The Old Yew Plant Shop
While plant lovers of the UWS may have been sad to see The Sill go, worry not! A new plant business called The Old Yew Plant Shop will be taking over the space at 448 Amsterdam Ave (between 81st and 82nd Streets) very soon.
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The Old Yew Plant Shop is an indoor and outdoor plant store that also offers landscape design and plant maintenance services. The store plans to hold a grand opening on Tuesday, October 15.
The Old Yew Plant Shop
We spoke with Eliza Blank, founder of The Sill, and August Laska, owner of The Old Yew Plant Shop, who shared the heartwarming backstory of this store takeover.
Since 2017, 448 Amsterdam Ave has been occupied by The Sill, a trendy, minimalist plant store. Blank started The Sill with a simple plan to help urban residents care for their plants.
“Plants make people happy, but they are challenging at first for a city dweller. It was difficult at the time to figure out where to buy plants, and which kinds of plants would survive, if not thrive, in a New York City apartment. People also struggled to find pots, and soil, and learn how to coexist with their plants successfully.”
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The Sill quickly blossomed, opening several NYC locations in subsequent years including the UWS store, an important one for their growth. “In 2017, we opened this store, which was hugely exciting for us and really helped put us on the map,” Blank said.
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Moving forward, The Sill is shifting its focus away from brick-and-mortar stores.
“In the end, the last thing we want to do is compete with independent plant store owners,” says Blank. “This feels like the right time for us to quietly exit brick and mortar and focus on our online business because it allows more breathing room for those plant stores to flourish.”
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With The Sill vacating the store (they closed on Sunday), who would take up the mantle of caring for the plants of the UWS?
Enter The Old Yew Plant Shop, founded by Laska during the pandemic.
“I used to work in an office in marketing,” Laska told us. “In 2020, I started working outside with friends and family because the only safe thing to do then was to be outside. Very quickly, it turned into a business, sort of by accident. I was working in a family friend’s garden and their neighbor came over and said, oh my gosh, those hydrangeas are so beautiful. Can I pay you to do this in my yard? And that was my first paying customer. By December of 2021, we had opened our first storefront.”
The Old Yew Plant Shop now has two locations in Chelsea and the West Village, and when it came time to expand to a third, Laska had his sights set on the UWS, and not just because he’s an Upper West Sider himself.
“When this opportunity came up, it was an offer that I could not pass on, especially because the store is within walking distance from where I live! Outside of the fact that the Upper West Side is such a vibrant place, it feels like it’s different enough from the West Village that we won’t be competing with ourselves,” Laska said.
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The fact that this space was formerly occupied by The Sill was also special for Laska.
“I was a customer of The Sill many, many years ago before this was my own business,” Laska told us. “I’m excited to follow in Eliza’s footsteps and take over a space that is so beloved by the community.”
Blank could not be more thrilled that another plant shop is taking over the space, especially as The Old Yew will be retaining some of The Sill’s retail staff.
“When it came time to make this decision, that August would be taking over the store, it was natural, we were like, you have to take our team! They’re so engaged with the community,” said Blank. “They know our neighbors by name and they’re all so lovely…Who better to sell plants to our neighborhood than the people who’ve been selling plants to this neighborhood for years?”
Laska is keen to discover the plant preferences of his neighbors and bring his design services to their homes.
The West Village location – The Old Yew Plant Shop
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“I’m excited to see the difference in what kinds of plants people are interested in. We lean into what it means to be connected to nature in a city that is so full of concrete, so one thing that we’re excited about is we’re able to actually go into people’s homes and work with them to find the plants that work for them. Whether we’re talking one single tree for their living room or a full design and installation of their terrace, we will work with you. I think that’s something, at least from what I’ve heard from the folks at The Sill, that will be very well received by the community. That’s one of the main differences that we’re excited to bring,” Laska adds.
“We’re thrilled to continue The Sill and Eliza’s mission of making people happy with plants and connecting people with plants. This was a perfect opportunity for that. The Old Yew is a relatively young business, we’ve only been here for about three years and this is an exciting move for us. We have big shoes to fill on the Upper West Side and we’re very excited for the challenge!”
The store will be open for business starting on October 15. The store’s hours will be Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will be closed on Mondays.
