We’re Zsolt, Zsoka and our son, Beni — a nature-first family building Stone&Spine based on a life of collecting.
2,000+ cacti and succulents grown at home, 20+ years of hands-on experience, and a simple goal: healthy, curated plants, and practical guidance that actually works.

Family-run, nature-first — this is Stone&Spine

 

We’re the kind of family that can’t help but live close to nature.
We’re Zsolt, Zsoka and our son, Beni — with a big garden, plenty of pets, and free time that usually turns into hiking, mushroom hunting, and hands-in-the-soil gardening. Nature isn’t something we “do sometimes” — it shapes how we live, what we notice, and what we care about.

That love of the natural world also influenced what we studied and how we think. Zsoka is an environmental engineer, and Zsolt’s background is in agricultural economics. We’ve always been drawn to living systems: soil, light, seasons, and the small signals that tell you whether a plant is thriving or just surviving.

 

2025 winter - a part of our collection with more than 2000 plants

 

Our shared hobby has always been plants — but for Zsolt, cacti and succulents became a lifelong fascination. It started in childhood and turned truly serious more than 20 years ago. Over time it grew into a home collection of 2,000+ cacti and succulents, all cared for with the kind of attention you only develop after years of trial and error, learning, and quiet obsession.

 

A closer look at our Gymnocalyciums — details you only notice with time

 

This passion took us far beyond our home. In 2012, Zsolt visited cactus habitats in Peru — a trip that changed how we look at these plants forever. Later, that same plant-driven curiosity brought us to collections and botanical gardens across the world, including Penang and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Tokyo (Japan), and Lucknow and New Delhi (India). Travel for work also played a role: because Zsolt spent years traveling frequently, it opened the door to seeing how different climates, growers, and collections approach succulent cultivation — and what actually works long-term.

 

Peru, 2012 — seeing cacti in habitat changed everything

 

We travel for plants, collections, and inspiration

 

Zsolt first joined the Hungarian Cactus Collectors Association in 2009, and he remains a member to this day. For us, this community matters: it’s where knowledge gets tested, shared, corrected, and refined — and where you learn the difference between a plant that merely looks good today and a plant that stays healthy for years.

 

Collector-grown Astrophytums — texture, form, and healthy growth

Since 2024, we’ve been thinking seriously about turning all of this experience into something more shareable — but in a way that stays honest and useful. Not “pretty plants for photos,” and not generic supermarket succulents. We wanted to give cactus lovers something practical: healthy, curated plants, tools and accessories we truly believe in, and experience-based guidance that helps people succeed.

 

Sowing and grafting: for strength and long-term healthy plants. 

 

That’s why we created Stone&Spine.
It’s our family project, built from real collecting life — the joy, the patience, the mistakes, the learning — and the wish to pass on what we know, so your plants don’t have to be a gamble.

 

Collector-grown plants. Practical guidance. Family-run, nature-first.