Anita Camacho may have chosen to become a professional bean counter, but she always had a love for nature and gardening, for roses and butterflies.
As the pandemic raged on and Camacho found herself traveling more than an hour one way to pick up native plants for herself and her neighbors, she got an idea. She set up a pop-up site across from her office, took pre-orders for native Florida plants and sold more than 1,000 plants in four hours.
Then, in August, an old plant shop went up for sale and she plunged into her new career. She purchased the building, opened a native plant nursery and moved in her accounting office so she could switch hats when necessary. Today, she not only educates customers on butterflies and native plants, but also teaches her staff so they, too, can pass on the important knowledge of how to plant and nurture pollinators.
Camacho said her garden is free of toxic pesticides. “I stopped using anything in the garden that ended with ‘cide’ and redirected how I was doing things,” said Camacho, who opened the Little Red Wagon Native Nursery recently at 4113 Henderson Blvd. in South Tampa.
“People are so excited because there is some place available now where they know the plants are safe and chemical-free,” she said. “We focus on butterfly host plants and what attracts them to the garden. I call my staff ‘nature interpreters’ and every plant is labeled so people don’t have to guess what they just bought.”
There are more than 125 butterfly species just in Hillsborough County, Camacho said. “I’m trying to educate and show people what is possible.”
