According to the Chestnut Hill Business District, there are currently 30 Black-owned businesses in Chestnut Hill, which might be the most ever. One of those businesspeople, Yolanda Palmer, owner of plant store Foliage, at 8139 Germantown Ave. (at Hartwell Lane), feels right at home. “I can't say enough about the residents here and the other business owners. Chestnut Hill people definitely support small businesses, and the business owners help each other. 

Palmer opened her plant store on Dec. 4, 2021. The site is chockablock with an extraordinary variety of plants that seem to fill almost every inch of the store, which formerly housed the Garden Gate Antique Shop. Several other businesses on the block are also Black-owned.

“A long time ago my best friend's mother lived in Chestnut Hill,” she said. My friend said this neighborhood was great, and she was right. I have not met a bad person yet or had a bad experience. And the people really care about small businesses up here. I live in Southwest Philly, but I hope to be able to move up here with my sons.”

Palmer spent many years working in downtown hotels, but that ended in 2007 when she became pregnant with twins and suffered complications during her pregnancy. “I was forced to stay in the hospital for two months, and my money ran out,” she said. “I could not get my job back, so I got another job with the Public Health Management Corp. and worked in accounting and billing there for 12 years.” 

Palmer’s twin sons are now 16 and have worked at several stores on the Avenue. Her father was a fireman who died of smoke inhalation in 2003. “That phone call was the worst moment of my life,” she said. 

Palmer quit that job in 2019 to turn her hobby of caring for plants into a business. She started selling plants at pop-up events. In July 2020, four months after the pandemic started, Palmer opened a plant shop, Yolanda's Plants & More, in a Southwest Philly flea market while also doing pop-ups at Chestnut Hill street festivals. 

“People told me I had to come to Chestnut Hill,” she said, “so I went to the Chestnut Hill Business District, and they were so nice. Kate O'Neill [CHBA director of operations] told me that Sister Sunflower, a plant store on Germantown Avenue, had closed the previous September and that people up here love plants.”

Palmer knew she could no longer work for anyone but herself, but why a plant store? “I have loved plants since I was a child,” she explained. “It was always my hobby. I have always had lots of them and enjoy taking care of them and had 128 houseplants at home when I opened the store. But I had to cut back because they have to be cared for, and I'm here in the store for so many hours. I can be having a bad day, but when I come in here and water the plants, my mood improves.”

Palmer is even happy with her store’s landlord. “Richard Snowden does not get enough thanks,” she said. “He has been an excellent landlord. If there is ever a problem, he is right on top of it. And he helped me get this corner property at a very fair rent. This corner store was meant for me.”

During my visit on a recent Friday afternoon, Foliage saw a steady parade of customers. For me, the most spectacular item in the store is not any of the many gigantic plants but rather a huge collage of upside-down empty French wine bottles. It could easily be in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But about those plants? Their prices range from $15 to $3,500 for an Albino Monstera, which, at $200 a leaf, could fill up an entire shop window.  

An additional part of Palmer’s business is caring for other people's plants when they go out of town. However, Palmer has not had a vacation since the store’s opening and does not plan any. “I would like to get more corporate clients,” she said. “A customer did help me get a contract with One Commerce Square at 2005 Market St., which is big. Social media can be helpful, but there is nothing like word-of-mouth.” That word of mouth has spread up and down the Hill, and in return, Palmer has staged a Customer Appreciation Day. 

Her powers of propagation aren’t limited to seedlings, either. In addition to dozens of houseplants at home, Palmer has four adult dogs, four puppies, two bearded dragons, two chameleons and two red turtles. She has 2000 followers on Instagram and more on Facebook and TikTok. 

For more information, visit foliagechestnuthill.com. 

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com