Five minutes, and you're in.
You don't need an account to look around, and you don't need a password to get one. Here's the whole on-ramp.
Look around first
The homepage, the Partner Directory, the photo gallery, the trade board — all of it is open to anyone, logged in or not. Browse before you commit to a thing.
Sign in with just your email
Type your email at the door, we text — well, email — you a 6-digit code. Ten minutes to use it, no password to forget, ever.
You're a member, automatically
First time signing in creates your account on the spot. No application needed just to browse, RSVP, and trade — that part's already open to everyone.
RSVP or book a table
Free to come as a shopper. Want to sell? That's a short application first — more on that in Selling With Us below.
Show your QR code at the door
It's already in your portal the moment you RSVP or book. Staff scans it, you're in — no lines, no clipboard.
💡 Put it on your home screen
On an iPhone: tap Share, then "Add to Home Screen." On Android: tap the menu, then "Install App." Now your check-in code and everything else is one tap away on market day.
What this actually is.
A little bit of housekeeping before anything else, because we've gotten this question a lot.
RVA Tropical & Exotic Plants is the organization — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit here in Richmond, Virginia, built on the idea that plant people (and the makers, artists, and oddity-lovers who somehow always end up at the same tables) deserve a real community, not just a marketplace.
The Canopy is the tool we built to run it — the market-day check-ins, the table bookings, the trade board, the volunteer shifts, all of it. Think of it as an extension of our website, not a separate brand. When you see "The Canopy," that's just this app talking to you.
We built it this way on purpose: so that showing up, selling, volunteering, and trading all live in one place instead of six different sign-up sheets and a group text nobody can find.
Getting in the door.
No passwords. Not "no passwords for now" — genuinely none, anywhere in this app, for anyone.
How it works
Enter the email you want tied to your account. We send a 6-digit code — good for 10 minutes, and you get 5 tries to get it right before you'll need a fresh one. There's also a one-tap link in that same email if typing six digits feels like too many steps.
That's it. Same door whether you're a longtime partner, a volunteer, or someone who just heard about us yesterday — everyone signs in the exact same way.
Why no passwords?
Because passwords get reused, forgotten, and phished, and none of that serves a community built on trust. A code that dies in ten minutes is simpler and safer than something you have to remember for a year between markets.
First time here
If it's your first time signing in with that email, we create your account right then — as a general community member, free, no application required. That tier lets you browse, RSVP to events, and use the trade board. Selling a table or claiming volunteer shifts are separate roles that do need an application (see the sections below), because those come with real responsibility to the rest of the community.
Been a while?
If your account has gone quiet for about a year, the door will ask you to reconnect with us rather than just waving you through — a quick reapply, not a punishment. We'd just rather hear "still here!" from you directly than assume.
How long you stay signed in new
Up to 90 days, and it renews itself the more you actually use the app — you're not clock-watching a fixed expiry. If you ever need to sign every device out at once (a lost phone, a shared computer), there's a "sign out everywhere" option in your account menu.
Your Canopy, explained.
Once you're signed in, everything lives behind one door. Here's the map.
Overview
Your home base — credit balance, badges, what's coming up next, and featured partners worth meeting.
Market Day
Book your table, claim a volunteer shift, grab a workshop ticket, or make a special request — all under one roof.
Community
The trade board, who you follow, and your standing in the Canopy Circle.
Meet & Discover
Browse our partners, or search what they're actually offering right now.
Profile
Your details, your public page, your catalog if you sell — plus your account and privacy settings.
Receipts
Every booking, donation, and transaction, with refund status right there if you ever need to check.
Market Day.
Everything about the actual event — booking a spot, picking up a shift, or grabbing a ticket — lives in one panel with four tabs.
Your table updated
Browse open spaces for the next market, sized as a quick comparison against everything else that market offers — not fixed labels, just "how does this one stack up." One space per market: pick a different one later and it upgrades your booking instead of adding a second one, so you're never double-charged by accident. Add-ons — corner spot, power access, anything priced separately — are yours to add straight from the same booking, not something you have to ask staff for.
Once a market's floor plan is set, a live map shows exactly where your table sits — check it before you load in.
The ten-day rule
Cancel ten or more days before an event and every cent — cash and credit alike — lands back in your account as credit, automatically, no email required. Inside that ten-day window, reach out to us directly and we'll sort it out with you. We'd rather talk it through than leave you guessing.
