Meet Conor and Lucas Hopkins, the Five- and Seven-Year-Olds Who Started a Plant Watering Business in South Baltimore

Last summer, Lucas Hopkins, who is now seven, told his mother Amber Hopkins that he wanted money and asked how he could get some. She told him to come up with some kind of simple job that people might want. Lucas Hopkins had watered plants for his Riverside neighbors in the past and thought he could do that same service for more people. He got his mother, who is a teacher in Howard County and off during the summer, and brother Conor Hopkins, who is now five, on board and they launched Green Thumbs Plant Care.

Amber Hopkins let people know about Green Thumbs on neighborhood Facebook pages, and clients started to contact her for their services. The Hopkins crew would get on their bikes each morning with their watering cans and began watering plants at about five houses every day between regulars and families on vacation. Each day Lucas and Conor Hopkins would wear their uniform of green shirts and brown khaki shorts, a uniform they picked because it’s the colors of a tree.

Green Thumbs watered 1,015 plants last year, plus helped feed a cat, bunny, lizard, and some fish. The Hopkins would water plants outside people’s homes, as well as water plants inside, on decks, and in back yards when people were away on vacation.

“It’s a really fun job,” said both Lucas and Conor Hopkins.

Green Thumbs charges $2 for every six plants watered. In 2018, Lucas and Conor Hopkins made more than $500. They split their earnings on buying treats and toys; savings as they both started Roth IRAs with the help of their mother; and giving money to the poor box at the Catholic Community of South Baltimore churches. Lucas and Conor both cashed in last year with Pokemon cards, toy truck, stuffed animals, cake pops from Starbucks, and a lot of ice cream from Miss Twist.

The Hopkins crew is back at it this year with services beginning on July 1st. They already have clients lined up for this summer and are always looking for more business.

Lucas Hopkins said he likes getting the money, but also likes to “help Baltimore become beautiful” by helping keep the plants and flowers alive. Lucas Hopkins is not a fan of the rain as those were days when Green Thumbs’ services were not needed.

Amber Hopkins and husband Ken Hopkins are both very proud of their boys. They both remember doing simple jobs when they were growing up like mowing lawns and taking in neighbors’ mail.

“It’s fun to go out with them and talk about saving money,” said Amber Hopkins. “Now they talk about both wants and needs with their money. To hear them evolve economically is fun.”

Some days Lucas or Conor Hopkins wouldn’t want to get out and serve their clients, but Amber and Ken Hopkins said their sons pushed each other to stay motivated.

Lucas and Conor Hopkins will spend the summer watering plants around the neighborhood but, come the fall, the business will take another pause as Conor will start kindergarten and Lucas will start the second grade at Francis Scott Key Elementary Middle School.

Lucas and Conor Hopkins 

via https://www.southbmore.com/2019/06/19/meet-conor-and-lucas-hopkins-the-five-and-seven-year-olds-who-started-a-plant-watering-business-in-south-baltimore/