It is a sunny day in October, and Suburban Lawn & Garden has just opened its doors for the morning. Senior Ella Moore is enthusiastic about starting her brand new job working with what she loves: Plants.

Moore has always felt very close to the world of plants and has been interested in growing her knowledge in the topic.

“My mom was really into gardening ever since I was young — she would let us go to the store and pick out one plant and plant it in her garden,” Moore said. “As I got older, I said, ‘Oh, I kind of want to have my own garden’ but I do not have my own property, so I started getting into indoor plants.”

Now owning 35 individual plants just in her room with a lot of diversity, she has developed even more of a green thumb across the years.

“It’s different between the two different types of plants, which are succulents and tropical plants,” Moore said. “I have both mixed in and intermingled in my room. Succulents you can leave for much longer without watering, whereas a lot of tropical plants are more fussy and they need humidifiers and water at much sooner intervals.”

Due to her love of plants, she decided to apply at Suburban and has now been an employee for 10 months, working as a cashier. However, she also enjoys taking her knowledge of plants and using it to help customers with their decisions.

“There was one instance where this lady came up to me and was like, ‘Hi, I’m a beginner and I want you to make sure I’m not bringing home anything that I would kill immediately.’ I glanced at her cart and she had a lot of really great choices that are great for beginners,” Moore said. “Immediately, I spotted a fern that is very difficult to keep and also a Calathea plant which is a kind of tropical that I absolutely murdered. Apparently they’re awful to keep — they’re so difficult.”

Considering her previous love for the contents of the job, she enjoys the ambiance of Suburban.

“My favorite part of the job is probably just being in that environment,” she said. “It’s outside and it makes me happy being outside so I love that. I also get to look around for discounts and things that fall on the floor that I can take home with me for free.”

As a long-time plant caretaker, Moore has her own advice on where to start when looking to begin taking care of plants.

“I would start out how I did, which is with succulents,” Moore said. “Some of the easier plants start with arsenic plants or just your general succulents that you can find in Walmart. I would start with those and then once you get comfortable with them, you can move on to different kinds like money trees and fiddle figs, which are really easy tropicals.”

Plants don’t only serve as a hobby for Moore, but they also hold much more meaning to her, giving her an opportunity to develop nurturing skills.

“I really like taking care of something,” she said. “There’s something that gives you a sense of pride whenever you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is a living thing and I take care of it.’ It’s really fun.”