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A new Belle View Shopping Center store is offering more than houseplants: Genius Genus will repot, deliver and even care for customers’ plants while they are away.
Christy Castro owns the Mount Vernon shop with her husband, Ed. Despite occasional confusion inspired by its name, Genius Genus is not a tutoring business. The store typically carries 70 to 100 houseplants, along with plant-themed gifts and gardening supplies.
“Plants are the geniuses,” Christy said of the name. “I’m not. Mother Nature made them.”
Nearly 60 percent of the shop’s plants are tropical. Its selection, sourced from greenhouses in Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, includes pothos, spider plants, begonias and philodendrons. Several shelves are devoted to varieties considered safe for children and pets.
Prices start at about $6 and rise to several hundred dollars, serving everyone from shoppers seeking a centerpiece to collectors hunting for rare specimens.
Christy traces her enthusiasm for houseplants to her mother and grandmother, who always kept plants in their homes. She still treasures a begonia passed down from her great-great-grandmother.
She believes the indoor-plant business gained momentum during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, when people looked for ways to add beauty and greenery to their homes.
For customers convinced they have a “black thumb,” Christy recommends choosing plants suited to the conditions inside their homes. She says successful plant care depends on five essentials: water, light, food, soil and pruning. The store sells grow lights, including bulbs designed for ordinary lamps, for homes that lack sufficient natural light.
Genius Genus also provides repotting and delivery services. Its plant-sitting service sends a staff member to water and feed customers’ plants while they are away.
Beyond live plants, the store stocks books, aprons, calendars, shirts, cards, coasters, vintage pots, grow kits, fertilizer, potting soil and accessories that include “plant jewelry.” Customers can also find cat-grass seeds, gift-basket supplies and plant-themed games such as Verdant and Herbaceous.
The inventory includes shirts, cards and tote bags featuring ink prints by Matt Zdance, as well as Sydney Hunter’s watercolors made with pressed flowers.
The Castros hope eventually to organize plant-centered gatherings, including bingo with a houseplant as the prize and a “Coffee, Tea, Me and Plants” discussion event.
“There are actually house plant groupies,” Christy said. “It’s a little-known obsession.”
The couple also operates The Unleashed Pet, a pet-sitting and dog-walking company they have run for 15 years. Its six employees serve an area stretching from Crystal City to Fort Belvoir and including most of Alexandria and the Kingstowne area.
The business can visit pets several times daily and offers transportation to veterinary appointments. It also supplies dog harnesses, seat belts and crates. The company has even driven pets to and from weddings when they were included in the ceremony.
Ed grew up in Houston, while Christy was raised in the Groveton and Dale City areas. The couple moved Genius Genus from Prince Street in Alexandria to Belle View in mid-October.
“I love this area,” Christy said.
Their own home contains at least 200 houseplants, four dogs and five cats—a reflection of Christy’s belief that growing and caring for another living thing can be therapeutic.