An Interview: Cacti and Succulents with a Purpose at Prickly Pear
Walking up to the Prickly Pear, you might wonder “Am I at the right place?” The beautiful blue highwater bungalow gives away no clues as to what lies behind it. Walking through the arched trellises toward the backyard is a bit like walking into The Secret Garden. You open the gate door and gasp in awe of the desert oasis you’ve just stepped into. Immediately you sigh in relaxation as you take in your surroundings. As you look around you feel that this is a place of happiness and relaxation, a place of community and togetherness, a place with purpose.
Mona Bahraini brings her own touch and a sense of community to her succulents and cacti shop, the Prickly Pear. Not only is it a therapeutic desert oasis, but an outlet for community members with disabilities where they can cultivate and grow their own garden. Mona’s kind and warm personality only enhances the experience of being at Prickly Pear.
I always envisioned a beautiful desert botanical garden that people could walk through, so when you walk through the door you just don’t expect what you are going to see here. You feel like you’re walking into that door in Narnia.
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Hey Mona! Thanks so much for meeting with us!
Yeah, of course, I love it!
I am so interested in where your passion for cacti and succulents comes from?
So I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and that is probably where it is rooted from because I just grew up with a desert landscape. I came out here 5 or 6 years ago and didn’t realize succulents even really existed to tell you the truth, I was exposed to succulent la la land when I came out here and I was like “Wow, this is incredible” and so I think everything, my obsession and my hobby really grew at that point, so I started collecting. I became a part of the Cacti and Succulent Society, it is a very niche club that we have here. I would go on my days off because I was a dental hygienist for 9 years, so I would go on my days off and drive 3 hours to someone’s backyard where they had a greenhouse full of succulents and cacti, and shop. So it was something I always loved. Not only are they beautiful plants, they’re really sustainable, they don’t really require a lot of water and I love that about them. I encourage people to landscape with them.
I wasn’t planning to open a succulent business or even a nursery with purpose. I’ve always volunteered with Adults with Disabilities Community it’s just been a huge love and passion of mine. I had a relative that had issues growing up and that kind of exposed me to the world and that’s where it grew from there… [and then] I got in an accident, that’s why I had my surgery a year and a half ago and that put me on immediate disability from my dental hygiene job and [so I] thought I could blog about my succulents because I owned over 200. I was thinking I could teach people to take care of them. As I had the time off, I thought I could turn it into a cool business. That’s where it started and with that, I came up with my mason jar idea, which is my signature look.
That’s how it all started, it was really just like the weirdness of life giving you a curveball but it was my passion. It’s my whole life thrown into a business, you know?
Since you were talking about landscaping earlier, can people hire you to landscape for them?
Yes! I pretty much don’t say no to life when anyone asks me to do something. I just say yes and figure it out along the way. I was asked after I had done a lot of pop-ups and my mason jars started getting traction. A gentleman in East Sac reached out to me and was like “Hey I like your work. I have a good feeling about you. Do you want to landscape my backyard?” I was like “Never done that!” in my head, but I said yes. I did it and he loved it and it ended up being really cool. I can put things together pretty easily when it comes to plants and the design of a landscape.
So do you ever rent out this space for events other than your own?
Yes! Exactly, so Saturday night was a birthday. I have two birthdays booked in January and so there is an hourly fee or you can book it out for the day.
I saw that you have done a Troll Doll Pot which was hilarious as well as the Booty Pot at your Pot n’ Sips. What new pot can we expect from the next Pot n’ Sip?
I will probably come up with another one that will be on a whim. What I do is once a month or month and a half I’ll host my own Pot n’ Sip. It won’t be my original mason jar, it’ll be some other pot like the troll or the booty I did. Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, just different things that make it fun. Each week is booked for private Pot n’ Sips. Sundays I have public hours where people come and shop from 10:00-5:00.
I already had a natural green thumb from my mom. She just loves plants and nature. It’s just kind of in my blood.
What would be some helpful tips and advice you like to give people about taking care of succulents and cacti?
There are two rules that I usually tell people: they need sun every day. Direct sun, like if you were tanning. They need to tan for four to five hours of the day. You can do different hours of the day, but morning sun is best. Water once maybe every two weeks and those are the two rules. Minimal water or less frequent watering systems and then sun every day.
And as far as the difference between cacti and succulents go, how would you care for one versus the other?
I would treat them the same. I mean, most of the time cacti like more sun and they don’t necessarily like to be inside. They like to have airflow outside for sure. I’d say most succulents and cacti like airflow, so if you have it in a space where it gets a lot of sun but then no breeze it will not be so good for them.
Moving away from succulent care, I saw on social media you talked with NEDA about body dysmorphia, did you ever think that you would have a platform to speak on issues like this?
