We are Hortikult
Meet the founders: Jos, Tanya, and Victoria
Jos Vanden Abeele
Jos is a proud resident of Ghent and an enthusiastic plant parent. His profound love for tropical houseplants has been a lifelong affair, leading him to establish Best Buds in May 2020 and Captain Aroid in 2024.
He holds a degree in Bio-Engineering (specializing in agriculture) from the esteemed University of Ghent. His academic journey ignited a passion for developing and researching new plant hybrids, a commitment forming his work’s cornerstone.
Looking ahead, Best Buds stands as a pioneering Belgian startup specializing in developing, producing, and commercializing unique tropical houseplants. The production processes are meticulously designed with sustainability at their core, ensuring every step respects our environment.
Jos firmly believes in the boundless creative power of imagination, a force that propels him to envision and develop the next generation of houseplants. Join him on this green adventure, where innovation meets nature, and together, we can cultivate a greener, more vibrant future.
Tanya Quintieri
Tanya is a US citizen with German roots currently based in Czechia. She looks back on a career of 20+ years in international corporate communications, marketing, and multilingual web design. In this capacity, she’s known as Mrs. Divi.
The mother of three started caring for houseplants early on: At 5 years old, she was responsible for watering her grandmother’s houseplants. At the height of her plant collecting journey, she cared for over 700 plants!
A true networker at heart with a strong belief in sharing knowledge rather than hoarding it for oneself, Tanya loves to build communities around common interests. From founding an association for language experts to most recently joining the International Aroid Society as a board member, serving as the secretary and chairs two committees (community and education), what she does is always about people, plants, and/or the planet.
With Hortikult, Tanya aspires to spark and develop ideas and deliver groundbreaking products and services to plant people around the globe.
Victoria “Tori” Hill
Tori is a full-stack software engineer based in the Greater Chicago area, where she’s spent nearly a decade building the kind of web applications that quietly hold large parts of the internet together — ecommerce platforms, enterprise content management systems, and the API integrations that tie everything in between. Her toolkit spans C#, Sitecore, React, and Shopify, but her real specialty is writing code that’s clean, reusable, and intuitive enough to actually get out of a user’s way.
Alongside her engineering work, Tori is a co-founder of WanderRoot LLC, where her curiosity has increasingly turned toward the intersection of software and the natural world. Botanical, horticultural, and conservation-related applications of technology are where she sees some of the most meaningful problems worth solving — and the most underserved ones.
A lifelong learner with a soft spot for education, data, and the science behind why things grow the way they do, Tori is also a devoted aroid collector in her own right. That overlap is what drew her to Hortikult — the chance to build tools for the kind of people she’d already be swapping cuttings and care tips with on a Saturday morning. At Hortikult, her engineering instincts and her plant shelf finally get to pull in the same direction.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
As individuals from diverse backgrounds, including LGBTQ+ and female representation, we understand the importance of creating welcoming and inclusive environments, online and in real life.
We are committed to fostering a culture where everyone feels respected, valued, and empowered to participate and contribute. We aim to celebrate the rich diversity of the plant community and ensure equitable access to resources and opportunities for all members.
Diversity is not just a goal but a fundamental principle guiding our approach to building a more vibrant and inclusive plant community.