Joshua’s Native Plants Brings Global Garden Finds to Houston Heights

Joshua’s Native Plants & Garden Antiques has been Joshua Kornegay’s passport to travel the world. Customers journey from as far away as Dallas and Louisiana for plants and advice, browsing offerings from the Far East, the Chihuahuan Desert, Italy, and beyond. With bonsai, Italian bronze sculpture, and pottery from Vietnam, Joshua’s is a different kind of garden-center experience.

Kornegay’s passion for finding rare and unusual items to delight his customers has spanned more than 30 years. “I now shop worldwide with ease,” he says. While he travels abroad on buying trips each year, international suppliers also seek him out. His strategy is twofold: meet with suppliers and artisans who sell to him directly for the best prices, and visit garden centers for inspiration and—more importantly—for leads on new sources for the diverse offerings that Joshua’s is known for.

“I never have a vacation without some business—never,” Kornegay admits. “When traveling, I visit garden centers and look at their tags and the boxes behind the dumpsters, searching for new artists and suppliers.” He also visits private gardens off the beaten path to spot landscaping trends he can bring back to his customers.

On a trip to Italy last August, he connected with a fellow garden-center owner. “There was the barrier of language,” he says, “so we spoke in horticultural Latin about the plants and became fast friends.”

“We’re going again this July,” Kornegay confides. “An immersive trip is really the only way to go. Sure, you can hire a tour guide, but it’s so much better to stay with a local who was born and raised there. I travel to see the hidden treasures—like the Mithraeum.”

Spend any time with Kornegay and you’ll learn something new—about gardening, or maybe even about ancient Rome. Mithraea are hidden, cave-like temples that predate Christianity. According to a paper that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while in seminary, Mithraism was a secret cult of men who worshiped Mithras, god of the sun and light. The cult was eventually edged out by Christianity, possibly because women were strictly excluded.

“I always take a day for hiking when I travel. In Italy, it’s the Appian Way,” says Kornegay. During hikes, he compares the local flora to Texas native species. He’s observed that the area north of Rome is strikingly similar to Austin and Central Texas. “But people in Italy think nothing of digging in their backyard gardens and finding a skull,” he adds.

Kornegay champions diversity when it comes to giving Houston gardeners the widest array of landscaping choices. “Whether it’s natives or ‘bread and butter’ stock, there’s so much more out there than wax leaves and red tips. And there are thousands of indigenous species that thrive in our floods and droughts. They’re just not available anywhere else,” he says. “I try to zero in on that.”

Ahead of the curve on the trend of drought-resistant plants, in 2016 he installed an 80-foot succulent section. Today, succulents are more popular than ever. “I don’t have to talk people into them anymore,” he contends. “Everyone in the Heights wants xeriscaping with succulents. We have great sources here in Texas. I know almost every grower in the state.”

Kornegay applies a hands-on approach to quality and selection. “I visit these farms personally, walk the greenhouses, and pull what I want,” he says.

Previous buying tours in the Far East have yielded a wide assortment of ceramic planters and pots. “Most of our pottery comes from Vietnam,” he says, “which is the best-made pottery on the planet for outdoor use. I buy direct, get the best prices, and my customers are thrilled.” His finds are delivered in 40-foot containers straight from Vietnam. His inventory includes fountains made from large ceramic pots, assembled on site in the Heights, which he can offer for less than similar items from traditional markets and trade shows.

“Coming up in May, I’m getting a couple of crates from China of rare 20-year-old bonsai,” Kornegay notes with obvious enthusiasm. Though tariffs will make them more expensive, he believes the increase is temporary. After surviving the pandemic and several devastating freezes, he’s unfazed.

Reflecting on the pandemic years, Kornegay considers himself lucky. His nursery was deemed essential and continued operating as an open-air business selling edible plants. Many other small businesses weren’t as fortunate. “People hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for letting me keep my sanity.’ Some would come and stay for the day,” he says.

For someone who enjoys traveling to exotic, far-flung places, Kornegay surprisingly makes his home in a neighborhood that’s more Mayberry than Malaysia. He grew up in Houston’s mid-century Oak Forest neighborhood and now lives in his childhood home. His daily commute to work in the Heights is just 10 minutes—to the same neighborhood where his parents used to bank and shop.

“A friend gave me the best advice I was ever given when he encouraged me to buy the corner of 18th Street and Nicholson,” Kornegay confides. Now, he says, not a week goes by without a developer approaching him about selling the property. “I’m in no hurry to do anything else,” he says, “so why would I sell?”

If you had to guess what keeps Joshua Kornegay passionate about his work after 30 years, it would probably be his curiosity and love of the unusual. He’s an avid reader and lifelong learner.

So, what’s new at Joshua’s? “When I was a kid, there were half a dozen rock shops in Houston you could visit, but they’re all gone. So now I offer a collection of crystals, rocks, minerals and fossils.” The shop’s collection of “earth’s treasures” includes geodes from the Chihuahuan Desert. “I’ve made a contraption so we can crack them open for you. I see 60-year-old straight men get giddy when we crack one open.”The geodes for cracking start at $15. That’s a whole lot of fun for a small investment.

For more info, visit joshuasnativeplants.net.