Kelsey Whipple
From the street, Mickey Hargitay Plants looks slightly more exotic than the plants section of a Home Depot, but that changes immediately once you step into the store's 1,500-foot greenhouse. There trees, succulents, cacti, bromeliads and carnivorous plants compete for attention; a few corridors have plants stacked three shelves high or laced across the ceiling like jungle vines. Although the store is heavy on low-maintenance, drought-friendly favorites like fiddle-leaf figs and succulents, Mickey's carries most plants that aren't fictional — some of them with silly shapes that would please Dr. Seuss — with the ability to order hundreds more from one of the growers with which it partners. Here you can buy a Venus flytrap and an air plant while the man behind you takes home a papaya tree and an avocado tree. And if your plant doesn't agree with its new home, don't worry. Owner Mickey Hargitay and staff will help diagnose your plant's problems, answer questions over the phone or even stop by your house (for a fee) to perform plant maintenance.
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