Volunteer
If you're signed up to volunteer, you have a Volunteer tab of your own. It opens on your next shift: what the job is, where to meet, what to bring, and your check-in code. Add it to your calendar from there, or give the spot back if your plans change. It's free until 24 hours before the shift, and closer in we let the team know so they can fill it.
Below that are the open shifts and your running hours. Your first shift is confirmed by a person, and after you've worked one, the shifts you claim are confirmed right away. The tab is also where you pitch a workshop or a collab event. If you've applied and you're not seeing shifts yet, a short onboarding step unlocks them, and the tab shows how far along you are.
Your story keeps count of your hours, shifts, and markets. It also shows any volunteer badges you've earned and how close the next one is, and a note from the team if someone wrote you one when they approved your hours. Need proof of your hours for a school or an employer? Open your hours letter there. It lists only approved hours, you can pick the dates, and you can print it or save it as a PDF.
Three more things live on that tab. After a shift, it asks how it went: tap one of five words and add a few more if you like. Only the team reads it. You can also choose to see who's on your shift. Share your first name with the volunteers beside you and you'll see theirs. It's only ever first names, there's no way to contact anyone from it, and you can turn it off whenever you like. And the team posts shout-outs there, thanks they wanted every volunteer to hear. Your name shows in one only if you've chosen to share it.
Tickets
Paid workshops and expo sessions are separate from booking your own table — this is where you grab a seat as an attendee, not a seller.
Requests
Need to be near an outlet, away from the door, next to a friend's table? Tell us here, tied to the specific event, and we'll do what we can.
Community & the three things you can earn.
This is the part people ask about most, so let's be really clear: there are three separate things in your account that all sound similar and aren't. None of them convert into each other automatically, and that's intentional — each one rewards a different kind of showing up.
💵 Credit Balance
What it is: real dollars in your wallet.
How you earn it: cancel a booking ten-plus days out, get an admin adjustment, or redeem volunteer points.
How you spend it: automatically, at checkout, oldest dollars first. Never expires.
🙌 Volunteer Points
What it is: compensation for real hours worked.
How you earn it: claim a shift, clock in and out at the event, and once a person confirms your hours, points land.
How you spend it: redeem for booth-fee credit, workshop credit, or merch — your call.
⭐ Community Points
What it is: the Canopy Circle's own currency — a reflection of participation, not money.
How you earn it: RSVPing, posting to the Showcase, voting, checking in at an event, referring a friend, or a challenge you complete.
What it does: moves you through the Circle's tiers below. Doesn't buy anything directly.
"The Canopy Circle" and "Neighbors" are two different things
The Canopy Circle is your standing — the tiers just below. Neighbors is a dashboard tab for small local/interest chat groups. They used to share the word "Circle," which was confusing enough that we renamed one of them — if you see an old reference to "Circles" (plural) anywhere, it means Neighbors.
The Canopy Circle — your standing
Your community points drive your standing — Seedling → Understory → Canopy → Emergent. You only need to clear one of a tier's three bars (points, how long you've been around, or how many different ways you've participated) to move up, not all three — there's more than one way to belong here. Points now come from joining a Neighbors group, posting or answering in Plant SOS, and everything the currency card above already lists.
Have a referral link? Share it. Whoever signs up through it earns you 30 points the moment they join.
The public marketplace new
On the community page, open to anyone — even before you sign in. Not a swipe deck: a grid of cards, each doing one specific job — a trade offer, a free porch drop (first come, first claimed), a supply split (chip in for a shared group buy), a wishlist ask (someone hunting for a specific plant), or a showcase (just something someone's proud of, worth a high-five). Tap a card's action before you've signed in and we'll walk you through the door first, then carry your tap through the moment you're back — you never lose your place.
A trade card here points you into the real Trade Board below to actually swap — the marketplace is where you browse, the Trade Board is where a trade actually happens.
Neighbors new
A handful of standing groups — by neighborhood, or by interest like Rare & Unusual Finds — living in your dashboard once you're signed in. Join one, post to its wall, message someone else in it directly. Smaller and quieter than the public marketplace above, closer to a group chat with people near you than a marketplace.
Trade board
Post what you've got, browse what everyone else has, and swipe right on something you'd trade for. A real match only happens the instant it's mutual — you both liked what the other's offering — which means every match on this board is something both sides actually want, no awkward one-sided asks.
Trading at an actual market is safer than a private one-on-one meetup, and we say so right on the board. If something ever feels off about a match or a trade, there's a report button right there — a real person reads every one.
