Sacred Vines brings healing and intention to boutique botany

Inside Old Town Marketplace, 322 Main Street, a dozen creative micro-businesses pack into the two-floor indoor mall. From artists, boba tea and empanadas to jewelry, cosmetics and party-planning, the variety creates a unique atmosphere.

Open for a month now, Sacred Vines is one of the latest creative businesses to move into the building. The small shop is decked in greenery and a hint of spirituality befitting the name. Owner Tey Walker wanted her shop to feel cozy and approachable, particularly for locals looking to add plantlife to their homes.

“Plants are very healing — they are alive, they purify our air and I also believe they purify the energy in our homes,” Walker said. “They are almost like a filter for our homes.”

Before taking up home botany, Walker was in property management. Calling herself a “successful plant parent” for around a half dozen years, Walker loved sharing plant-care tips with tenants and through social media. With an overabundance of plants in her house, Walker started gifting them to friends and loved ones. The passion took root and she decided to make her passion bloom into a business, Walker said.

Tomas Perez, who manages Old Town Marketplace, said he’d wanted a plant store in the mall for quite some time. Perez had someone lined up before COVID, he explained, but uncertainty in the early days of the pandemic saw the tenant back out. Sacred Vines was an opportunity to add another creative outlet, he said.

Walker wants to reassure folks that there are plenty of easy to care for plants, even for those without a green thumb. In her early days of indoor gardening, Walker said keeping succulents and snake plants — simple and hearty plants — alive was a challenge. The need for greenery in her house encouraged her to persevere, keeping one alive and then another until she had a few hundred.

When some buys a plant from Sacred Vines, Walker makes sure the customer has all the resources they need to keep the plant healthy and thriving. The plants have unique needs like all living things, so Walker will talk to her customers about what the light and climate in their house is like and guide them accordingly, she explained. She also makes herself available to customers that have any questions after a plant has gone home.

In addition to hanging plants and planters, Walker also creates custom terrariums arranged with salt rocks, crystals and plants to offer unique feelings with each one.

“They’re like a spell to me. I put a lot of love and intention into each one of them,” she explained. “I make the terrariums with a purpose. Each one has a different job.”

Walker’s favorite plant in the shop is the trailing jade, a combination of a succulent and trailing vine she said is hearty and beautiful. The boutique botanist also keeps a few rare plants for more experienced gardeners and collectors, as well as bonsai tree starter kits. 

“I’m very passionate about my plants and my store, I just want people to know they can come in and truly feel like part of the family,” Walker said.