Attendees dragged wagons loaded with succulents, cacti and carnivorous plants through narrow aisles, carrying their latest finds past yet more plant sellers’ booths at Los Angeles’ inaugural PlantCon.

PlantCon, a convention of sellers, speakers and workshops, came to L.A. on Saturday and Sunday after prior events in Houston, Dallas, Orlando and New York City. The event drew more than 100 exhibitors and over 4,000 attendees over its two-day run at Magic Box @ The REEF, according to Kenny Kong, the organization’s founder and CEO. 

“I describe PlantCon as a celebration of plant culture and the joy that plants bring people to their homes and to their daily lives,” Kong said. “That typically happens in such isolation. You take care of plants kind of on your own, and this is a way to come out and just celebrate that together.”

Dennita Rogers came to the convention from the San Fernando Valley, looking for tropical plants she otherwise would have had shipped. She said she was excited to meet other plant enthusiasts. 

“[Plant people,] they’re all green: all green in their house, all green in their backyard, plants all over. They’d [have] rather plants than people,” Rogers said. 

The event featured a grid of booths with individuals selling plants, teas, planters and soil, as well as informational booths about local plant organizations and pest control. Off the main floor, groups hosted workshops including on ferns, bonsai and moss balls, while speakers discussed soil health and native pollinators.

The company Bonsai Bar hosted two bonsai set-up workshops at the convention, and sold one at the event’s silent auction. Founder and CEO Tim Arsenault said the company attended a previous PlantCon in Dallas and wanted to support the L.A. event. 

“The energy that it brings — it’s like Comic Con and a plant expo,” Arsenault said. “PlantCon feels like this is a new era, and it’s open and everybody feels welcome. I feel a young, excited energy, a diverse energy that you just don’t find in more stuffy traditional shows that have been doing the same thing for 50 years.”

Nichole Gotoy, a volunteer at the silent auction, said she knew she wanted to attend as soon as she saw PlantCon appear on her Facebook Reels. She said she had never seen so many air plants — plants which have their roots in the air, not soil.

“I knew I was going to go immediately. My reaction was like, ‘Oh, wow, I manifested this for myself,’ because I recently became a plant person,” Gotoy said. “I bought my first two plants in November, and went from two to 25. So I was like, ‘Oh yes, this is perfect for me.’”

One vendor, Aaron Pecson, dressed his nephew in a ghillie suit — a camouflage fiber suit usually used for hunting and airsoft — and had him wandering around the convention to promote his business, Hedgefund. He said Hedgefund had previously gone to PlantCons in Orlando, New York and Dallas.

“It’s a little bit of a reunion. So part of it is I see all my fellow plant vendors, and it’s a relatively small community, but it’s also to meet other like-minded individuals,” Pecson said. 

Expanding the network of exhibitors to the West Coast was one goal Kong said led to the L.A. event.

Before PlantCon flowered into a weekend-long event, Kong’s first gathering of plant enthusiasts came in the form of a Facebook group in Houston he started in 2020. Kong created the group after a desire to feed his two adopted rabbits, Clue and Clyde, blossomed into a houseplant obsession. The community grew from an online group, to meeting in an IKEA parking lot, and, eventually, the first PlantCon in 2023. 

He said he spent $30,000 in savings and another $30,000 in debt to finance the first PlantCon.

“It was terrifying, truly, just such a huge risk, and so terrifying,” Kong said. “It takes literally everybody showing up: attendees, exhibitors, staff, volunteers. Everybody that shows up is what makes PlantCon live to see another day.”

Kong said in the future he wants to increase staff pay, and once the organization is sustainable, to give back with grants, scholarships and sponsorships.

Arsenault said the convention’s energetic atmosphere made what was technically a work trip feel more like a “refresher,” a “fun weekend vacation.”

“It feels like [PlantCon is] building a community. It’s not just like a business, or like this is a retail thing,” Arsenault said. “Obviously, you can buy a lot of things; it’s a lot of amazing small businesses, but everybody here feels like they’re just so excited to be part of this fun community.”