When I first created Prickly Pear I thought it would be so cool if it was more than a plant shop. I didn’t want to just be a shop.
I wanted it to have purpose. I wanted it to reflect my character. I wanted to be authentic and I tried to honor those things.
And so, that’s where I just would always try to be very interactive on there and just like I said, reflect my character. Anytime there is a social issue or something that I could speak out about whether I had two hundred followers or what I have now, I am very involved as an advocate on my platform because I feel like that’s what you should do. I feel like that is a responsibility you have if you’re trying to have a social platform.
We need to embrace the fact that our generation will continue to be online. So if we have platforms or if we’re just there to expose our lives, don’t make it a facade.
I saw on Instagram that you did a collab with Asha Bathhouse. How did that come about?
Yeah! That was so random! This kinda happens often where I’ll have someone reach out to me. The owner reached out to me like last week and asked if I would model, and I have been wanting to go there forever and just hadn’t had the time, so I asked her if she would be willing to do an exchange giveaway and she was totally down for it. It was really cool and honestly really fun!
How long have you lived in Sacramento?
I grew up in Arizona and lived there until I was 27. I went through a breakup and moved to Tahoe on a whim and then moved here when I was around 29 or 30. So it has been about 3 or 4 years. You hear a lot of negative things about Sacramento, but I’m like okay once you get to know the city it’s amazing. So it is really interesting that it’s perceived that way outside of Sac, you know? So I was thinking about moving to San Diego and keeping this as the transition phase, but I ended up liking it here and six months later after I moved, I met my fiancé. He is from Jersey and was going to move back to Jersey and we were both like wait, this place is kind of cool. Maybe we should stay? And then we just stayed and that was it. Totally random how we are here.
What would you say the hardest part about this job is? What are some of the difficulties or challenges?
The most difficult part is balancing the act of being a female-owned small business and everything else. You know friendship, that’s not even the first part, but marriage and your partnership, and then your friends, and then having a small business and putting all your energy into making it thrive and financially stable and sustainable. That is really hard to balance. The first year I was so focused. This is my second year. The first year I was so focused on making it something and I believed in it so much and I felt like a nursery with purpose was so cool. I wanted to do it and incorporate it into the community. It would drain me so much that at the end of the day my partner wouldn’t get enough of my emotional side that you need in a relationship. So just making sure that you are aware of that and then learning how to balance that which I have done a better job of.
I like that! What would be some advice that you would give to young entrepreneurs and especially female entrepreneurs that want to start their own businesses?
Yeah, I think that no matter how much drive and persistence you have, knowing your market is really key. If you are trying to start something and a lot of people are doing the same exact thing, you’re going to have a lot more hurdles. But if you create something out of something that is really a passion of yours and you see that okay this is a good idea, let me see if it been happening or someone is doing it. Then you look at the market and if you see that no one is doing it that’s gold. You know, if no one is doing what you’re trying to do then that’s when you find a lot more success or it comes a bit easier. Being in tune with yourself is also really important and knowing your talents. That might come off a little harsh, but I don’t think a lot of people know what their true talent is. People ask me “Do you feel successful?” and I am like I feel emotionally successful and I think that is what brings success.
If you are happy with what you are producing and happy with yourself everything else will fall into place.
Exactly!
I saw some business cards over there for the store Strapping and I was curious if you were connected with other female business owners? I mean there is a huge community off of Broadway in Oak Park of female business owners and is that something that you try to connect to?
100%! Susan and Rachel from Strapping were the first ones to invite me into their business to do a pop-up. She was so warm and welcoming to me and I told myself I want to do that for anyone I meet if I have the opportunity or the space. So yes, very much so! I love collaborating. I love supporting other businesses. Life is better shared and I feel like when you focus your energy on sharing your wealth and your privilege, or even your friendships or just sharing everything. Life is just better. I am all about community and supporting each other. We should be supporting each other. It is silly when we are not.
We couldn’t agree more! Is there anything else you would like our readers to know or want to share?
I think just making sure that everyone knows that I am a succulent and cacti shop with a purpose and my goal is that with all of the fruit trees we have we can also have a veggie garden. In the summer we are going to have a summer garden and my goal is every two months or maybe more, have a farmers market here on Sundays during one of my public hours where the groups that I work with can have their own booth and sell produce. It’s just a sense of integration and inclusion that I want to create because I feel like there’s a gap where people are fearful of being friends with someone who might be a little bit different or even interacting with someone that is a little bit different than them. In actuality, they just want to be treated normally. They only know love. They have no superficial layer and that is the most raw human experience you can get.
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This story was originally published as part of our ongoing interview series exploring the work and lives of inspiring Sacramento creatives.
You can find the Prickly Pear on IG @the.prickly.pear or www.shopthepricklypear.com/.
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