Garden center celebrations, changes and closings for the week of March 16

There are only a handful of local Tallahassee businesses that have crossed the centennial mark, and Saturday, one more made the list. Gramling's, a local seed and farm store, was founded in 1915.

 

About 100 people mill about the modest, stable-like store with wood beams and a metal roof, on South Monroe Street. Inside the store-- seeds and small plants, shovels, rakes, and even bags of fresh manure for fertilization. Gramling's client base includes County Commission Chairwoman Mary Ann Lindley—whose been coming to the store for about 35 years.

 

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From Atlanta Magazine. 

This spring will mark the last time nursery owner Carole Simpson welcomes winter-weary gardeners to her Ashe-Simpson Garden Center on Peachtree Boulevard in Chamblee, Georgia. The nursery, which Simpson opened in 1998, is part of a 11.12-acre parcel that S. J. Collins Enterprises, a commercial real estate development firm in Fairburn, plans to develop.

Simpson said she hasn’t been told when she must vacate, but thinks it could be sometime in the summer. As of now, she plans to offer a business-as-usual full inventory of plants for the spring gardening season.

After that, she’s not sure what direction her business will take, although she will likely downsize her retail operations. “I’m still sorting this out,” she said. “I’m looking for another location in the area, but I know I won’t have this kind of space. I’m hoping to find a house with maybe a little bit of land.” She does plan to keep her garden design business.

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From Marin Independent Journal. 

Sunnyside Nursery, which opened in San Anselmo 75 years ago, has been sold to the employee-owned Armstrong Garden Centers company.

Tom Perry, the nursery’s owner, closed his business at the end of January as there were no apparent next generation participants to take over the store at 130 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Perry’s grandfather, Donald Perry, started the nursery in 1940 and Tom took over management in 1976, aided by his brother Ross Perry, who worked at the nursery from 1979 until June of 2014.

“In the absence of a likely family member to carry on, we have been searching for quite some time to continue the business,” said Tom Perry. “We are very pleased and excited to announce that we have found a strong, reputable group to continue this valued nursery operation for the community, while offering our loyal staff the best opportunity to continue working here.”

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