Mother and daughter’s SLO County shop sells crystals, tea and hundreds of unique houseplants
When two Morro Bay shops closed soon after COVID-19 shut down many businesses in the county, two women directly affected by those closures and other blows didn’t give up — instead, they joined forces to launch their own new business.
In a dizzying array of consecutive business impacts — all within about a year — two different Morro Bay properties went up for sale because of the death of the owners, which then led to Summer Birchell closing her Morro Bay hair salons, Summer Expressions, and partnering with her daughter, Sierra Mace, to open a new store.
In April 2021, the pair opened Gaia’s Garden and Apothecary, a joint venture shop in a 600-square-foot space at 600 Morro Bay Blvd.
But then their lease unexpectedly ended.
So like a retail phoenix, the women revived and relocated their joint enterprise, tripling the size and expanding their already diverse mix of products and services, in what they call a “safe, nurturing environment.”
By January, they’d moved and expanded Gaia’s Garden and Apothecary in a 1,900-square-foot store at 875 Main St.
Their new retail space shares a large building with Legend’s at the Old Circle Inn, Sabetta’s Pizza and Pasta and Ugly Mug Ceramics.
Ironically, both the Gaia’s locations had previously, at different times, housed the Ruby Dragon crystal store owned by the women’s friend and mentor Penny Harrington. Harrington has since died.
Morro Bay shop specializes in crystals, house-blended teas
Calling the shop’s selection varied would be an understatement.
With the extra space in their new location, Birchell and Mace say they can now offer a wider range of comforts and treasures intended to delight, soothe and relax Gaia’s clientele.
For openers, the shop showcases a wide assortment of “intuitively selected crystals,” and six house-blended teas to enjoy in the shop’s tea garden, Birchell said.
Customers can also buy the mostly organic herbs in pre-packaged, 2-ounce packets, she said, or as “singular loose herbs so people can create their own tea blends at home.”
Healing herbal remedies are also offered, as is an assortment of locally crafted jewelry, candles, clothing and artwork.
But often the first things to capture the attention of potential customers are tables and shelves packed with more than 200 personally curated specialty houseplants.
The mostly tropical plants at Gaia’s are ideal for indoor display, the women said in a Feb. 4 phone interview.
Their assortment ranges from hoyas and philodendrons to calatheas and other plants that reportedly do a grand job of cleaning the air while raising the spirits.
Indoor gardening is Mace’s specialty, but is a passion for both women, they said. It’s an enthusiasm they’re anxious to share with their customers, along with detailed care instructions for each plant.
In fact, according to Mace, as soon as the pandemic allows the partners to do so, they want to start sharing their knowledge in all those fields in a series of workshops, classes and gatherings.
After all, they now have sufficient room in which to hold those events.
Owners training in crystal, herbalist programs
The women have long ties to Morro Bay. Their family has been in the small harbor town since 1994, Birchell said, and has owned Cen Cal Roofing since then.
Though the mother-daughter team has trained in their respective fields, they say, they’re not content to rest on those informational laurels.
“Mom’s in a program to become a crystal practitioner,” Mace said, “and I’m about to graduate from the well-known herbalist program, the Rosemary Gladstar Science and Art of Herbalism.”
There’s even more: Birchell is in the process of getting an establishment license for a small beauty salon that would also be part of Gaia’s.
The shop and the two women are closely supervised by Marley, the Australian-shepherd-mix shop dog, and Titan, a four-month-old orange Maine Coon cat who already shows signs of growing into his massive paws.
But now for the most important question: Where did they get the name for the shop?
According to Wikipedia, Gaia “was the Greek goddess of Earth, mother of all life,” and her legends were “embraced to some extent by New Age environmentalists as part of the heightened awareness of environmental concerns of the 1990s.”
Birchell and Mace say they are providing a type of healing that’s … “centered around spirituality and harmonizing the mind, body, and spirit.”
Their website calls the shop a “gift to our community during these uncertain times … a safe place of connection, unity, and healing.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
