The rarest thing about Mutschler’s Rare Plants isn’t its host of exotic flora, plucked from every corner of the world.
Spiked vines from Madagascar that resemble the tendrils of an otherworldly octopus, what looks like a palm tree, only more abstract, with roots and limbs tangling in ways that border on impossible, a frankincense plant about as old as the United States.
The selection of greenery at Mutschler’s in Exeter Township is fascinating, but it’s only one piece of what makes the shop unique.
Much of Mutschler’s mystique surrounds the story of the man himself — owner and co-founder Bob Mutschler, a rock’n’roll pioneer turned horticultural expert who paid his college tuition by performing alongside the likes of the Beach Boys and Fabian.
“Everything is a little weird in my life,” Mutschler said. “My first (musician) job was the opening act for Fabian. He was like the Justin Bieber of the ’50s…as big as you get at the time, right under Elvis.”
Starting young
Mutschler’s family was friends with politicians, and he got his start playing at political rallies at 7 years old.
“They’d pass a hat around and we’d get money, and they were all drunk so I would get hundred dollar bills in the ’40s,” Mutschler said with a laugh.
A few years later, Mutschler played his maiden opener with Fabian at Dorney Park’s Castle Garden dance hall.
“I had a bright red guitar, I had bright red hair, and I looked like a little kid, because I was 12,” Mutchler said. “That was my first job as opening act for anyone. A pretty big start.”
Mutschler kept the momentum going, performing with stars like Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Patti LaBelle and The Yardbirds.
“It was super exciting,” Mutschler said. “We won, almost like ‘American Idol’ (back then). We were supposed to be on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and make a recording contract with ABC Family. That’s when I went to college, and (my first band) broke up.”
Mutschler’s talents weren’t limited to music. He was also a quick learner.
After graduating high school two years early, he headed to college at age 16 to pursue his other passion — plants.
“I knew what I was going to do maybe younger than everyone else, I was 4,” Mutschler said of his horticultural roots. “It was all from my great-grandmother. It was in the ’40s, when you didn’t have any toys and she had me planting corn seeds.”
In college, Mutschler joined another band whose members had connections to Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars.
He funded his horticultural education with his music, paying for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees with the money he made.
“I went to California, wrote a (horticulture) book, played for the Beach Boys, and worked as a lead breeder for Burpee Seed Company,” Mutschler said.
For his doctorate, Mutschler headed to the University of Florida, where he aimed to put his rocker past behind him, so as not to upset his advisers.
“I cut my hair, I didn’t want them to ever know I did rock,” Mutschler said, noting that his adviser frowned on his performing. “I never told my adviser, but I knew he knew.”
His years after college were spent in a variety of horticultural roles from serving as a plant pest control expert for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to teaching at a vocational school in Montgomery County.
Opening Mutschler’s Rare Plants
That is, until 35 years ago, when Mutschler’s wife, Elsie, casually mentioned they were opening a flower shop.
“I said, ‘What?’” Mutschler said with a laugh. “She said, ‘Yep, I bought the land already.’”
Mutschler noted that he and his wife never argued for the entirety of their 66 years together.
“She was the head bookkeeper at the University of Florida…so she knew how to run big businesses, and operate without me getting in the way,” Mutschler said.
He said he chose to sell rare plants because his breadth of experience meant he’d grown just about everything else already.
To support the new business, Mutschler left his teaching job and worked with his family and his children, Micah and Rob, converting the former farmhouse into a shop and building the greenhouse.
In addition to helping with the store, Mutschler eventually went back to teaching, passing on his horticultural expertise to students at the vocational school and Penn State Berks.
Elsie Mutschler died in 2022.
What they built together still stands today as perhaps one of the most unique destinations in Berks County.
Unique atmosphere
A lone driveway lined with bamboo leads to Mutschler’s lot, shrouded in trees and nearly invisible from the road.
Beyond the parking lot, guests can hear the “ribbit” of the frogs perched on stones and lilies and hidden in the flora lining the ponds scattered outside the store.
