Building a (Br)oasis

Mitch Rabin loves life. In fact, he’s fascinated by it, which is why he studied anthropology. But during school, he was captivated by one particular life form when he “started dabbling with plants as a hobby,” he says. Eventually, he decided to “make a go with plants” as his career.

In the late 1970s, Rabin started selling plants to local flower shops around Homestead, Fla., out of an old Chevy. He landed an account with a department store chain in Miami, and soon had to add a few part-time helpers and a couple more delivery trucks.

On a family trip to Costa Rica, Rabin got hooked on bromeliads and started growing them in his parents’ backyard. In 1981, he built a small shade house behind his house and over time, his business shifted from plant assembly and delivery to focusing on growing.

Since then, Rabin has devoted 40 years to growing — most of it specialized in bromeliads. Through his dedication to growing the best quality plants, Living Colors Nursery Inc. has blossomed into a top-choice wholesale supplier for retailers, landscapers, brokers and growers across the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean.

“Growing plants gives me a feeling of peace and connects me to nature,” Rabin says. “I'm lucky to do something that brings smiles to people’s faces.”

Diverse varieties

Living Colors operates on 15 acres today, with more than 6 acres under production in two greenhouses and several shade houses.

In addition to a couple dozen varieties of Guzmania, Rabin also grows others like Neoregelia and Vriesea bromeliads, alongside Dendrobium and Renanthera orchids. Through the years, he has traveled around the world to places like Costa Rica and Thailand searching for new varieties to add.

More recently, Rabin has expanded Living Colors’ crop mix beyond the bromeliad family to better serve customers.

“About 10 years ago, we decided to diversify for a couple of reasons,” he says. “We saw an opportunity for increasing and expanding local market wholesale, because the local interest in bromeliads is not that strong; they’re commonplace down here, so most bromeliads ship out of state. We thought diversification would give us more strength when the bromeliad demand fluctuates.”

After dabbling with orchids for many years, Rabin also added plants like variegated aralia, aroids, and staghorn ferns (complete with plaques made in-house from raw cypress from a nearby wood mill). Bromeliads account for about 80% of Living Colors’ production space and revenue, while the other 20% comes from other plant families. The total inventory of one million plants includes more than 60 varieties.

“I hear customers say, ‘I love coming here because you always have something new and different,’” Rabin says. “That gives me motivation when I get up in the morning to keep that area fresh and diverse and try to always have something different.”

Internal improvements

After 40 years of primarily growing bromeliads, Rabin and his team have developed an effective routine that includes fertigating twice a week, scouting constantly and treating issues as they arise instead of spraying preemptively.

“We are just about free of pesticides and fungicides,” he says. “If there’s a plant variety that’s prone to fungal or insect issues, we just find something else to grow.”

Rabin continues looking for new ideas to grow more effectively and eco-consciously. “We’re always trying to make internal improvements in the way we do things here,” he says.

For example, the nursery used to rely on European peat moss as its primary growing medium, but Rabin realized that wasn’t as sustainable as he thought. So now, he says, “we’re starting to use blends with wood fiber. We’re using half the peat moss we used to use, and we’re getting better performance than we did growing in straight peat moss.”

Living Colors also started reusing pots, initially as a way of stretching out supplies during tough economic times. They’ve maintained the practice since then for the sake of sustainability. “There’s a little more labor involved,” he says, “but we’re sending less plastic to the landfill.” The nursery also replaced its tag tape with fabric tag tape in other efforts to reduce plastic waste.

Support system

Many of Rabin’s 35 employees have worked at Living Colors for a long time —some for 15 years or more.

“They care about their work, and they’ve got good skills,” he says. “In any business, working with people can be the biggest challenge, but my life is a lot easier because I have good people working here.”

With no concrete plans to retire yet, Rabin, 72, still sees plenty of growth opportunities ahead. Thanks to his entrusted team, Rabin has been able to take more time off in the last few years to travel with his wife, Patty, the “founding mother” and co-owner of the company.

“If you don’t go, you don’t know,” Rabin says. “Sometimes it’s good to just get away, visit other operations, and come back with fresh eyes. There’s always more to learn, so my advice is: never stop learning.”