New plant shop opens in Whanganui, with hundreds stopping in on first day

Ricky Bing at his new shop Plantish at Castlecliff Beach. Photo / Lewis Gardner

Whanganui's newest store opened on Sunday - and demand was so high it nearly sold out of stock.

Plantish, the brainchild of Whanganui man Ricky Bing, sells a range of plants, with collections ranging from succulents and edibles all the way to large banana plants specifically suited for the Whanganui climate.

Bing said he's been growing plants his entire life and has been selling them online for the last few years. He said that after lockdown, a move into a brick and mortar physical presence seemed like a good plan.

"I've grown plants for a long time, and over lockdown the plant market went crazy and we wanted to open a shop," Bing said.

"We started looking for a spot and we found this, so jumped at it.

"There's a massive plant market here in Whanganui and I can't really keep up with the demand."

The response from the community on opening day was huge, he said.

"It was way better than what I could have hoped for. At 10am when we opened, there was a line of about 20 out the door, and we're almost sold out.

"There's probably been close to a few hundred in and out today."

Prior to entering the plant business, Bing had a role in the corporate world, which he said eventually became too difficult to grapple with.

"I used to work in change management, which is basically hiring and firing, so the changing point came when I had to make a couple of hundred people redundant just before Christmas.

"I decided that it wasn't for me any more, so I moved to plants and haven't looked back. It's just about getting a better work-life balance really."

Bing said he propagates around 80 per cent of his stock himself, with the remaining 20 per cent purchased wholesale.

"That's the point of difference of the shop. We want to make sure what we're selling is grown by us, so we can stand behind it a lot more.

"So far the response has been awesome, so I'm really hopeful."

Plantish is open 10am-4pm on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 14 Rangiora St, Castlecliff.