By Gina Horan
A Tropical Oasis Blooms at VerdeVin in Downtown Leesburg
When Carla Garcia was growing up in Puerto Rico, she would spend weekends with her family at El Yunque National Forest, the largest rainforest in the Caribbean.
“That was our playground on the weekends with my grandfather, and then we would go to the beach,” she says with a smile. “That’s why I call it Salty Plants.”
Carla loves to recreate those childhood memories in her everyday life, and now she can do that with VerdeVin, a tiny plant shop tucked just off Main Street in downtown Leesburg.
Specializing in tropical plants, VerdeVin is a lush little escape from a featureless workspace or the endless pavement of everyday life.
“If you come in looking for a tropical plant, something hearty and hard to kill, this is your place,” Carla says.
Guidance is all part of the service. After selling plants online, she wanted to bring her vision to life in a way that would bring people together. Since plants are so hands-on and visceral, it just made sense.
Carla carefully curates and nurtures all her plants, serving as your personal plant concierge. Not only will she recommend options that are relatively hard to kill, she also nurses sick plants back to health through her in-store rehab area.
“This is what I love to do,” says the self-described plant whisperer. “We have a few that just needed a bit of hands-on care, and then I give them back with specific instructions to help them flourish.”
She’s also planning to install a community garden just outside her stylish little shed, where she hopes to grow more plants and collaborate with neighbors.
“We want to start next month, in August, with a once-a-month plant swap and maybe help homeschool children get out and learn about plants.”
Carla also makes cooking salts out of herbs and handcrafts greeting cards, all of which she sells in the store.
“We hope to grow organically, just like the plants, and we’re so grateful to be here sharing our vision in downtown Leesburg,” she says.
You can visit VerdeVin from 10am to 4pm, Tuesday-Saturday at 1012 W. Main St., Leesburg. Call 352.530.7003 or email verdevinllc@gmail.com for more information.
Photos by Gina Horan
Gina moved to central Florida in August of 2021 from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and spent 10 years as a fashion editor, columnist and food writer for The Knight Ridder Newspaper group. She was also a photo stylist and covered concerts, fashion shows and festivals all over Northern California. In 2000, she joined KSAN radio as a morning show co-host and produced the news and sports content there for 4 years. She also covered travel, events and the restaurant scene for KRON-Bay TV. She is a veteran bartender and has worked in hospitality on and off since high school. Her passions include travel, road trips, history books, baseball, tasting menus and most of all, landing in a new city with no map or guidebook. Gina lives in Oxford with her mom, cats and baby hamster.
