FORT WORTH, Texas — In North Fort Worth, Karla Orta is reshaping the plant world one native species at a time.
Turning her personal setbacks into a thriving business, Orta is cultivating sustainability and community in equal measure.
It all began with a weekend in April.
“The pivoting point for me was one birthday weekend,” Orta shared. “I went on a shopping spree and bought a ton of plants.”
But by summer, all those plants had succumbed to the Texas heat.
“Everything was dead,” she recalled.
That failure, however, planted the seed for what would become Nativo Gardens.
“I stumbled upon native plants,” Orta said.
Her discovery of the hardiness and beauty of native plants blossomed into a backyard nursery, and eventually, a full-scale native plant shop.
“I started posting videos on Instagram and TikTok,” Orta said and the response was overwhelming.
“Our Instagram in six months grew to 20,000-plus followers,” Orta said.
As demand surged, she began shipping plants across Texas. Soon, her backyard operation couldn’t keep up.
“We set up shop behind my parents’ restaurant,” she explained, crediting her family’s entrepreneurial spirit as the foundation for her success.
“My family has always been entrepreneurs—go-getters and hustlers," Orta said.
But for Orta, the impact of her business extends far beyond sales. As a Latina in an industry where diversity is scarce, she’s on a mission to teach her community about the benefits of native plants—on their terms.
“I’m in a locally, more Hispanic-based community, and I need to be able to teach them, I need to be able to show them about native plants in their language,” she said.
Her advice to budding entrepreneurs? Just start.
“Just start where you can. I started in my backyard with some cinder blocks and some old wood that I had in my yard to build my tables,” Orta said.
Nativo Gardens is more than a plant shop. It offers landscape design services and an educational website to help anyone embrace native planting. It’s proof that with passion and perseverance, big blooms can grow from small beginnings.