The Leaf & Petal

This store has a beautiful selection of plants and other garden accessories. In addition to the products in the store, they have a great eye for design and provide design/​build services for projects of all scale at your home or business. Walking in to this store is a great, peaceful break from all of the bustle of downtown Santa Monica. Plenty of parking in the lot — just enter between Sears and Leaf & Petal.

My husband and I have bought many a cool and unique plant here, some I had never seen before in my life! Some of our favorites: a massive airplant, a lipstick plant, the same wheat-​looking grass they have outside of Shutters, honeysuckle, succulents galore, you name it. The lady who works there has always been so kind and gracious to us, and is a real expert and plant lover, you can tell. Always have had a great experience here.

This place is great! This is my 4^th time buying plants. I bought little cute succulents and a big one for my special blue pot. The lady is very knowledgable and she has a great sense of design. I wish I had a much bigger place to fill with even more plants!

One of the worst retail customer experiences we have ever had, spent a LOT of money with this company (including what turned out to be unnecessary consultation fees), got a lot of bad advice, and worst off they would not stand by their product, despite numerous examples of failed outcomes caused by their direction. To add insult to a lot of expensive injury, they really could care less… we would strongly streer anyone away from making sizable investment at this establishment. Honestly, doesn’t get much worse… caveat emptor!

I paid $ 100 bucks for a small potted succulent. The presentation was great, but not too long after purchasing the succulents some of them died off (the main ones didn’t). However, this impacted the presentation overall and I ended up replanting everything because the succulents were poorly planted in the first place. Buyer beware!

It’s not cheap, that’s for sure. But they have gorgeous plants and the owner is very creative. She is also kind of pushy, telling you which plant would work for you and wouldn’t. For me, that’s exactly what I needed because I know nothing about plants. I always thought the shop looked cool so I stopped in one day on a walk. Ended up returning two days later with my mom and we had a fun time putting together a succulent arrangement for a window box. I do not have a green thumb so I just asked the owner two help me pick an arrangement of plants that looked nice and would do well in a window box without much care. Ten minutes later I walked out with an artistic masterpiece that I never could have done myself. A month later, the succulent window boxes and the hibiscus tree I bought are both doing great with minimal care.

Passed by this place a dozen times before I got curious and went in. Came out with an adorable little fern after wandering around for a few minutes. It is amazing just strolling through the aisles. It’s shady, with huge plants that have obviously been there for years, and crowded with orchids, bamboo, palms, ferns, succulents, and weird things I’ve never seen before. There’s a huge gardenia bush next to the register that I just stuck my face in and inhaled for a while. Service was excellent, even if the prices are a bit steep. The owner was there, and she gave me recommendations for which plants would be best in my apartment, taking into account light levels and which ones would purify indoor air. Not 5 stars only because it is a little difficult to find what you want, and the prices are a little high, but very good place nonetheless.

I went in to Leaf & Petal to get a nice plant for my office. Since I rebloom orchids all the time at home, I went that direction and picked out an orchid for $ 29 (ouch) and a wooden pot for $ 29 also (ouch again), for a total of over $ 60 with tax, but I figured you get what you pay for. I was wrong.
Almost immediately, wood boring insects began to show up crawling around the wooden pot. They were eating it and leaving little piles of sawdust on my desk. I went to get some bug spray ($ 6) and sprayed it. About 200 bugs poured out of it. I went back to Leaf & Petal without the plant on my lunch break, in the middle of the day on a weeekday. The place was open but no one came to the counter. I went to the office and poked my head in and asked if I could get some help. Unbelievably, the woman there said «we are in a meeting, can you come back later?» The business was open! So, I said «I just wanted to let you know that the natural wooden pots you are selling are infested with wood boring insects.» She said «That’s impossible, it must be the plant you put in it.» When I told her I got the plant there, she said «Bring it in.»
I brought the whole thing back along with sawdust and several dead insects. Some were still crawling around. The woman there was the one who had sold me the plant originally. I asked what she was going to do for me. Amazingly, she said «I will take the pot back and give you $ 15.» I wasn’t sure I heard her right, so I asked again. She repeated herself. She also said «You enjoyed the orchid flower so no refund for that», even though the orchid itself was now infested with bugs. I agree that I did enjoy the flower and should pay for that priviledge, but now I was left with a plant nfested with insects. I didn’t think this was quite fair. She was operating under the assumption that I would throw the orchid out when done flowering, but I buy orchids and rebloom them, not throw them away.
I told her that wasn’t acceptable, so she offered to let me pick out an orchid. I asked her which one. She walked over to a collection of orchids with a big sign that said $ 29 that was crossed out and replaced with $ 19. She picked one up and said «This is $ 29, so now you got your money back for the pot.». I was stunned as she stood there next the the sign that read $ 19. So I left with my infested orchid which she yanked out of the pot, and took the new one she offered as well. I recieved no money back. She told me that I should have come back the day I discovered the bugs, implying she might have done more, but not saying that explicitly. It felt like a dodge of responsibility. I told her I had a job and a life and I came when it was convenient for me. Once is enough for me. I won’t be going back.

Not recommended! They do not return your calls and messages. And they do not keep appointments. I can understand last minute schedule changes can happen but they do not call you in advance to let you and even apologize. My girlfriend and I had scheduled a design consultation for a Sunday noontime for a $ 3000+ job. Obviously, we were not a big enough client. Their design consultant (the owner’s daughter) Ashley was supposed to show up at noon this past Sunday for a consultation. At 1pm my girlfriend calls her asking if she’s coming. She gets the whole BS about I was just about to call you I’ve been scheduled for another project. No apologies. Ashley tells us she will try and come by at 4:30 in the afternoon. Never showed up or called. Their head facility is no better. Pretty lackadaisical about answering and returning messages, if at all.
In sum, VERY unprofessional business for the price you’re paying. I would’ve left ZERO for the rating if that was an option.

I work for a new production company in Santa Monica, and unfortunately the service we received from the Leaf and Petal left a bad taste in my mouth, in addition to a rancid smell in our office and a big old puddle on our floor.
First of all – and I’m willing to chalk it up to the busy season – the person in charge of our account at the L&P was not able to respond in a timely manner to our plant emergency, nor were we referred to another representative who could. When our rep did finally come by (after I’d done all the dirty work myself, moving the plants, rinsing their filthy trays, draining and scrubbing their planters, and mopping the floor) we were asked to pay for service relating to this emergency, which was – by the admission of our rep – due to the corner-​cutting installation of our plants. We were condescended to because to the relatively small size of our account with the L&P (read: our pockets don’t go as deep as some of their other clients’ do). And finally, when we questioned them about their approach to service, we were ignored. Our rep would not even tell me what kind of soil they used to pot our plants so that I could undertake to repot them myself.
For a company so highly regarded (which is the reason we were willing to undergo the expense in the first place) this is shameful behavior.

I can’t explain how awesome this place is, in the middle of Santa Monica. Ashley is great, personable, and knowledgable. NIce place to shop.

Why hasn’t this place been rated yet? It’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL inside; really like walking through a museum. I walked in on a Monday around lunch time, and had the run of the place to myself. The front section is a gorgeous arrangement of indoor and outdoor plants, including a really nice cactus selection. Further inside one can find orchids, and in the very back an impressive selection of fountains. Oh yeah, and the prices are quite reasonable…
I procrastinated a bit on my selection, since I wanted an excuse to just wander and take it all in. When it came time to pay, an extremely cute, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic employee helped me with a couple of very nice selections to decorate my new apartment. She even gave me a little lesson on sunlight and early plant development. I think I’m in love…