Black History Month Highlights: Ashton

I met Ashton “Thee Plant Daddy” Ellis at the Botanical Gardens, among the hustle and bustle of homeschoolers and mid day walkers getting their steps in for the day. Aston is a part of the San Antonio Orchid Society and helped mount and arrange some of the orchids on display this month for Orchid Month. As we weaved through the exhibits, Ashton explained that he is largely self taught-saying he went to “Youtube University” and named the channel “Central Texas Gardener” as a big influence.

His first introduction to gardening came from his grandmother who had tropical house plants aplenty. As an adult, Ashton came back to plants via the modern house plant revival and became a talented propagator. Later on he became a horticulturalist intern at the San Antonio Zoo, a house plant specialist at Lowe’s garden center, and eventually started his own landscaping and plant propagating business in 2020.

Ashton also talked about building a legacy that will outlive him by planting lots of trees and making a name for himself in the San Antonio plant community. He currently works at Gardopia Gardens where he is now teaching SA youth the importance of growing our own food. Thank you to Ashton for sharing his story with us as we highlight Black history in the making. Follow Ashton on instagram @ellis.plants.lanscaping