Flora and Friends
Katrina Camaj is the owner of Frida’s — a Melbourne plant shop and biophilic design studio, where passion and purpose intersect. STEVEN HICKS
Katrina Camaj’s quest to create connection in Melbourne
FRIDA’S
It’s a few minutes past open on a Wednesday at Frida’s, a plant shop and biophilic design studio in Melbourne. Upon entering the store, a warmth and whimsicality instantly swirls through the space that stretches across two rooms. Vines stretch from lush foliage that dangles from the ceiling. They reach to kiss the tops of customers’ heads as vibrant, leafy flora spreads across tables, floors, and walls to graze ankles and arms.
The liveliness carries into the neighboring room where customers eagerly peak into a slew of plants wrapped in brown paper. It’s a restock day and an orchestrated frenzy of employees work to unveil the newest plants. While the vivacious enthusiasm builds, an overwhelming feeling of serenity remains gently in the air.
Katrina Camaj, owner of Frida’s, stands with her dog, Monte, amid the gathering of greenery and people who make up the vast network of hundreds of plant-lovers that form her thriving community, united through their shared passion for horticulture.
Sharissa Villegas, right, an employee at Frida’s, extends the shop’s warmth, spending time with a customer while they browse the plants for sale. Preserved mosses are used to create custom artwork, right, by customers who attend Frida’s moss frame workshops. STEVEN HICKS
CONNECTION AND COMMUNITY
A framed portrait of artist Frida Kahlo is visible upon entrance, symbolizing the inspiration behind the shop’s name and essence. STEVEN HICKS
Camaj’s connection with plants began before she was even born.
“I come from a lineage of crazy plant people,” she said. “My mom, my grandparents, everybody is crazy about plants.”
Camaj was born in New York City but lived in Melbourne for most of her adolescence. She graduated from Satellite High School, where she met her husband, Steven Hendrickson. They lived in Chicago together and Camaj started a small business selling tillandsia, or air plants, called Windy City Plants, which operated out of a booth.
When the COVID-19 pandemic created a boom in online ordering, Camaj decided to sit out on the gold rush to emphasize building community. Already well versed in the power of horticulture, she watched as isolation expanded the plant-loving community greatly. Camaj and Hendrickson relocated back to Melbourne and within months Camaj opened Frida’s Plant Shop and Biophilic Design Studio to continue her journey of creating connections between people and plants.
Camaj named her shop after Frida Kahlo whose 70th anniversary of passing is this year. Kahlo was a revered Mexican artist and icon whose life was characterized by tragedy and adversity. Kahlo turned to painting, animals, and gardening to soothe her suffering and cope with her hardships. Camaj shares that deep love for art, animals, and plants and their influence within her own life.
“I look at my grandmother, who also had a hard life, and I remember as a child she would go around and talk to all of her plants as a mental escape,” Camaj said. “Mental health is greatly connected and affected by owning plants and having plants in your life.”
Camaj has found that her customers, whether knowledgeable or not about Kahlo, can make correlations and connections with Frida’s story. The opportunity to create those connections fuels Camaj’s pursuit within this industry.
Green foliage envelops the shop, displaying a diverse array of plants from which customers can choose their favorites. FRIDA’S
Camaj’s natural kindness easily blooms organic connections that go beyond a typical customer and business transaction. STEVEN HICKS PHOTOS
THE CAMAJ EFFECT
The flurry of commotion from restock day doesn’t faze Monte as he snuggles up to Camaj while under the large wood table she sits at. Monte is a 6-year-old, tan Georgia cur and lab mix who grew up in the shop. She pets him lovingly and surveys the scene of customers and employees, indistinguishable from each other and interacting among the plants.
“These are my friends,” she said.
As Camaj spoke, she frequently interrupted herself to acknowledge people who filtered in and out to shop, always calling them by their first names.
“It’s like Christmas every day,” she said. “Plant people, generally, are good people and you want to be around them. … People have made friends here. People have met their significant others here. I can’t tell you how many baby showers and weddings and baptisms we’ve been to.”
From the start, Frida’s offered a plant club. Customers pay a yearly membership fee to receive a new plant monthly. Frida’s Plant Club has amassed 740 members and, thanks to Camaj, has never repeated a plant in its almost three years of running. Members travel across Florida, including from as far as Tampa, Jacksonville, and Orlando, on or after the second Friday of each month to pick up the newest addition to their plant families and interact with the space.