Wishlist — HAVE & ISO new
Separate from the Trade Board's post-and-swipe deck: a standing list of what you grow (HAVE) and what you're hunting for (ISO), picked from a genus grid — Hoya, Monstera, Philodendron, and more. Unlike a trade post, these don't expire. Add something to your HAVE list and we check that instant for anyone whose ISO list is hunting for it; going the other way, your own ISO list quietly flags any matching card in the public marketplace as it comes up, so you don't have to keep checking back.
Two different "wishlists"
Your dashboard overview also shows a "wishlist" of catalog items you've bookmarked to buy at a market — that's a shopping list, unrelated to the HAVE/ISO plant-swap wishlist above. Same word, two different things.
Plant SOS Forum updated
A struggling plant gets real answers from other members — not a generic care sheet. Asking is a short, structured post now: pick the genus, pick what you're seeing, add a photo (required — a guess without one helps nobody) and any extra detail in your own words. It's a separate space from Neighbors above, purpose-built for "what's wrong with my monstera" rather than general chat. No need to join anything first — post a question, or answer someone else's, and either one earns points.
Once your plant's actually better, mark whichever reply fixed it — that answerer gets a real points bonus for being right, on top of what they earned for answering at all.
Reaching out to someone
A message inside a Neighbors group, a reply to a trade post, or contacting someone through the trade board all work the same way: your first message to someone new is a request — they see who it's from before deciding whether to open the conversation. It's not an open inbox anyone can drop into; you're always in control of who you're actually talking to.
Badges
Some badges track themselves quietly in the background — five markets together, a run of confirmed trades. Others, like hosting a workshop, need a person to say yes. Requesting one you believe you've earned goes to a real person to check, rather than granting itself. Either way, badges aren't decoration: they're a record of the ways you've shown up.
Meet & Discover.
One home for two related questions: who's here, and what do they have.
Partners updated
Browse growers, makers, and artists — filter by Growers or Makers & Supplies, or just search. Whoever's got a table booked soonest now leads the list, with a Next Table line right on their row telling you the market and date — the directory reads as a schedule as much as a roster. Tap anyone's row and their whole story opens: a swipeable "current haul" gallery when they've posted one, their tagline, how long they've been with us, their badges, their links, and a peek at what's currently on their shelf.
See a "follow along" link inside someone's row? Tap it to follow them — you'll get an occasional digest of anything new they've added to their catalog, and now, the moment they actually check in at a market, a one-time email letting you know they just set up their table. Nothing daily, nothing spammy — just the two moments that actually matter.
What's available
Search across everyone's catalog at once — by name, by type, or just what's in stock right now. If a vendor has listed a price on something, you'll see it right there in the search results, so you know roughly what you're walking into before you ever say hello.
About those prices
Prices on catalog items are optional and vendor-set. That's the real price, not an opening bid. Deals are the vendor's to offer, not yours to ask for.
Selling with us.
Whether you grow it, make it, or find it — here's the real path from "I'd like to sell here" to a table with your name on it.
1. Apply
No login needed yet. Tell us who you are, what you make or grow, your typical price range, and bring three photos — those photos matter more than you'd think; they're often the first real impression a shopper gets of your work.
2. We read it — really
A person reads every single application, in order, usually inside a week. Not a form-letter, not an algorithm.
3. You're approved and pre-set-up
Once you're in, we set your account up ourselves and send you a sign-in link. From there, you're using the exact same 6-digit-code door as everyone else.
4. Build your page and your catalog updated
Add your photo, tagline, and links under Profile → Partner Page. New there too: a "current haul" gallery of up to three photos — swap them out market to market so shoppers see what you're actually bringing next, not just your standing headline photo. If you'd like, list what you're bringing under Profile → Catalog — title, a photo, whether it's in stock or made-to-order, and an optional price so shoppers know what to expect before they ask. Posted something and need to fix the title or swap the photo? Edit it right there — you're not stuck deleting and re-listing it.
Changing your shop's name new
Your business name is what your public directory link is built from, so a rename now goes through a quick staff approval rather than saving instantly — usually a fast turnaround, just not immediate.
5. Book your table
From Market Day → Your Table, pick an upcoming market and reserve your spot.
