About Penumbra

Alison Murphy and Alyssa McClary are wives who opened Penumbra in March 2020. Since then, they opened a second location inside Apotheca Flower Shoppe (now Flight Coffee) in Goffstown, NH. Penumbra started as a purveyor of plants and plant accessories, and that has since expanded to jewelry, cards, candles, and many, many stickers.

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Penumbra's goal is to be a plant store for the people - one that's not intimidating, and will meet you where you're at on your plant journey.  If you've never owned a plant but have always wanted to, our staff can't wait to help you! The plants Penumbra keeps in stock tend to be easy going, low maintenance, and good for a variety of light types. 

Penumbra's aesthetic is "plants we can't kill," because neither Alison nor Alyssa have a background in plants, but love them and are loving learning more about them!

And an answer to the most frequently asked question - why is our name Penumbra? 

Alison was trying to come up with a name for the shop, and nothing was sticking. One night she was reading an Ocean Vuong book and when she came across the word "penumbra" it just stuck. It means "the partial or imperfect shadow outside the complete shadow of an opaque body," ie the shadow on a planet when the light is partially cut off by an eclipse. ​