Brit Horvat: Tell me about your background and what brought you to Boulder.

Bunny: I was born and raised in New Jersey. I came to Boulder in 1974 after a divorce because I had two small children (ages 2 and 4) and I thought in Boulder they wouldn't be the only kids in a single parent home. (I was right.) While I was divorced, I worked as a front desk clerk in a hotel, a waitress, receptionist at a newspaper and a clerk at a drugstore. When I remarried, I went back to school to get my teaching certificate for Colorado (I had taught for three years in Massachusetts) and taught English for 20 years in the Boulder Valley School system, in three middle schools and Boulder High.

BH: Did you start the business?

B: I started the business myself. We put up a 12 by 12 greenhouse the summer before I retired and then took it from there.

BH: How many people are on staff and what do they do? Or is it just you?

B: It's just me, but my husband built the stands that I use at the Farmers' Market, put up the little greenhouse in our backyard, converted part of the garage into a germination room and helps me load and unload the truck on every Market trip. I couldn't really do this without him.

BH: What is your business all about?

B: I sell herb and plant starts in the spring and move into unusual houseplants in the summer and fall. I also sell aspen wood products that my husband makes from downed aspen trees that we have on our property in the mountains. The business evolves every year and I add some things and subtract others from what I grow and what I sell. As far as products go, I started out making rose beads from rose petals and water, last year I added flower pots that I make at the Boulder Pottery Lab, and this year I'm baking Good Breath Dog Biscuits, and concocting herbal products from roses, lavender, calendula, peppermint and other herbs that I grow. We'll see what happens next year.

BH: What were the steps in making it come about?

B: I had made up my mind a few years before I retired that I really wanted to have a business at the Farmers' Market when I stopped teaching, so when I met Kirsten Boyer, the wife of a fellow teacher, who had a stand at the Market, I got very excited! I spoke to her about getting into the market and she gave me a lot of advice and information. For the first month of my first year I shared a booth with Kirsten, then I moved into my own spot. On my very first market day I sold $13 worth of dried flowers and was a little depressed, but Kirsten said things would get better - and they did.

BH: What made you really want to get into this?

B: I still remember my amazement and joy when I was 9 years old and planted some marigold seeds in our backyard in New Jersey and they actually came up! Ever since then, I've loved working with plants and when I found out about the Farmers' Market, I kept it in my mind that selling here was what I wanted to do when I retired. I went through some brown-thumb stages in my life (I even killed a plastic plant once), but now things are good. I still find it really exciting and awesome in the true sense of the word every time a teeny seed turns into a plant. (Corny, but true.)

BH: What makes your business stand out from the rest?

B: Since I have the smallest plot of land of any farmer in the market (our backyard, which has 1/10 of an acre of growing space), I go for the unusual rather than try to compete with the Big Farms. I do carry some traditional starter plants - basil, oregano, and tomatoes among them - but I like to try things that are hard to find in other places, such as banana melon, zulu prince daisies, motherwort, ashwaganda. This year I had about 95 different varieties of plants, and most of them were out of the ordinary. I also sell my starter plants in biodegradable newspaper pots, which my husband and I make over the winter. These little pots can go directly into the ground which is better for the plant because the roots don't get disturbed and better for the earth because there are no little plastic pots to throw into the landfill. One more thing that I sell that a lot of people like are my Potheads. They're little plants in clay pots that look like silly smiling faces. People get a chuckle from looking at them.

BH: Any misconceptions that you'd like to clear up?

B: Even though my stand is named POTS (which is also STOP spelled backwards), I don't sell pot. I've had a couple of customers ask for it.

BH: What do you love most about having a business in Boulder?

B: My business is limited to the Farmers' Market and I love being there each week because I get to see old friends, meet new people and be in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. I learn a lot from my customers and I feel good when I can get someone else to feel confident about growing plants.

BH: What other woman-owned businesses (outside of the Farmers' Market) deserve attention?

B: Barbara Zable is the North American distributor for a special kind of plate hangers (it's not P-Mate, but what the heck?) I have to tell you that my husband has a business he just started this year- making old-fashioned toys out of wood. His website is www.grandpagenes.com. With the Chinese toy recalls going on, he might be good material for your blog. The woman connection would be that he started his business by selling his apsen products at my business.

BH: What advice do you have to other entrepreneurial women out there who think they don't have the resources or knowledge to pull this sort of thing off?

B: I think it doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneurial woman or man - if you have a deep passion for something, the ideas and opportunities will come your way. You just have to be aware and take advantage of them. Also, all the old saws about failure on the way to success are true. I think everyone wants to get everything right the first time, but I found that starting a business is a learning experience that doesn't stop. There's always some new lesson being put in front of your face. I think, too, that it's important to keep on having fun with your business, or else what's the point?

For more information or to hear the story behind how she got her name, e-mail Bunny at henderbun@comcast.net.