are the most popular among your customers, and why do you think they love them so much?

Ricky: In general, we have 3 different types of biome - Foliage, Succulents and Airplants. Each requires a unique environment to stay alive. Foliage setups are usually moist and lush. Succulent setups are usually more colourful and they prefer a dry environment. Airplant setups are the easiest as they do not need soil to thrive and in general, they don’t attract pests. Among all, succulent setups are the most popular due to the colours and the exotic alien looking foliage and structure.  

GiftGood: How do you go about selecting the plants for your business? Are there particular qualities you look for?

Ricky: I usually look at a few characteristics -structure, colors and height

Structure - Whether the leaves are long, fat, short and round, they add characters to the arrangement. Mixing these structures will create either a mysterious looking art piece or a very lush tropical setting. 

Colors - In general, a plant is usually considered more of a dark ornament, most plants are green and darker shades. So to brighten the living art piece, we add bright foliage or ornaments such as coloured pebbles/sand. Sometimes the variegation of the leaves can help to exude the brightness, so these are very important factors to consider

Height - Typically, a plant arrangement tends to have a hierarchy of height, from low to high so that the arrangement will look pleasing. Adding some focal plants or ornaments can draw one to focus on the item while the rest of the plants act as a backdrop to luminate the focus. 

The best part about plants is that there will always be new species. Nature never fails to surprise!

GiftGood: We’re sure that your customers must have amazing stories about their experiences with your products. Could you share some memorable feedback from the customers that really stands out to you, and how it shaped your business?

Ricky: Oh yes, along the way, there will be some customers that will come to us and tell us how their plants have survived all these years and are amazed by how sustainable they are. Some may even recognize us after so many years, sometimes we felt that we are like celebrities. Of course, there are some that told us how their plants died terribly which we will try our best to regain their confidence by advising them that they can recycle their jars again! Sometimes these customers will advise us back again what plants are more suitable and how to ensure they can thrive better. So in the end, it became a teaching and learning engagement! 

GiftGood: Seeing the impact of your work on both your customers and the environment must be incredibly rewarding. Can you share what aspect of this work brings you the most happiness and why it’s so meaningful to you personally?

Ricky: As we are facing global warming and given our petite little house settings, it is heartwarming to see more and more homeowners finding creative ways to grow their plants. From terrariums to hanging gardens to some hardcore fans that convert their bedroom to a living jungle. It shows that as much as we tend to destroy the nature for globalisation, we at the same time become farmers for greenery and nature. If more and more people are doing this, then perhaps one day, our earth has hope to reverse the global warming issue. 

GiftGood: Running a business like The Green Capsule must have its fair share of challenges. What are some of the toughest obstacles you've encountered in managing this business, and how have you managed to overcome them?

Ricky: We are dealing with perishable products. These products need water, fertiliser and light to sustain. Unlike non-perishable products, they have very limited shelf-life. If they can’t be sold after a few weeks, they may grow out of shape as such, we need to clear them asap. There are alot of underlying costs such as watering, fertilising, manpower cost to trim and pamper them. Not only that, the materials to sustain them are not light nor small, we are dealing with tonnes of soil, pebbles, fertilisers. Look around Singapore, how many plant shops are there in a retail mall, not many, less than 5 fingers. It is definitely not easy to sustain. 

Another obstacle is maintenance.. Plants are living things, even though we advise customers how much water or light they need, it will all depend on each type of plant and the environment. Just like putting 2 children in a room, as they grow, they may grow differently depending on their genetics. So as much as our instruction on how much water or light, the owner will still need to observe whether the plants are doing well or not. 

GiftGood: Looking ahead, do you have any plans to introduce new types of products or expand your current offerings?

Ricky: One of the problems of running a plant gift shop is expansion. As we are dealing with live plants and soil, it is near impossible to export due to restrictions. Also, tourists (which Singapore is heavily dependent on) can’t purchase the items. 

So starting from mid last year, we started to merchandise a series of preserved terrariums, these terrariums are tourist friendly and they are currently at tourist hot spots such as Gardens by The Bay. Also, we expanded our service a few years ago to conduct corporate workshops and gifts that focus on sustainable green products such as terrariums, potted plants, flora and plant arrangement. 

Giftgood: We love the idea of gifting plants! Do you have any tips for choosing the perfect plant or terrarium for different occasions or people? We'd love to hear your recommendations!

Ricky: Terrariums are very personal. We can’t exactly tell what jar type is for what kind of occasion but in general, what we see in trends is that people will attend our terrarium workshops to craft the terrariums for their loved ones. They prefer the personalised touch of giving a handcrafted plant art.

GiftGood: Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. We’re excited to see where your journey takes you next.

Ending on a good note,

It’s been a pleasure learning about The Green Capsule with Ricky. We found his journey truly inspiring and hope you did too. 

The Green Capsule’s unique products are featured on GiftGood Plus - the gifting marketplace developed by GiftGood. From green thumb enthusiasts to budding hobbyists, there’s a plant for everyone here. Check out their products, and happy gifting!