Camaj cited her customers as her “why,” stating that finding a plant on someone’s wish list makes her whole week.
Plant club member Alison Charles experienced this firsthand.
Monte, Camaj’s beloved dog, frequently lounges around Frida’s and appears on store merchandise.
“She is the absolute sweetest. She will accommodate you and if you have a plant you want that is not in the store, she will try and look for it,” Charles said.
Other plant club members, including Angela Dunaway, attested to Camaj’s kinship, saying that Camaj talks to you like she’s known you forever.
Frida’s also hosts events which create the opportunity for plant-lovers of all walks of life to forge meaningful connections over their shared hobby.
“We’ll do a workshop here and have a 70-year-old lady sitting next to a group of 25-year-old girls and they both are genuinely enjoying each other’s company,” Camaj said.
This enjoyment expands further into the Space Coast’s plant community through Frida’s Plant Swap which is an event where plant owners trade foliage with each other. Frida’s invites other local plant stores to the event to support small businesses in the Space Coast and promote unity.
Frida’s specialty in biophilic design is of great reknown that reaches across Florida to Tampa’s City Center.
A TREND IN BIOPHILIA
Frida’s biophilic design turns seemingly ordinary exteriors into instantly captivating botanical art. FRIDA’S PHOTOS
Camaj’s amiable disposition is natural and her efforts to create local connections remains at the forefront of her work by constantly trying to grow the store’s impact. On the other side of her business, Camaj looks to focus on scaling Frida’s biophilic design services
“The plant store is meant to be a small community shop,” she said. “I don’t think we ever want to open another Frida’s plant shop. We want to focus on being more of a regional resource for biophilic design.”
Britannica describes biophilia as the hypothesis that “humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life.”
Camaj’s team works with customers across the U.S., whether residential and commercial, to create moss walls and living walls of large and small scales.
She explains biophilic design from a historical lens in which it has not been until the last generations where the disconnection of humans from interacting with nature prevails. Modern architecture within urban settings have created sterile environments often devoid of living things. The benefits of including biophilic design into everyday life range from increased productivity to a decrease in mental fatigue.
Frida’s visually intriguing and stress relieving designs have gained the studio more than 15,000 followers on Instagram. This piece can be seen at the Pig & Whistle in Cocoa Beach. FRIDA’S PHOTOS
“Biophilic design is the trend moving forward. If you’re designing a new workspace, you have to incorporate it or you’re missing a big opportunity to create a healthy work environment or create a really connected home space,” she said.
Camaj incorporates her customer-first approach into her biophilic design endeavors through not strictly selling an installation to a customer without going through her process of “design, build, and maintain.”
Frida’s works with customers through the entire “life cycle” of their biophilic installation to ensure not only initial value, but sustained benefit and beauty overtime. While biophilic design has been popular in Europe and major U.S. cities, Camaj said she aims to influence its incorporation and development within the region. She currently works to finish a large wall within Frida’s to display various moss and plant options as a “live catalog” for customers.
“It is different to see it, to touch it, and to experience it than just see a picture of it,” she said.
Frida’s biophilic design work can be seen across the Space Coast at places like Brevard Zoo and recently a piece in Cocoa Beach at The Pig and Whistle British Pub and Restaurant.
MELBOURNE’S BEST FRIEND
The incorporation of biophilic design is a shift that Camaj predicts will continue.The incorporation of biophilic design is a shift that Camaj predicts will continue.
Looking into the future, Camaj is applying for a license to serve beer, wine, and mocktails at Frida’s. The second room of the space, which includes the interactive moss wall model and a bar, has only been open for four months. Her vision is to utilize the space as a place for people to gather after work hours that is different from a typical bar setting.
“We sell plants, but it almost doesn’t matter because we just want to have a space where people feel comfortable coming in,” she said. “You don’t have to buy a plant to be here … it’s a place to have different kinds of interaction.”
Throughout this journey and moving forward, Camaj’s community-based mission continues to connect people within the Space Coast in ways that go beyond transaction.
“To see how plants have changed people’s lives for the better, and bring people together … it’s beautiful,” she said.
Christine Jacobsen was one of Frida’s first customers, having attended opening day. She also describes Frida’s plant community as beautiful.
“Every time I come here, I feel like I’m going to visit a friend at their home,” Jacobsen said. “There’s a lot that we all have in common even though we are so different. There is unity here because of our love and interest in plants and in each other.”