Pricing, in plain terms
What you pay depends on what kind of seller you are:
| Type | Who it's for | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Sliding scale | Most individual growers & makers | You choose what feels fair, within a range we set for that space |
| Commercial | Registered LLCs & businesses | Standard business rate, unlocked once your documentation is verified |
| Team | Our own staff | A set discount off the top rate — an admin perk, not something you request |
| Nonprofit | Registered 501(c)(3)s | Special pricing, set by staff once verified |
A couple of spaces also let you knock a little more off — donate a door prize, or pitch in on setup or teardown, whichever fits your market that day. It's one bonus discount per booking, not both stacked together, and it's always optional.
Volunteering with us.
Volunteers are the backbone of RVA Tropical & Exotic Plants. This isn't busywork — it's real hours, tracked honestly, compensated fairly.
Apply
Tell us your availability and what kind of work interests you — welcome table, setup, teardown, whatever fits your life.
Get approved & oriented
A short onboarding step unlocks the shift board — nothing complicated, just enough that you know what to expect.
Claim a shift
Browse what's open and grab one that works. A shift lead confirms your claim before the event.
Clock in & out
Same QR scan as everything else at check-in — your actual hours get recorded, not just what you signed up for.
Points land after review
Once someone confirms your hours were real, volunteer points hit your account.
Redeem however helps
Booth-fee credit, workshop credit, or RVA Tropical & Exotic Plants merch and the occasional special collaboration piece — your points, your call.
Checkout & credits.
A short, honest explanation of where your money actually goes.
How a charge is split
At checkout, any credit sitting in your wallet gets applied first, automatically, oldest dollars first. Whatever's left over is what actually charges your card. If your credit fully covers it, nothing touches your card at all.
The card processing fee
When part of a charge does hit a card, a small processing fee (industry-standard — a percentage plus a flat few cents) gets added to that portion only. It's never charged against credit you're spending, and we don't mark it up — it's the actual cost of accepting a card, passed through exactly as it comes to us.
Cancellations
Ten or more days out, cancel yourself and get every cent back as credit, instantly. Inside that window, email us directly — we look at it case by case, because "life happened" deserves a person, not a rule.
How we keep it fair.
We try to run this place with as light a hand as we can — but a community this size does need a few guardrails, and we'd rather you understand them than be surprised by them.
Applications aren't automatic
Every vendor and volunteer application gets read by an actual staff member before it's approved. We're looking for fit with the community, not just a filled-out form — it's why the process takes a little time.
If a booth fee or shift falls through
Most of the time, life happens and we work it out directly. In the rare case someone checks in for an event, commits to bringing a door prize, and then doesn't follow through, there's a gentle, staged process — a friendly reminder, then a follow-up, then a note on the account — long before anything like a hold ever kicks in, and it always clears itself the moment things are settled. We built it this way deliberately: nudges before consequences, and never a surprise.
Trade board safety
Every match on the trade board can be reported if something feels wrong, and a real person reviews every report. We say it plainly on the board itself: trading at an actual market is safer than a private one-on-one meetup — but however you choose to trade, we're watching out for the community's side of it.
Door prizes
Drawings happen live at events, called out loud by staff — we never publish a winner's name, only the winning number, so it stays about the moment, not the spotlight.
Your account, your say
You control whether you show up in the Partner Directory, the Volunteer Directory, or the Canopy Circle leaderboard — hiding any of them never affects your actual standing, it just keeps your name off that particular page. If something about your account ever needs a staff adjustment — a credit correction, a rate change — you'll see it reflected honestly in your own ledger, not hidden from you.
Quick answers.
Nope. The homepage, the Partner Directory, event photos, and the trade board are all public. Sign in only when you're ready to RSVP, book, trade for real, or manage your own account.
Because a 6-digit code that expires in ten minutes is simpler to use and harder to steal than a password you'll type twice a year. No password to forget, reset, or reuse somewhere less careful.
Credits are real dollars you can spend at checkout. Volunteer points are earned from confirmed shift hours and redeem for credit or merch. Community points track your participation and move you through the Canopy Circle tiers — they don't spend like money at all. See the Community section above for the full breakdown.
Apply first — no account needed for that. Once a person on our team approves you, we set your account up and send you a sign-in link. From there you're using the same door as everyone else.
Yes — that's actually the safer way to do it, and we say so on the trade board itself. Use the board ahead of time to find a match, then meet up at the event, or arrange something private if that's what works for you both.
Just ask for a new one right there — staff can pull it up in seconds. No lines, no lost afternoon.
Never. It sits in your wallet until you use it, applying itself automatically at checkout, oldest first.
Head to Help → Bug Reports in your portal and tell us what happened. We read every report and prioritize by how much it actually got in your way.