Obsessed so you don’t have to be.
upwegrow
2019 · The obsession begins
The obsession begins
upwegrow began the way a lot of good things did around 2019 — at home, with time on our hands and a growing curiosity. Family trips to local greenhouses turned into importing rare plants from the other side of the world, and a casual interest tipped, fast, into a full-blown obsession.
2020 · We took it online
2020 · We took it online
By 2020 we’d taken it online. What started as a partnership grew into a small business built on one simple idea: grow the plants we genuinely loved, care for them properly, and share them with people who’d love them too.
2022 · Our first shop
Our first shop
In 2022 we opened our first brick-and-mortar shop to meet customers face to face.
2024 · A bigger room, and the turn
A bigger room, and the turn
In 2024 we were scouted into Southgate Centre — a bigger space, and a bigger vision. But a bigger room needs a bigger base, and between rising costs and an uncertain economy, the math of retail overhead stopped adding up.
2026 · Coming home
Coming home
So in 2026 we made a hard decision, and a deliberate one: close the retail space and come home. Back to the greenhouse, back to what we do best — growing exceptional plants for people who actually care about them.
The name — meaning
upwegrow
The name was always the point. upwegrow — not just plants growing in our care, but the way tending to something living quietly lifts us, too. It’s a nod to a community that grows together and helps each other up.
Today · Meet James & the craft
Fewer plants, grown better
Today, upwegrow is just me, James, raising tropical houseplants and curating bioactive supplies from the greenhouse in my own home here in Edmonton. Plants and bioactive sit side by side — two halves of the same obsession. Every plant is hand-curated and cared for with organic fertilizers, considered soil mixes, and dechlorinated water, then quarantined on arrival so pests never reach you. Fewer plants, grown better.
Who it’s for — the welcome
You’re especially welcome
This is for the plant-and-bioactive obsessed and the brand-new plant parent alike — anyone who wants the best of what I grow, not the cheapest thing on a shelf. And if you’ve killed every plant you’ve ever owned? You’re especially welcome. That’s the whole point.