EALING has become the latest town in the country to have its very own indoor houseplant shop.

Aysha Tahir, 37 and Katy Marshall, 40, are the proud owners of Greenka on 65 The Grove.

The pair set up the business two years ago, when their passion for plants brought them together.

Tahir told Nub News: "Katy and I met because our kids go to the same school and we became friends over our mutual love for plants.

"But we couldn't find any plant stores that had the sort of thing we were looking for, the closest ones were in East London."

That's when the two mums decided to start their own business by selling at markets and car boot sales.

Tahir described themselves as 'two very enthusiastic plant ladies that thought if the plants can't come to us, we'll go to them.'

"During the first lockdown things really took off, so many people wanted to buy plants and we were getting overwhelmed because we offered a free delivery service up to five miles away from Ealing."

Then in October, Marshall stumbled upon Kanenas coffee shop and started talking to the owners.

"They offered to rent out their basement to us in order for us to use it as a storage space so that we didn't have to stock all our plants in Katy's house", Tahir added.

The two women however decided to actually turn the space into a shop and created Ealing's first indoor houseplant store.

The mum-of-three said: "We absolutely love our shop and love what we do, it's our full-time job now.

"The business has done well during COVID because plants are very good for people's mental health and we saw a big surge in the market.

"We even had a lady who came all the way from Poole to check out our shop, we were in shock.

"We've also found that coffee and plants go really well together, so we've got a great relationship with Kanenas because we share customers."

Greenka still offer a free delivery service for up to three miles away, but more importantly people can now go to their shop and buy the plants themselves, making it easier for Tahir and Marshall, not having to deliver all the orders.

"One of the best things about having our own shop is that now other plant enthusiasts can come to Greenka and we can chat about our mutual love of plants."