Find inspiration & motivation at lush garden/gift shop

Ceremony Botanical

By BONNIE EISSLER

Candace and Willis Rothelle and business partners Everett and Lauren Robuck purchased Ceremony Botanical Studio from the previous owner, Natalie Dettmer, in June 2020. “We’re all 40 year Wimberley residents, from grade school all the way through high school,” says Willis, “we were close friends with Natalie and we really wanted to see Ceremony stay open, so we bought it while it was closed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Anyone who has visited this lush garden center will understand why the Rothelle and Robuck families wanted to safeguard its status as quite simply one of the most impressive shops on Wimberley Square. Everything about the environment – the plethora of plants large and small, eclectic art and accessories, carefully curated selections of candles, incense and oils – is designed to inspire and motivate.

Casey Bass, manager and an integral part of the team, has been with the garden center since Natalie first opened the business in September 2017. When asked about the somewhat un-

See CEREMONY, Page 22 Casey Bass

Candace Rothelle

CEREMONY, from Page 20

usual name, Ceremony Botanical Studio, Casey mentioned the influence of Braiding Sweetgrass, a 2013 nonfiction book that focuses on plants as seen through Native American and Western scientific traditions. The author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, writes that “plants and animals are our oldest teachers ... they offer us gifts and lessons if we remember how to hear their voices.”

This awareness that plants offer gifts and lessons is combined with the importance of ceremony or ritual, another theme of Kimmerer’s book, and the realization that a ceremony doesn’t have to be a huge spectacle to be significant. It may be as simple as watering your plants or lighting a candle.

Jessica Brasher, who writes the blog for Ceremony, expands on this idea, “Plants are the reason any of us are here on this spinning globe anyway, shifting the idea of caring for them from

See CEREMONY, Page 23

Photo by Gable and Roost.

Willis Rothelle.

Ceremony Botanical on the Wimberley Square.

a chore to an act of service uplifts us all. It’s that small bit of daily care-taking that is behind the meaning of Ceremony’s mystical maxim Respect the Ritual. Ceremony strives to carve out a little bit of breath in these daily rituals, a little bit of space for the sacred.” Of course, the 2020 pandemic brought about many other changes besides a change in ownership of Ceremony Botanical. It brought out the best and worst in people. While some hoarded, others went out of their way to share. Some suffered extreme loneliness while others discovered that as life slowed down, family and friends grew closer. Some ate too much and binge watched Netflix, others baked bread and planted a garden.

“Interest in houseplants soared,” Jessica says, “as the pandemic ushered us inside, more and more folks took to creating an indoor oasis.” A green space in the desert, a place of refuge from the storm seemed appropriate for these difficult times.

Ceremony’s owners have traveled across the country in search of rare plant specimens. With each trip, they bring back truckloads of stock, cactus from Arizona or tropical plants from Florida. “We believe that our cactus selection and specialty air plants may be the best in the state,” Willis says.

Everyone seems to agree that Ceremony is known for their weird, interesting plants. One of Willis’ favorite plants at the moment is the Staghorn fern, a plant with uniquely shaped fronds that grows on trees and rocks, is often found in tropical gardens, and likely qualifies as one of those “weird” plants.

Other current favorites are the range of Palo Santo items, like incense, oils and raw form Palo Santo, and locally made whole body care products from Folk Apothecary, made with ingredients cultivated in Wimberley.

Palo Santo (Spanish meaning “Holy Wood”) is a wild tree native from the Yucatan peninsula to Peru and Venezuela. Belonging to the same family as frankincense and myrrh, it’s widely used as a folk medicine remedy for pain and inflammation or to promote relaxation. Palo Santo and Sage (bundles of sage are also available at Ceremony) are also used to combat negative energy. Photos courtesy Ceremony Botanical.

FYI • Ceremony Botanical Studio is located in the historic John Henry Saunders home, circa 1870, at 14000 Ranch Road 12 in Wimberley. The shop is open daily from 10:30 am to 6 pm. For more information, visit the website at ceremonybotanical.com. www.innatsunsetmillranch.com

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