Green escapes: Garden Center Conference & Expo tours Kansas City IGCs

The Garden Center Conference & Expo visited Family Tree Nursery, Colonial Gardens and Suburban Lawn & Garden in the Kansas City area to learn how they build community connections with their customers.

What makes a trip to a garden center something people plan their day around?

In the video above, come along with us and find out as we tour some inspiring, nationally known Kansas City-area garden centers on the Garden Center Conference & Expo Garden Center Tour!

Our first stop was Family Tree Nursery’s growing facility in Kansas City, Kansas. The 5-acre site was built over two years, in 2019 and 2020. 

The business started as Overland Park Garden Center in 1965 and now has three retail locations and two growing facilities in Kansas and Missouri, and most of what Family Tree grows goes to its own stores. 

Next up, we visited Family Tree’s Shawnee, Kansas, location, which is just under 5 acres and includes a coffeshop called Cafe Equinox. This location opened in 1981 as the business’ second storefront. The other two are in Overland Park, Kansas, and Liberty, Missouri. 

We then traveled to Blue Springs, Missouri, to visit Colonial Gardens, which sits on more than 80 acres and has an amazing outdoor event space, its own on-site cafe — where we had a delicious lunch — farm animals and u-pick flower, berry and apple fields. It’s become an agritourism destination in the region. 

Our final stop of the day was Suburban Lawn & Garden’s 40-acre Martin City location in Kansas City, Missouri. It was started in early 1950s as a lawn-mowing business while the founder was in grade school and has grown to three retail locations and two growing facilities in the KC area.

The location we visited is so big that it has its own fleet of golf carts for customers to drive. It’s one of the things Suburban is most well known for (along with its popcorn).  

Family Tree Nursery, Colonial Gardens and Suburban Lawn & Garden have all embraced the concept of becoming a third place: places people can go to simply hang out in their communities. 

Editor's note: Click here to watch a video with Matt Stueck of Suburban Lawn & Garden, Paul Abugattas of Colonial Gardens and Jonah Nelson of Family Tree Nursery to learn how these independent retailers are working to build community connections with their customers.

Garden center customers want experiences and memories, not just sales.

In 2026, we'll continue to dig into the latest trends IGCs need to know, like the third place concept, when the Garden Center Conference & Expo heads to Nashville Aug. 18 to 20.

We're touring some of the top Nashville-area garden centers on Aug. 20. Click here to register for the conference and add on the tour! Spots are limited, and the tour sells out every year.