Barbara Hardt, Nederland. Josh Pepper is an artist, a horticulturist and a Navy Veteran. He and his partner Lee Shallet have opened a new store in Nederland at 25 E. First Street called Apex Art and Plant Shop.
He currently offers houseplants, succulents and bonsai trees. He will be offering plant workshops, irrigation workshops and a plant doctor service. As well, they have a featured artist with artwork on the walls and will offer month long showings of local art. The current featured artist is Lindsey Foy.
Before opening the store, Josh grew up all around the country, graduating high school in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a Navy corpsman from 2002 to 2007. He was based in San Diego, California.. He lost his leg from a surgery related to cancer in 2012. He spent years living on his sailboat, perhaps the inspiration for many of his seashell pots and octopus paintings. And in 2015 decided he wanted to move to the mountains of Colorado.
That’s where it all started. His plant obsession, or inspiration, started at a house in Gilpin that was a biodome and had a large atrium. The house had nine levels and he built a creek through the dome. Then he started bringing in a lot of different plants and creating his own terraced gardens inside the house. He had about 300 plants growing including lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, rosemary, basil and many edible vegetables. They grew year round and he was eating everything he was growing. He remembers it fondly, calling it a mini Shangri-La with a mini jungle inside the house. He realized he was learning how to grow at over 9,000 feet. and he wanted to know more.
After living there for a while he decided he wanted to go to school to become a Master Grower and all of the growing certificates. He didn’t go to school to get a job, he went to learn these techniques and is now applying them in his new business. His timing was right as he had only a year left to use his VA benefits for school. He took every plant related class he could. He met his partner for the store in a Greenhouse Construction class.
He is a painter, mostly acrylic, describing his painting as psychedelic, bright and surreal. He uses a lot of dots to create a “moving” effect. When living in the biodome he had easels on every deck and enjoyed looking down at the garden for inspiration for his painting. He stumbled into the new commercial rental location when he was using the upstairs studio for his painting. When the downstairs store vacated he decided to go all out and open a store.
They offer socially distant appointments, if you’re not comfortable being in the shop with other people during the pandemic.
The Apex Art and Plant Shop is open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and can be reached at 573.692.5560. Or find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/apex.art.plant.studio