Those frogs share their taste for bugs with the ponds’ other inhabitants — carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews, and giant, shimmering koi.
The store itself resides in a converted farmhouse with no shortage of history — the house was part of the underground railroad.
“There’s a hidden room under here, and a hidden tunnel that (went) under the greenhouse and into the barn,” Mutschler said. “There was a loft in the barn where (freed slaves) slept.”
A few corners of the store feature Mutschler’s horticultural experiments.
On one shelf, pink moss grows in small fishbowls.
“I was taking moss tissue cultures, and it came out pink,” Mutschler said. “Then I saw on the front page of the Hawaiian newspaper, they said they just discovered this pink moss, and they’re not going to allow it out of Hawaii. I thought, ‘oh my God, I’ve been selling it for two years.’”
Stepping into the greenhouse feels like teleporting into an enchanted rainforest.
Birds sing and a calm flute tune lilts from a hidden speaker.
Greenery from every corner of the globe shouldn’t mesh so well, but at Mutschler’s, an anthurium from Mexico and a pandanus tree from the Philippines thriving next to each other couldn’t make more sense.
One plant on display was the subject of a “New York Times” bestselling novel.
“The Orchid Thief” features a character obsessed with cloning the rare ghost orchid — a plant he could have easily bought from Mutschler.
Mutschler arranges his plants in a pattern that considers artistry more than price. A 100-year-old bonsai selling for $3,400 sits near small clippings going for a few dollars.
Between the plants, a path curves around a koi pond and even a shark tank, where Mutschler keeps his Chinese high-fin banded shark. Despite its name, the shark is relatively tame and enjoys a diet of algae.
Patrons from across the globe
Like his fish and his flora, Mutchler’s patrons also come from all over.
“We had a bonsai class a few months ago, two people came from Ireland and two people came from Alaska in the same class,” Mutschler said.
Many of his patrons also become his friends, Mutschler noted. Some even stop by to leave him cuttings of plants.
“It’s interesting how many people think about us,” Mutschler said.
Much of the goodwill generated by Mutschler’s came from the kindness of his late wife.
“She helped so many people in so many ways,” Mutschler said. “Paid for stuff. Got loans to pay their mortgage. Stuff like that.”
Mutschler noted that throughout his life he’s often found himself on the receiving end of good fortune.
He told the story of losing a diamond ring he had bought for his wife on a beach in Florida, only to have it mailed back to them by a housekeeper.
“The cleaning lady sent this ring to us without knowing our address,” Mutschler said. “So many weird things happened in my whole life like that. Every time something bad happens, it turns around and becomes one of the better things in my life.”
The future
When it comes to the future of his shop, Mutschler is hoping his luck will hold.
He said PennDOT approached him about claiming the site via eminent domain.
The decision isn’t final, he said, noting PennDOT hasn’t told him what the project might be.
“Everything is in limbo right now,” Mutschler said. “It’s not definite at all.”
If it came to it, Mutschler said he wouldn’t relocate.
“I’m 81 and I don’t think I want to do that,” Mutschler said.
Assuming the store stays, Mutschler said he wasn’t sure about its long-term future, given that he’s suffered serious health problems and his sons aren’t interested in running the business.
“My older son…he helps once in a while, but they don’t want to be in the business (long term),” Mutschler said.
He said his sons helped his wife when her health declined and she suffered paralysis, and they take care of him as well.
“(My wife’s death) was a pretty brutal year in my life,” Mutschler said. “But now, I’m running (the store.) Another new adventure, I guess.”
His workers, some of whom are interns, could take over the business, but he said he wasn’t sure if they could afford to buy it.
“I really don’t know what I’m going to do. I wrote a book on how to open a flower shop and run it…but I never wrote the final chapter, which would be ‘how to close a business,’” Mutschler said. “I could not write that chapter.”
For now, Mutschler plans to press on as always.
“Whatever happens, it’s going to work out,” Mutschler said. “Every weird thing in my life has worked out…sometimes you don’t know it until so much later.”
