In loving memory of Vina Mildred
10.13.1918 - 4.29.2014
The original pattern for Vina Planters patented design began as a wooden picture frame I made in 2012. It was a gift for my grandmother who always loved orchids.
COMPANY LAUNCH 1.12.24
It feels surreal that after a decade, we launched our planters at the 2024 Tamiami International Orchid Festival!
We would have never made it this far without the endless support of our family and friends cheering us on at every milestone and hurdle. They are very literally the reason this company exists. We truly hope you love Vina Planters as much as we do and that they bring your garden a little joy, from our family to yours.
If you have any questions or just want to say hi, feel free to send us an email at info@vinaplanters.com
Thank you so much - Sarah Joy, Founder of Vina Planters
Our journey from picture frame to orchid planters
In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that the first Vina Planter prototype was made as a present for my mother-in-law who had gifted me my very first orchid. Upon seeing the picture frame that I made for my grandmother, she asked if it was possible to make her a basket with the same design.
And that, my friends, is when our decade long journey began.
LASERCUT PLYWOOD PROTOTYPE (2015)
When my mother-in-law asked me to make her an orchid planter, I had just started working at a fabrication shop in Fort Lauderdale. As the daughter of a carpenter, I have always been drawn to work environments that foster a creative, hands-on atmosphere. Because of this I have had some very fun tools at my disposal. Here you can see our very first laser cut wooden prototype from 2015.
Trial and error... that's what prototypes are for…. right? I knew the monopoly level success of the standard slatted wooden orchid baskets and really wanted to keep these planters as natural as possible too. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was a huge mistake until we watched them deteriorate outside in the elements, as all wooden baskets do. Feeling frustrated and defeated, I knew our material selection needed improvement, but I continued to refuse my husband's suggestion of using plastic. There had to be another way.
ROUTED PLASTIC PROTOTYPE (2017)
It wasn't long until my mother-in-law started poking us for
more planters for her friends. They had seen the prototypes in her garden and even despite their wooden fragility, wanted some of their own. But I was determined to find a more durable, yet still sustainable solution.
My husband kept insisting we needed to move to plastic if we
wanted something that would last longer outdoors, but the last thing I wanted to use in our garden was plastic, and I knew many others felt the same.
In 2017, we finally had a compromise. I found a supplier offering 100% recycled plastic sheet material. They were beautiful, durable outdoors, and recycled! I couldn't make more prototypes fast enough. Quite literally though, as one sheet of material took us eight hours to cut out on the CNC router, yielded minimal planters, and that didn't include clean up or assembly. Not exactly cost-effective manufacturing, but at least we were headed in the right direction and had durable prototypes to conduct market research with.
MARKET RESEARCH (2018)
Despite the long router times and expensive recycled material, I was determined to crunch the numbers and figure out a way to make production viable but first I needed feedback. Is this even something people other than my loved ones would want?
Routed prototypes in hand, we conducted a two day market research survey at Mounts Botanical Garden in 2018 at the Exotic Plant & Orchid Sale. I was overwhelmed with the encouragement and almost 100% (literally 99%) positive replies to the survey. I also received critical design feedback like adding more details to the design to prevent medium loss during repotting, and most importantly, that the routed prototypes were way too heavy for most customers.
With this information in hand, I now had the confidence of knowing people loved them but I also knew the solution to the heavy weight was something I had no direct experience with - injection molding. I had learned about injection molding back in college but I needed to find a way to catch myself up to speed so I could deliver a product that checked all of the boxes.
INJECTION MOLDING (2019-2021)
I received my bachelors degree in Industrial Design in 2009, but injection molding was a process I didn't learn much about, other than it is extremely expensive upfront (tooling), and is mainly used by big companies for cheap mass produced landfill destined products.
So I started my research the best way I knew how - by
landing a position at a local injection molding company. I worked as a manager there for two years from 2019-2021 learning:
- What options are available in recycled materials
- Why injection molders did not like to use recycled
material (expensive and difficult to process) - How these tools and products are quoted (material, cycle times, cavities, assemblies)
- Design limitations (thickness, ribs, draft)
- and so much more
It was a very educational crash course that gave me the
knowledge I needed to proceed with my first set of tooling. We were officially all in and spent 2022-2023 developing our first set of 8" planter tooling. As you can tell, we don't like to rush, so we took our time doing sample after sample, until we got it just right.
LAUNCH (2024)
We officially launched Vina Planters at the Tamiami International Orchid Festival in Miami on January 12, 2024. To say we were overwhelmed by your support would be an understatement! We could not have expected a better turnout. Thank you to each and every one of you who stopped by to support our family owned business!
Since launching we have done several events throughout South Florida, funded our next set of tooling for our 6" size (coming this fall!), and sold completely out of our first batch of inventory! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for believing in us and loving Vina Planters as much as we do!
A decade in the making...
Vina Planters
8" Orchid Planter with chain hanger
