Once you invite plants into your life and home, it’s easy for them to take over. At least that is the experience of Nkhensani Rikhotso, a Soweto-born entrepreneur specialising in indoor plants, and advising people how to turn their spaces into lush, leafy indoor sanctuaries.
Nkhensani’s passion for plants is relatively new. In 2020, in the depths of lockdown, she began delving into self-healing and spirituality and decided to bring plants into her Joburg home to create a space of safety, serenity and calmness.
It started with just one small aloe, which she promptly killed by overwatering. A mistake she would learn from with her next plant, and the next. Before she knew it her home was exploding with 200 varieties of plants, from ferns to succulents, palms and Ficus. With limited interaction with family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nkhensani’s day-to-day life began to centre around nurturing the living, breathing additions to her home and she found great healing, inspiration, and joy in the process.
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As she learned to care for each plant in its own unique way, she began sharing her lessons with others. As a multi-faceted creative with a background in Digital Design and marketing, Nkhensani Rikhotso took to making ‘plant content’ on social media and soon gathered a loyal and interested following for her plant care and styling tips. Eventually this led to her starting an indoor plant consultancy, and plant shop, Her Merakai, sharing her skills with businesses and individuals.
Around the same time her budding love of plants manifested, Nkhensani’s own healing journey evolved, and she qualified as a reiki healer, offering in-person and distance reiki healing, which she feels is a natural complement to her plant business. ‘I believe my deepest purpose in this life is to help others find their own healing, whether that’s through reiki healing, or creating a safe and mindful space with plants,’ says Nkhensani.
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Nkhensani was recently approached by Mr Price Home to take part in a special collaboration. This collection is intended to shine a light on the many hard-working, passionate, and talented women creators who contribute so much to South Africa’s economy and vibrant creative industry. The brand recognised Nkhensani as a multi-faceted and highly driven yet intuitive businesswoman and tasked her with creating a range of designs inspired by her unique business and life.
She says her designs are rooted in the strength, beauty, and resilience of all the women who have impacted her life and represent a blend between nature and the female form.
‘I feel it is deeply grounded in everything that is my passion, love, my soul and my work. The thing that inspired this range was the women that I have in my life and the women that raised me,’ she says.
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