Get to Know Me

Claire Wilson, owner and founder of Prickled Pink Plants in her DIY pink cactus greenhouse in her Tucson backyard

Claire and her dog Gus in the first Prickled Pink Plants shop location. A tiny art studio only 100 sq ft to package all the orders overtaking her living room!

Claire when she was a little kid picking huckleberries in Montana, where her family instilled a love of nature, the outdoors, foraging and (especially) free delicious wild foods. 

 

"I was raised on plants, farming, and gardening since I was a young kid growing up in Pennsylvania flower gardening with my mom. She instilled a love of growing things in me, and my dad instilled a love of exploring the outdoors by always taking me hiking. I was gifted me my own dirt patch in our PA backyard when I was around 9 years old. I used to love picking out things to grow in it from the nursery, and as I grew up, that love of growing extended into everything from growing basil and flowers with my mom, to fermenting foods and growing my own sprouts in a jar on my kitchen counter, to full on small sustainable food farm vegetable gardening, to growing ornamental rare plants just for show, and then cactus and succulents once I got into desert landscaping. Along the way, I've dabbled in aquascaping, hydroponics, cannabis growing, landscaping, fruit tree growing, terrariums, carnivorous plants, and everything in between.

When I visit my parents, a lot of our catching up revolves around plants and landscaping. The first thing I do when I visit where they now reside in Southern California is discuss all the plants they've grown or put in since I was last there. My dad will proudly walk me around to show me how his bougainvilleas and jasmine vines are doing, while inquiring tentatively about which cactus could be put in where that wouldn't be too prickly, (sweetly wanting to support my business as much as they enjoy planting things).

In 2020, I moved to Tucson with about $500 to my name after losing my job in the pandemic shutdown and escaping a physically abusive relationship. All I had was a Uhaul truck full of a few belongings that I put into a storage unit out in Benson where it was cheapest, and I was crashing on a friend's couch. All I had with me besides basic necessities was a few totes of plants I was propagating. 

I upcycled pottery, containers, anything I could find, and separated and propagated the crap out of everything I had to try to make an income since I had nothing (but still had student loans and bills to pay!) and hosted small local plant sales with options to deliver or pick up.

I never got on welfare (no shame to those that do! I wish I had to be honest, and probably should have) but instead worked my butt off to make enough to scrape by, and eventually saved enough for my own place. 

Within a few years, I had worked enough to build my brand and business into a real thing. My dad came up with all his tools and supplies and built me a little pink greenhouse to have more room to grow things. Before that, I was working off of wobbly folding tables, makeshift surfaces and canopies that got torn down every monsoon season! My amazing dad built me an entire space to grow within just a few days, which was a gamechanger!

In 2023 I met my wonderful fiance Terry, and at the time I had taken on a second job to pay my bills because I couldn't keep up with the plant business as it was expanding. Terry jumped in and fixed my weathered greenhouse, took care of forgotten plants, packaged orders, and helped me build my business to where it is now. I was soon able to quit that second job and go back to selling plants full time with his help. 

Within that year I quickly outgrew my living room and expanded to a small commercial shop/studio space and a storage unit for supplies. The only issue was now everything was in 3 places, so although my brand was doing great, I had plants in the greenhouse at home, bulk shipping supplies across town, and packaging was all done out of the shop. It was a lot of moving around, so my shipping times were longer than I wanted them to be.

Finally in summer 2024 we moved and consolidated all my spaces to a bigger warehouse, greenhouse, yard and home with enough room to grow and ship all kinds of plants. Despite a TON of bad luck around this time with a tree falling on the new space in a storm, half my inventory being wiped out by hail, and our power being shut off for almost a month right after we moved in, we had a wonderful new space to live and work out of with 10x the room we had before!

Most days, you can find me happily messing around with plants at home, or at one of the many nurseries in Tucson I love supporting (shoutout to Plants for the Southwest, Bach's Greenhouse Cactus Nursery, and B&B Cactus Farm for providing me with many of the first plants I bought to build my business with in Tucson). 

If you're like me, you gain great satisfaction in nurturing anything that grows, taking pride in the care you've given it on its journey to becoming beautiful. It becomes an ongoing relationship of mutual care, with the plant giving you back as much joy as you put into it. 

I feel the same way about the customers who have helped me build my own plant business to where I am now. We have nurtured each other in a symbiotic relationship, and I take great pride in knowing that my plants are doing well with them and bringing them happiness, and am grateful to everyone who has helped me build my business to a successful place. I now get to work my dream job because of people like you here reading this and supporting me!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

I hope to continue bringing plants, healing, joy and growth to all my customers going forward! Thank you for being here."

- Claire <3