Two months ago, Christy Smith took over The Plant Lady, the business she had formerly co-owned with Beth Preston for the past 11 years.

Debbie Naeter, who hired Smith in 1999, originally owned the Cape Girardeau store.

"I have a biology background, so I came to work with Debbie because I was a mom, needing a job working," Smith says.

Smith says she later moved to manage a greenhouse on St. Simons Island, Georgia, when she learned Naeter was selling The Plant Lady.

"It [St. Simons Island] was really far away from home, and the business was still for sale a year later, so it was just an opportunity to come back and do something I love doing and raise my children in my hometown," Smith says.

Over the years, she says she has seen continual growth within the business.

"Along with the hospitals growing, we've had that significant growth. We've had a lot of growth through word-of-mouth. ... But also just kind of expanding services, such as doing some of the outside flowering, pots and things like that, and actually trying to specialize, mostly," she says.

She says the majority of The Plant Lady's business comes from indoor "plantscaping," or providing an appropriate tropical indoor plant landscape for businesses or homes, and other forms of maintenance, such as pruning, cleaning, fertilizing and watering.

"The best part about it is probably being able to follow through with the things I desire to do, as far as my visions of what I see that I want to do ... being able to be creative and express my ideas," she says.

Smith says she has expanded services to better accommodate the wishes of her clients.

Christy Smith, left, Beth Preston, center, and Casey Zimmerman, pose for a photo outside The Plant Lady in downtown Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"I recently started to do floral arrangements for my clients' homes when I service their homes and their plants, so I take fresh flowers, too, and then they have asked me in return to also do arrangements for friends and things like that," she says.

In the future, Smith hopes to incorporate more retail items to encourage customer walk-ins.

"So that's kind of my next step, is to get the retail side going and develop more of a nice place for people to come in that love plants, shop for plants -- and have a library full of books of information if they wanted to sit and read about plants or anything, and have different stuff, not just your typical stuff you get at Lowe's," she says.

Smith says one thing she likes about owning her own business is being able to find quality people to be her employees.

"I do have a very good staff, and that's really hard to come by these days. So I will say that is having the great support of your staff and helping you to succeed in your business," she says. "We all love what we do, and that's what keeps this business going -- our dedication."

Christy Smith, owner of The Plant Lady in downtown Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)