Jade Forest wants to help you adopt your new favorite plant

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- When mom and daughter Zee and Kacey Morrissey decided to open The Jade Forest in Bella Vista, they adopted an unusual approach to business.

Rather than buying a plant, they ask that you pledge to adopt it.

The first promise in the adoption agreement is that you'll name the plant after yourself.

"I believe that could inspire self-love," says Zee.

If you can no longer care for your plant, Mama Zee will be your foster "plarent."

For mom and daughter, the adoption program is really about creating community.

"She's been collecting the contact information of everyone who has signed the adoption agreements because we're going to have a little block party," says Kacey.

For Kacey and Zee, the whole venture has been a reunion of sorts.

"I've lived away from home since I was in middle school because I went to boarding school," says Kacey.

She had been living above the storefront while Zee was in Long Island.

When the commercial space went on the market, they decided to become business partners and finally live close to each other again.

Mama Zee has enthusiastically adopted her new city.

"I just fall in love many times during the day," says Zee.

Along with plants, they also sell thrift clothing and antiques that they've collected for decades.

A theme of the shop is actually to incorporate antiques by potting the plants in anything but regular planters.

Even the shop name itself is a bit of an antique, dating back to 1975 when Zee opened the original Jade Forest on Long Island.

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626 S. 7th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147