Mailing Away

For those of us in the mail order nursery, the closure of any of our compatriots seems like a death in the family. As I’ve mentioned earlier this year, the decline in retail sales across many sectors has devastated the mail order garden industry.

So many of the nurseries we value so highly are those that introduce or make plants available that would otherwise not be accessible to gardeners. As I’ve mentioned in many previous articles, the average life expectancy of a retail mail order nursery is only 8-12 years. Those smaller mom and pop firms may often only last half of that time. The largest difficulty for a growing mail order nursery, is making the jump from a mom and pop nursery, where labor has no real world value, to one where full time employees with benefits, and those associated costs come into play. Without employees, burnout is hastened as the owner/owners have to do everything, often without any break.

Consumers often struggle to understand why plant prices vary so widely, when it’s solely related to overhead expenses. As I mentioned earlier, most mom and pop nurseries have little business background, usually not understanding the value of their labor hours. Since these nurseries are often a retirement project, or supported by a spouse with a “real” job, they don’t need to actually be financially viable. These backyard hobbies often sell plants at 30-50% of the price they would command if the nursery had to actually break even or lord forbid, turn a profit. Having studied nurseries for forty years, only a few understand the cost of shipping plants, usually believing that the cost they pay the carrier is the cost they should charge the customer, allowing nothing to account for the labor cost of pulling the order, prepping the order, packing the order, and the follow-up that’s involved. That doesn’t include the cost of boxes, and packing.

One of the recent losses was that of Annie’s Annuals (2002-2024) of Richmond, California. Plantswoman Annie Hayes is a dynamo, who had done a phenomenal job, creating a 3-acre nursery, whose primarily mission was to make rare tender perennials available to gardeners. In 2021, Annie retired, selling the nursery to Sarah Hundley, to shepherd into the future. Based on stories from Annie’s staff, Sarah was more of an absentee owner, which unfortunately doesn’t work in a specialty mail order nursery. I know of few that could survive without an owner putting in 100 hour weeks. In early October, the nursery was unexpectedly shuttered to the despair of her legions of followers.

Annie’s closure follows just over a year after the iconic California salvia nursery, Flowers by the Sea closed their doors due to retirement, after 32 years in business. Another truly legendary California mail order nursery that also announced their closure after 90 years in business is Nuccio’s. This amazing place is known worldwide for their breeding work with both camellias and azaleas. The closure was announced in mid 2023, but may take a year or two to wind things down. If you’ve never purchased, the window is quickly closing. This is another huge loss for the plant world.

In a recent blog, I mentioned the closure of Quacking Grass Nursery this fall. Quacking Grass specialized in truly hard to find woodies, so the time to order is rapidly coming to an end. In this case, Wayne started the nursery later in life, and as he told me, he’s just worn out. Mail order nurseries will certainly do that.

In August, the McMillan family Almost Eden Nursery in Merryville, Louisiana announced that they had closed, due to declining sales combined with an overwhelming debt load. Oddly, they re-opened a week later for a deeply discounted 50-75% off on site sale, which seems like the opposite thing one would do if you’re already losing money. Two weeks later, they had a follow-up discounted sale. This certainly doesn’t sound encouraging for the future.

On the other side of the coin, the 45 year old Aiken, SC specialty nursery, Woodlanders, was recently sold, and the nursery was moved to a new property a few blocks away from the original site. Woodlanders, which had been for sale for years, was scheduled to close until Aiken resident Fiona von Grey, stepped in to purchase the nursery. Dramatic changes are visible from the website to the new growing area. We wish her the best in being able to turn around the financially struggling business.

There are always new nurseries taking the plunge to take the place of those we’ve lost. In our area, Garden Treasures is now in their second year of doing mail order. In a short time, owner and plant collector, Pat McCracken and his staff, have emerged as a top source of incredible woody plants. We were pleased to welcome Fred and Leonard of Dancing Oaks in Oregon who visited recently. Being recent (10 year) entries into the mail order world, they are making some amazing rare plants more widely available to gardeners.

The moral is simply to realize that the old adage of “here today, gone tomorrow”, so particularly applicable to specialty mail order nurseries. I hope you’ll give your favorites a virtual hug.