Autumn Hill Nursery: A return to community roots

Tucked in the rolling hills of suburban Atlanta, Autumn Hill Nursery is a family-run operation with Eric Hill at its head.

In the challenging world of small business ownership and experiencing a flattening customer count, Eric began to experiment with alternative ways to expand his nursery’s reach starting in summer 2024.

Eric made the choice to shift the business’ focus from the rat race of social media algorithms to improving the customer experience.

Upon entering the 2.5-acre nursery, visitors are greeted by gardens and displays regularly updated to highlight what is in season.

“The front garden straight off of the parking lot is a great example of what sets us apart as more than a garden center,” explains Elin Rose Hill, Eric’s eldest daughter and the business’ head of marketing and development. “It’s a little park. There is no expectation that you have to spend money.”

That is the mentality that drives Autumn Hill’s newest business plan: to create a safe place for the garden novice and master gardener alike.

Susan Franklin with her pup during the IGC's Pansies,
Pumpkins & Puppies event to benefit a local animal shelter.

“We sell emotion before we sell plants,” says Susan Franklin, Autumn Hill’s general manager.

As Autumn Hill truly sits atop a hill, the gradual climb through the nursery shows the celebrated Rose House, plus swings and secret nooks to discover for little ones, ponds stocked with fish, a cottage as the central office, the clubhouse and several places to find peace and quiet. Visitors might even be greeted by a nursery cat or two on their journey.

“The physical space is so special,” Elin says. “We are really embracing exploration.”

Having grown up in the nursery, Elin finds great nostalgia in pointing out little details to visitors.

“You could be here 15 times and still not see everything,” she adds.

The nursery has even become a lunch spot for regulars looking to get a breath of fresh air in between meetings.

“We get people from the community telling us, ‘I’m not shopping today; I just need somewhere to be quiet,’” Elin says.

Garden center events, workshops and more

Having accomplished creating a welcoming and unique space that people want to return to, the question the Autumn Hill crew began asking themselves in summer 2024 was how to get more people through the gates.

Susan has been with the company in various roles on and off for the past 30 years. She explains that Elin was brought back into the fold after college with the task of increasing customer counts.

A class at Autumn Hill Nursery.

Some of the ways Autumn Hill Nursery aims to bring new faces into the nursery includes talks, year-round workshops (both educational and make-and-takes), private events, after-hours events and online newsletters and marketing. Events happen at Autumn Hill weekly, and many are free to the public.

Every Saturday at 10 a.m., Autumn Hill offers free walk-and-talks, where visitors can learn more information about what’s new at the IGC. Staff also launched the “Garden for Life Kids Club” and the “Grateful Deadheaders” gardening club.

“Something is always going on at the nursery,” Susan says.

Events are marketed through social media (Instagram and Facebook, including local Facebook groups), Autumn Hill’s website and newsletter. Over the last year, the business has seen workshop attendance shift from regular customers to newcomers. Making many of the events free was a conscious choice as well.

“We get ‘what’s next’ calls often,” explains Elin, referring to the regular calls the nursery receives from curious customers about upcoming events.

Attendance at events depends upon the topic. What the Autumn Hill crew has noticed is that some of the best attended workshops are specific, hands-on topics, like “pruning a blackberry,” even if they have been covered before. On average, each workshop has about 20 attendees, and they’re not always filled with only familiar faces.

A class at Autumn Hill Nursery.

“It has been trial and error to see what attracts the most people,” Elin says. “It tends to be things that are hands-on, things you can’t really learn from a TikTok video.”

In a world of easily accessible information, there is much conflicting information, and people want someone they can trust with tried and true expertise. That’s the knowledge gap that Autumn Hill aims to fill.

“When customers trust your expertise, they will come back and spend money with you,” Elin notes.

“We have to earn their trust,” confirms Susan. “We are here to share our knowledge first, earn their trust, then make the sale.”

Food for thought

In addition to adding events to bring in new customers, Autumn Hill has also been capturing a younger crowd with a focus on edible and container gardening.

Eric Hill and his wife Kari Hill, co-owners of
Autumn Hill Nursery.

“Seeing that our customer base was moving into their retirement or dying off, the new subdivisions around us were either geared towards the new homeowners or retirement communities,” Eric explains.

With their landscape clientele skewing toward more young and new homeowners, Eric and Elin decided to focus on these young gardeners finding success. Instead of convincing them to take on large, expensive landscaping renovations, Eric wanted to soft-launch gardening through edibles and foodscaping.

“We dedicated space in the nursery, planted a demo garden and have dedicated e-news just for edibles,” says Eric, adding that the younger generations “like doing things, so we thought this would be a good way to introduce people to our nursery without convincing them to take on projects in their yard.”

Autumn Hill Nursery has 10,000 square feet for growing perennials and 6,000 square feet for growing roses each winter. Even with 20% of the nursery’s revenue coming from roses, the opportunity to bring in the gardening newbie could not be overlooked.

“We are well-known for being rose growers and perennial growers,” Susan says. “But we needed to address a younger crowd.”

A scene at Autumn Hill Nursery.

“There is a gap between generational knowledge around gardening. My generation skipped so much unless you have really, really passionate parents,” Elin adds. “First-time homeowners are learning about gardening for the first time. Food is a great touchpoint for that. It’s emotional.”

Rather than overloading young homeowners with large-scale landscape overhauls, Eric pared down the options for edible gardens and leaned on container gardening.

“This is something they can try, and if they succeed, they’re thrilled,” Susan explains. “If they don’t, they didn’t tear up their whole yard…We try to help them help themselves, and we are working hard at bringing in smaller things for smaller yards.”

Tracking success

Autumn Hill has mostly been gauging the success of its customer experience experiment through newsletter signups. While the business has tried using surveys and other metrics in the past, it has been tricky to track just how impactful the efforts have been.

“We have seen growth in our e-news subscription, and the new edibles e-news is steadily growing,” Eric says. “Workshop attendance has increased, and the request for private workshops has grown considerably.”

These private workshops are a way for customers to bring friends into the space, further increasing Autumn Hill’s reach.

“It…becomes a conversation,” Susan notes, explaining that talking with customers leaves the staff feeling like there has been a shift over the past year. “It goes back to earlier: We focus on the customer before the sale. We focus on the relationship before the sale.”

Parents from the kids’ club are reaching out right after each event asking what next month’s activity will be. Some workshop attendees that come to every make-and-take.

A kids' gardening class at Autumn Hill Nursery.

Eric mentions that while the free Saturday morning walk-and-talks might not translate into sales, they are becoming part of customers’ weekend routine.

“Customer count still remains flat, but (it’s) at least not dropping, and going into this, we know it would take time,” Eric says.

Future on the hill

When looking to the future, Autumn Hill aims to make their nursery a place for both community members and other small businesses to call home. “My big focus is collaborating with other local small businesses,” explains Elin. That collaboration extends past gardening, too. “Small businesses supporting small businesses.”

“We are also expanding our private group classes,” Susan adds. “We keep it in our wheelhouse, but we want people to have freedom to have their own topics.”

A scene at Autumn Hill Nursery.

While it might not be tracked in hard numbers or profit just yet, it is clear that Autumn Hill Nursery’s focus on the customer experience is making a positive impact on not only the nursery itself, but its surrounding community.

With the pressure of big-box stores, online shopping, pay-to-play social media campaigns and the fight to capture influencer attention, perhaps Autumn Hill and its return to community-focused events and simplifying gardening can be a guide: a joyful reminder of simpler, slower times, nestled between rolling green hills.

Lynn Gusman is a freelance writer for Garden Center magazine.