Alicia Norfolk: Inspired by Sandra Bullock’s Movie, 28 Days
Along Alicia Norfolk’s journey of recovery from alcohol and substance abuse, she saw a film which would impact her and eventually lead her to two new business ventures.
She had seen the Sandra Bullock movie, 28 Days, in which Bullock’s character is sent to rehab for her addiction to alcohol. A counselor tells Bullock’s character that if she was looking to get into a successful relationship, she should get a plant. If the plant is still alive, then try a pet for a year and if those work out, then a relationship.
Well, Norfolk got a plant. She didn’t get a pet; she got more plants.
“I went to a nursery and I got a plant. Then a couple years later I had an apartment filled with plants,” she joked.
She opened the Green Princess Plant Shop in March and while she operates it out of her apartment, Norfolk realized she needed additional seed money to make the business blossom.
So, she put her janitorial experience to work and started Green Princess Cleaning. She had been working in the janitorial department at Oswego Hospital but decided she needed to make a change. She left that job in July of this year and opened her cleaning business the next day.
Over the summer, she’d been working at both the cleaning business and promoting the plant shop at the Oswego Farmers’ Market, which has introduced her to a variety of contacts for both business entities. She has also taken advantage of social media to get the word out, including posts on Nextdoor and she offers indoor plant care tips on her Facebook Live page, Green Princess Plant Shop.
She’ll even make house calls for sick plants. She explained how she visited one family, saw that their plant had been overwatered, so she took it back to her apartment, started tending to it, sent the family pictures of its progress and returned the healthy plant back in about a month’s time.
She applies three principles that she learned during recovery — patience, love and forgiveness — to her work. She said she approaches both the plants and people’s homes with those three standards.
“I’ve seen the growth by being patient, loving and forgiving,” she said.
So, she got the plant, then got more plants and got into a good relationship. It’s her boyfriend, T.J. Calderone, who came up with the name of the business. As she explained, she had been referring to herself as the plant witch, but Calderone didn’t like the name. She said that one day, as she was working on some plants, he asked her what she was doing. She said that she was propagating a philodendron, telling him that it is nicknamed the green princess.
Calderone decided then and there that that should be her new name. And it has stuck.
For more information on the Green Princess, check out her Facebook page, Green Princess Plant Shop.
