Susan Veasey and her partner Rachel Morris opened Dandelion Home & Garden in the historic neighborhood of Hillcrest after nearly two years of planning, decorating and trips procuring plants.

Veasey is a nurse that runs the COVID-19 unit at Baptist Health in Little Rock and Morris is an airline pilot. They met in Dallas before deciding to move to Little Rock together. With two highly stressful jobs, they found joy and peace in owning their plant shop and being a part of the Hillcrest community. That's why part of their mission in the community is to donate arrangements and trees to patients and families in hospice care.

"We always wanted to find a place to be a part of the community and we get to help the people here," Morris says. "That's really important to us. Her background is in hospital and hospice and I've been in the hospital before. And a plant; just how much joy that can bring—it's really important to us to get that philanthropy going."

Along with plants, Dandelion also sells artwork, pillows, candles and so much more. They want artists to reach out so that they can display their work along the walls of their store.

""We're just excited to be part of the community. We want to support diversity and women's empowerment. We wouldn't be anywhere else. We love Hillcrest. We wanted the store to be in a community where people could be walking their dog and pop in and say 'hey...'"
– SUSAN

Many of the plants featured in the store are potted inside of antiques, and they pride themselves in having plants that fit anyone's budget.

"We wanted to make it where if you wanted to come in and get a cute little $12 arrangement, you could," Veasey says. "But if you also want to come in and get a $60 or $100 arrangement, you could do that, too."

Their beloved store boasts a lot of charm and history — the building is 92 years old. Two 125-year-old heirlooms are used daily — a pot rack where they hang plants is from Veasey's grandparents' farmhouse and the display table is from her great-grandparents' store. The sink where they trim flowers is 114-years-old. Everything that isn't a family heirloom, Morris built herself, including the counter, several of the shelves, potting stations and displays.

They want everybody to feel at home and like they're family when they visit the store, Veasey says.

"We're just warm people, and if you ever feel like you need some healing from plants, come in,” Veasey says. “We want people to know how grateful we are to be a part of the community and how much they embraced us. It's been a dream.”