Ex-roommates’ green thumbs blossom into McHenry plant store Verdant Sol, Full Moon Market craft fair

McHenry’s first Full Moon Market – a craft fair for “lovers of all things strange and unusual” – had a handful of vendors in the strip of a city park that sits between D.C. Cobb’s and the Fox River on a rainy October afternoon in 2020.

The 2024 Full Moon Market is set from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, at McHenry’s Miller Point Park. So far, organizers have 35 craft vendors, assorted food trucks and acoustic musicians set to perform.

“All of our vendors have a Halloween theme,” and there is a witch costume contest set for 2:30 p.m. that day, Kristina “Dolly” Bates said.

Bates and her business partner, Jennifer Needham, started the seasonal market and their business, Verdant Sol, selling houseplants at area farmers markets and craft fairs only a few months before. About a month after that, they opened their first storefront location in downtown McHenry.

Now, four years later, Verdant Sol is thriving as much as the plants it sells. It has had to “repot,” too, as the business has grown, going from a 18-by-19-feet space next to the Riverside Bake Shop to its own storefront at 1328 Riverside Drive.

Verdant Sol’s roots started back in 2010, when Bates and Needham met through another friend and became roommates. Both of them either had a green thumb or were working to develop one, caring for their own houseplants. They built a reputation for knowing how to care for ailing plants.

“We were taking in people’s plants to rehab them at our house,” Bates said.

A lot of that rehab was experimental trial-and-error to determine what worked, Needham said, because there was less information available on the internet on how to care for specific plants.

The roommates eventually moved on, but the two remained closed over the years. They were bouncing around the idea of opening a plant store and coffee shop in McHenry, and even scheduled a meeting with McHenry Mayor Wayne Jett, when COVID-19 hit and shut down everything.

“We went back to the drawing board,” Bates said.

We want to set them up for success. We don’t want to send them home with a plant they are going to kill in a week.”

—  Kristina “Dolly” Bates, Verdant Sol co-owner

Needham suggested they start selling plants at events such as the Pearl Street Market and hold off on the coffee shop idea. Connecting with the bakery’s owners, they opened a storefront in November 2020.

Business grew fast, as did the plants available. They moved to the new building across the street in August 2021 and now have at least 100 species and houseplant varietals available. They’ve added gifts – many from local businesses and craftspeople – so that customers coming in looking for a birthday present or housewarming gift have more to choose from.

They’ve also started offering classes at the store, teaching clients to macrame plant hangers, make their own candles and even create their own terrariums.

“You get to drink some coffee with girlfriends while making a plant hanger,” Bates said.

Some things have not changed. Customers still bring the two sick and ailing plants to bring back from the brink of death.

Most often, the problem is the soil, Bates said. Root rot can set in when that soil is not draining and the roots are left too wet. They charge a fee for repotting, unless the pot came from their store.

“We are not going to charge for advice,” Bates said.

“We are a community here. We are here for the support that they need,” Needham added.

As the business has spread, they’ve been able to get more exotic plants from their distributor. But the two said they want to ensure the plants they sell will thrive when taken home.

“We want to set them up for success. We don’t want to send them home with a plant they are going to kill in a week,” Bates said.

For those who have not jumped on the houseplant bandwagon that popped up during the COVID-19 shutdowns, it is not too late. Bates suggests starting out with a low-maintenance plant, such as a snake plant.

“You water that heavily once a month,” Bates said.