Many a successful entrepreneur will tell you that their best and most successful ideas came from a need that was not being filled in their lives. This is the reason that The Little Seedling exists. Molly Ging, also known as “The Diaper Lady”, wanted to put her kids in diapers that were not disposable.
Molly, a University of Michigan Graduate in Chemical Engineering, assumed that she would use a cloth diaper service for her children. Why not? That is the way it was done when she was growing up. Both Molly and her little brother were cloth diapered. However while pregnant with her first of two sons, Molly discovered that cloth diaper services were as obsolete as dinosaurs. She had some research to do and fast! So like all Gen X’ers, she turned to Google and online parenting forums for the answers to her questions, beginning the journey that lead to The Little Seedling.
Tree City Diapers started in Molly’s basement as a way to help parents like her gain knowledge and access to cloth diapers without being subjected to hours of online searches, ordering blindly online, and trial and error. Initially by appointment only, Tree City Diapers quickly out grew the basement and in 2006 Tree City Diapers moved to its first retail location on Jackson Road in Ann Arbor. To meet the growing demand, Molly hired the first of many moms: Amy, Kerry and Susan. Molly’s initial idea of parents serving parents as her business model has remained true.
After two years of growth Molly and Tree City Diapers had once again outgrown their business’s home. Since her product lineup had grown from diapers to include strollers, car seats, apparel and other items, she changed the name to The Little Seedling and moved to a location at 355 Zeeb Road. This larger space came with expanded hours and additional employees, some of whom came from Molly’s moms group and others who began as customers. The Little Seedling no longer sells cloth diapers and no longer does diaper workshops. Over the years more people turned to the internet, big box stores and the big "A" store online for these products. Once local support wanes for items it is no longer viable for local brick and mortar stores to stock them. Sadly, while there once were 5 stores in Michigan to purchase cloth diapers, now there are none.After 5.5 years on Zeeb Rd The Little Seedling spent 6 years at 2121 W. Stadium Blvd and then in 2022 made its final move to it's current location at 2465 W. Stadium Blvd. in the Westgate Shopping Center.
Currently, the staff includes three Child Passenger Safety Technicians to help parents choose and use their children’s car seats properly. A full assortment of strollers are also available to "demo" in the store with help from any of our trained team members.
Though the business has grown and Molly’s own kids are no longer babies, the original mission is still the driving force of The Little Seedling: Providing families with the products they need and access to the information they are searching for.