South Grand has a new green heart. Two independently owned local businesses — Liberated Roots Co. and Lamiaa Botanicals — have merged under one roof at 3189 South Grand Boulevard, the storefront previously home to Social Goods Marketplace, and relaunched as Mother of Thousands.
The combination makes perfect sense: curated vintage and upcycled clothing and goods on one side, plants and sustainable household items on the other. Both founders are women who built their brands from passion projects, and both draw their deepest inspiration from their own mothers — which is exactly where the new name comes from.
Mother of Thousands is a succulent whose leaves grow rows of tiny plantlets, each with its own roots, that detach to grow into entirely new plants. “It’s very prolific,” explains Lamiaa Botanicals founder Alaa Jorani, who credits Liberated Roots founder Kimberly Franks with the name idea. “The life that she gives represents the infinite impact,” Franks adds. “We hope our space will give life to the community.”
The space has been open to shoppers since June, but the official launch party lands on Saturday, November 14 — and it won’t be a typical ribbon-cutting. Expect live performers, art vendors, and botanical displays by Jorani, with jewelry and clothing presented on live models rotating through the day in styled tableaus. The centerpiece: two special “mother” looks designed under the guidance of Franks’ and Jorani’s own mothers, meant as a visual tribute to their matriarchal roots and creative backgrounds.
Jorani’s story starts with her mother, Lamiaa, an avid gardener. “We always had plants growing up — she was always a gardener, so that was our way of connecting together,” Jorani says. “It was like my little chore.” She named her business for her mom, and started monetizing her plant passion in 2021 with a booth at the Tower Grove Farmers Market. “I made friends with all the farmers,” she recalls. “And that’s when I realized: this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” She opened her first brick-and-mortar on Shaw, sold goods at Social Goods Marketplace too, and when that store closed this past June, she and Franks — introduced by a mutual friend — took over the space together.
Franks’ path was different. A self-described lifelong type-A personality, she decided at age five that she wanted to be a lawyer — and then went and did it. After years as a stay-at-home mom, she went looking for deeper creative direction. Liberated Roots Co., which she’d been running from a small space on South Jefferson Avenue since 2022, was her answer: a place to carry on her love of sourcing and thrifting vintage, and more importantly, to platform Black-owned brands and Black creatives. “In the boutique space, Black creatives and artists tend to be underrepresented,” she says. “So I hold space on the shelves for Black-designed goods: self-care, stationery, and accessories.” The shop features Black clothing upcyclers and artists such as ANKCH Design Studio and Ojos Brujita. Her own mother designs and sells upcycled ties in the shop. Franks was drawn to South Grand for the bigger footprint and the foot traffic — room for the brand to stretch out.
Inside Mother of Thousands, the offerings reflect both founders. Lamiaa Botanicals stocks live plants, handmade jewelry, prints of Jorani’s photography, and her candle line Scented Sands, with fragrances inspired by her Iraqi heritage — plus sustainable, non-toxic cleaning supplies in refillable containers, plant consultations, and hand-designed botanical arrangements for businesses and events. Liberated Roots contributes the vintage and upcycled fashion and the curated shelf of Black-designed goods.
But the founders don’t just want your dollars — they want you to hang out. “It feels cliché to say, but it’s very important for us to make sure everyone feels welcome and everyone is included,” Jorani says. “This is a space for everyone. We host socials, we host concerts, we host album releases, pop-ups. We want the community to come into this space and know they can come and hang out — that it’s okay to do that here.” The proof arrives early: on October 30, the shop hosts a live album release concert by Diejessedie.
Between the launch party’s live-model fashion tableaus and the mothers-at-the-center story, Mother of Thousands looks like exactly the kind of shop South Grand does best: independent, community-minded, and just a little bit joyful. Learn more through the Liberated Roots Co. website or Mother of Thousands’ Instagram page.
