Urban Botany

At Urban Botany we specialize in transforming urban spaces into an urban oasis with a curated selection of unique plants, gifts, and modern home goods. All our thoughtfully designed products can transform your space into a serene retreat and redefine neglected community spaces into elevated and lush gardens. Urban Botany is owned by myself; Alicja Kwiatkowska, and Sebastian Pilichiewicz, young entrepreneurs and graduates of Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in Chicago, Illinois. Urban Botany was originally founded within a local flower shop of Chicago that has served the community for over 30 years. Since the young age of four years old, I often came to work with my single mom and over the years helped her grow our small business. When Sebastian joined the team, he furthered business efforts to create a flourishing and long standing business that the community could continue relying on. This however, was not the end of our business endeavors. We were selected to join Future Founders, a bootcamp incubator for the nations largest inclusive community of intentional young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial-minded leaders. Through engagement in local chambers of commerce, socio-entrepreneurial non-profits, and even their local churches, we were able to gauage what makes businesses so successful and figured out that we wanted to prioritize People and the Planet, and the Profits would follow. We recognized how plants and flowers could transform peoples moods and their overall environment. Cut flowers made a meaningful statement for many, especially when the designs could express things that words could not; their presence filling empty funeral chapels during covid-19. However, we recognized that there was something special about live plants and their natural derivatives that made an even greater impact on people and their communities, especially during a time when many people were confined in enclosed spaces for weeks at a time. During this time, there was a gap between plants and available delivery services. Urban Botany originated as a solution to this in an unfamiliar pandemic-struck world. We overcame the unique challenges of starting a business during the pandemic, and were able to employ our previous knowledge of the industry landscape to avoid logistical issues faced by other companies, and continued our farm to door strategy at both the family flower shop; Royal Flowers & Gallery, FloretCo, and Urban Botany. After COVID, we wanted to continue bringing something real, sustainable, and live to the community. It needed to educate, inspire, and engage urban concrete jungle dwellers and youth that could learn to thrive with nature. While the city became plagued with the after effects of covid, empty storefronts, and flickering lights, Urban Botany opened up their flagship store. We have transformed empty retail spaces and are bringing a fresh alternative to the community with a hope to show that in-store shopping does not have to be quite literally; dead. With frequent events, free in-store sessions and classes, we hope to inspire people to make nature their lifestyle by teaching them to seed and to reap the real benefits of plants.