Plant Specialists

What Plant Specialists does

Plant Specialists is a privately held, full-service New York City landscape design, installation, and maintenance firm founded in 1972 and owned by Grahame Hubbard since 2004. The company serves high-end residential and commercial property clients across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, delivering bespoke rooftop gardens, townhouse courtyards, terrace transformations, indoor plantings, and year-round horticultural maintenance. Its core offerings comprise six service lines — Design & Installation, Garden Care, Green Roof Projects, Lighting & Irrigation, Indoor Plants, and Holiday & Events — supplemented by specialty departments including Plant Health Care (PHC), a full-time Custom Carpentry Team, and Power Washing.

The firm's technical differentiator is a fully integrated in-house team spanning expert horticulturists, landscape designers, skilled builders, a Carpentry Team, an Indoor Team, and a PHC department led by credentialed Staff Botanist Peter B. Morris (BSc, MSc in Plant Biology, MBA in Quality Management). Proprietary methodology includes engineered lightweight green-roof substrates (2–6 inch soilless mixes paired with automatic irrigation), scientific plant diagnostics backed by a 3,500+ plant reference library, organic pest-control and hormonal/nutritional imbalance correction for container plantings, and use of powder-coated aluminum pergolas engineered to meet NYC rooftop weight restrictions.

Plant Specialists generates revenue through two primary streams: project-based design and installation engagements (quoted per project after consultation) and recurring year-round horticultural maintenance contracts (managed services), supplemented by seasonal holiday/event décor and indoor plant programs. The go-to-market motion is consultative, inbound-led, and exclusively direct-to-customer via website contact form and phone (718-392-9404), with no third-party resellers or marketplaces. Brand building rests on four decades of earned media in Vogue, Architectural Digest, the New York Times, and other premier publications, plus an extensive content-marketing blog targeting NYC-specific horticulture search demand. Pricing is bespoke and not publicly disclosed.

Name

Plant Specialists

Legal name

Plant Specialists

Website

https://plantspecialists.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1972

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Plant Specialists is a privately held NYC landscape firm, founded in 1972 and serving high-end residential and commercial clients in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens with bespoke rooftop garden design, townhouse courtyard construction, green roof projects, indoor plantings, and year-round horticultural maintenance delivered by a fully integrated in-house team.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Landscape Design and Horticultural Services

NAICS

Landscaping Services (561730), Landscaping Services (56173), Landscape Architectural Services (54132)

akta.pro primary industry

Seasonal Color, Planting & Horticultural Services (BPABADAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Landscape Maintenance Plans & Post-Installation Care (Establishment Services) (HSAIABAL), Native, Pollinator & Drought-Tolerant Garden Installations (HSAIAFAL), Plant Replacement, Transplanting & Garden Refresh Services (HSAIAFAG), Native & Pollinator Garden Design/Install (HSAIABAG)

Keywords

• Rooftop garden design
• Landscape maintenance
• Garden installation
• Indoor plant care
• Green roof construction

Headquarters

HQ city

Long Island City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Design & Installation Projects: One-time project-based revenue from bespoke rooftop garden design, townhouse courtyard design, green roof construction, lighting and irrigation installation, and custom carpentry. Sold per-project via consultation and quote after inquiry.
2. Garden Care / Horticultural Maintenance Contracts: Recurring, year-round horticultural maintenance programs — including tailored maintenance, plant health care treatments, power washing, soil refreshing, and pest/disease control — delivered by the in-house Garden Care and Plant Health Care teams on an ongoing contract basis across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.
3. Indoor Plant Services: Recurring and project-based revenue from indoor plant design, installation, and ongoing care (including caudiciforms, bromeliads, orchids, succulents, money trees, etc.) for residential and commercial interiors.
4. Holiday & Event Decoration: Seasonal/one-time revenue from custom holiday greenery installations and event displays (e.g., Plant Specialists "elves" seasonal designs referenced in blog).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Plant Specialists designs, builds, and maintains bespoke rooftop gardens, townhouse courtyards, terraces, green roofs, indoor plantings, and seasonal holiday displays for high-end residential and commercial properties across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Services span the full lifecycle from master design and expert construction to year-round horticultural maintenance, with specialized departments in Plant Health Care diagnostics, custom carpentry, lighting and irrigation, and power washing, all delivered by an integrated in-house team without subcontractors.

Product overview

Plant Specialists is a single full-service landscape design, build, and maintenance firm — not a multi-product software platform. Its portfolio of service offerings (Design & Installation, Garden Care, Green Roof Projects, Lighting & Irrigation, Indoor Plants, and Holiday & Events) is delivered by a single in-house team of horticulturists, designers, builders, and care specialists, supplemented by specialty departments including Plant Health Care (PHC) for diagnostics and pest/disease management, a full-time Custom Carpentry team for built structures, and Power Washing for hardscape cleaning. The company positions its bespoke rooftop garden design, integrated lighting, and precision irrigation as the hallmarks of the Plant Specialists approach, with services coordinated end-to-end across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• 50+ years of continuous operation greening New York City since 1972
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• The Creative Vibe (Dave Emilio)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDave Emilio / The Creative Vibe is credited on the Plant Specialists website footer as the designer and developer of the company's website (with linked URL https://www.daveemilio.com). This is a vendor/agency relationship supporting Plant Specialists' digital presence rather than a commercial or product partnership.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• SavATree: National tree, shrub, and lawn care provider with a plant health care diagnostic capability that overlaps with Plant Specialists' PHC department. Broader portfolio (lawn, tree, pest) and geographically diversified, not NYC-specialized.
• Ruppert Landscape: Large Mid-Atlantic commercial landscape management and installation company with broader geographic reach and scale than Plant Specialists. Comparable in service line (design, build, maintenance) but operates at materially greater scale across multiple states.
• HighGrove Partners: Commercial landscape management firm offering design, installation, and maintenance to corporate clients in the Southeast US. Operates in the same broad category as Plant Specialists but at a larger scale and different geography.

Direct peers

• Ambius: Specializes in interior plant design, installation, and ongoing care for offices, hotels, and retail spaces — directly comparable to Plant Specialists' Indoor Plants service line and recurring interior maintenance revenue model.
• Roche & Roche Landscape: Long-established NYC-area landscape design, build, and maintenance firm serving high-end residential and commercial properties. Overlaps directly with Plant Specialists' design/build/maintenance offering in the same metro.
• John Mini Distinctive Landscapes: New York City-based commercial interior plantscaping and exterior landscaping firm with a comparable full-service design, install, and maintenance model serving corporate, hospitality, and luxury residential clients — directly overlapping with Plant Specialists' in-house, single-metro positioning.

Others

• LiveRoof: Manufacturer of modular green roof systems. Not a direct competitor to Plant Specialists' design/build service, but a relevant ecosystem participant in the green roof / rooftop garden supply chain where Plant Specialists installs projects.
• Xero Flor America: Provider of pre-vegetated green roof mats and extensive green roof systems used on commercial rooftops. Adjacent infrastructure supplier to the green roof projects Plant Specialists designs and installs in NYC.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/plantsnyc
• Facebookfacebook.com/plantsnyc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/plant-specialists

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Plant Specialists