Interview with Michael Borchers of Euflora

Michael Borchers is the founder and lead of Euflora, a Bremen-based company offering the unique service of plant leasing through well-thought-out, sustainable, and individual greening concepts that add value to every environment.

As we’ve mentioned on the article „Best bedroom plants“, living and working surrounded by plants has many positive effects on our well-being. However, planning and maintaining an attractive design with green plants might be an unexpected challenge, especially for big spaces. With Euflora, Michael channels his vast experience and passion for plants into useful advice and support for anyone looking to add some green to their surroundings without investing large amounts of time, money, or effort.

But what does the leasing program consist of?

Basically, offering clients all the benefits of living among plants, without the worries and duties related to their care. Euflora offers the advantage of an all-round plant care service. Their professional team constantly monitors the state of every single plant in the room; they are prepared with the knowledge of their individual needs, and the devotion to keep them healthy and green.

Part of the Euflora team: Michael and Marco.

It’s the first time we hear about this type of entrepreneurship, so I sat with Michael to know more about how he brought Euflora to life, his vision for the company, and how he copes with the challenges of being a small business entrepreneur in our city. I also had the chance to join one day of work with the plant care team at Euflora and experience first-hand the special care and attention dedicated to each plant provided to the location in turn. I was impressed.

How did your love for plants start? Where did you get your knowledge from?

10-12 years ago. I was grown in a plant-producing family, small plants for gardening. My uncle has a flower shop, where he sells not only bouquets and flowers but also some kind of green plants. I love the smell of plants in this store. But I personally started by selling Christmas trees, for 3 or 5 years. Later I switched to the indoor greenery. It was a process, I started helping my uncle sometimes, where the biggest part of the company was making bouquets, but a small part was making offices and rooms green. This affected me in a way. I also worked for a pot importer, I was inspired by this huge amount of pots. Finally, I found my focus on the business by leasing plants and pots, providing a full service to customers.

Did you always know you wanted to be a business owner?

Yes, I guess, since I was young. I was into doing things I want to do and be self-responsible. Trading was always my focus, not producing. Euflora was born in 2012.

Did you receive any support from Bremen?

Unfortunately not. A few years ago I was part of a Bremen portal for promoting young startups, but they were not so interested in this business. They told me they normally finance bigger initiatives, and when they support small businesses they are focusing on Kiosks or shops. My idea was not so common, in the beginning people were not used to this kind of business. They didn’t know what this means. When we do the leasing we take all the risk on our own. We were one of the first companies in Germany starting with leasing of plants.

Do you feel happy doing this kind of work?

Yes, it’s my way of living, it’s the way I like to do business.

Professional plant service means: fertilizing, cutting, cleaning and, of course, watering.

Is sustainability something that you value on your business?

Yes, sustainability is a big part of Euflora. We like to take care of the plants in any case, if their performance goes down or they have some disease, we take them, put them on our green house and get them in good shape again, let them grow. We have our own healing and rescue station. Most of this plants are again available after a short time, maybe half a year. I try to do this in circles. In the leasing concept you have to take care of the plants, and if something happens with a plant you have to take another one and replace it, because the client expects always a good-looking plant. We also suggest the more sustainable option for each place.

What would you say are some common mistakes when taking care of plants?

Most of the people irrigate too much, too much water is a common cause of death for indoor plants. Another common difficulty, especially in companies, is the management. In Germany we have a kind of mindset „the green thumb“: you have to like plants, then you can earn a green thumb. So you might have an employee who is responsible for the plants, but when something happens in that person’s life, say a pregnancy or sickness, then you have a hole to fill. Normally there is no transmission of the information this person was gaining in the last years of taking care of the plants. So someone else steps in and everything starts to go wrong. We can help there, with a professional and cheaper alternative. Our selection of plants depends mostly on the light, the better the light the biggest variety of plants we can bring in. But we adapt to the wishes of the clients.

Learning the art.

Where do you see yourself and Euflora in the future?

I guess keep going as it is, and maybe add some more clients. Euflora is growing, let’s keep the fingers crossed and in the future also the same.

We wish this Bremen entrepreneur all the best! Euflora’s contact options can be found on their website: https://euflora.de/