San Diego mulls future of area garden centers

The loss of Simpson’s Garden Town Nursery in San Diego—an 83-year-old business—has locals wondering what the future holds for other neighborhood garden centers, San Diego News reported.

The question is: Are the days numbered for the rest of San Diego’s independent nurseries?

“There’s not that many of us left out there,” said Kindahl Rhoades of Hunter’s Nursery in Spring Valley. Rhoades is the manager of the operation, which was started by her great grandfather in 1919. “We have almost 100 years in the same location.”

How does Rhoades describe the current state of affairs at Hunter’s? “I would say we’re hanging in there. It’s quiet, especially in the winter when it slows down anyway.” But she said the entire industry is slow due to the lack of new construction. “We’re seeing low sales numbers like we haven’t seen since the 1970’s and the 1990’s.”

Read the full story here.