Local urban nurseries are disappearing. Is there room for them in a big-box world?
At 3 p.m. on a cool September afternoon, locals browse a selection of whimsically painted pots and desert-friendly foliage at Baker Nursery in East Phoenix. A gray-haired woman in a blousy tunic top inquires when new stock will be delivered, only to learn the nursery will likely be shutting down for good this December.
Baker isn’t the Valley’s only foundering family-owned plant retailer. As chain stores encroach on their territory – and urban infill makes home builds more practical than tree lots – heritage nurseries are facing a crossroads. Some are expanding or consolidating. More are simply folding, and taking a cherished urban resource along with them.
“The closing of Baker Nursery is a disaster for Phoenix,” says permaculture expert Greg Peterson, who ran the one-third-acre Urban Farm at 16th Street and Bethany Home Road for more than a decade before shifting to horticultural education programs. “We have this long, rich history of cool things here in Phoenix: Legend City, Wallace and Ladmo, The Safari Hotel and Baker Nursery. When they go away, they cannot be easily replaced.”
Baker’s representatives declined to be interviewed, but customers have been informed the nursery’s current owners are nearing retirement age with no interested successors. Peterson also speculates that the acreage Baker sits on, just south of trendy Arcadia, is in high demand by commercial realtors. “A big part of the challenge for any nursery is land,” he explains. “Available plots in the central city are expensive and rare.”
Harper’s Nurseries and Landscape Co., founded in 1945 by a firefighter and garden hobbyist, will shutter its original retail location and eight-acre tree farm in Mesa by year’s end. In 2003, the company folded its longtime location at Thomas Road and 16th Street to make way for a NextCare. Co-owner John “Jay” Harper cites ballooning costs and industry changes as closure factors. “Just like any other industry, big-box stores and Internet sales carve the pie up. Even grocery stores have pots and geraniums for sale.”
Along with the disappearance of Downtown plant-seller Tera’s Garden, whose bones now house The Vig Fillmore, the recent closings leave Central Phoenix – a city of 1.5 million people – with exactly three private plant sellers: Whitfill Nurseries, SummerWinds Nurseries and Moon Valley Nurseries.
With four Metro Phoenix retail locations (plus additional stores in Texas) and more than 500 acres of growing land in Arizona, Whitfill is one of the area’s few surviving success stories in the Home Depot/Wal-Mart era. Owner Brian Blake has been involved with the nursery business since he was five years old, selling oranges in the front yard of his family farm – long enough to witness firsthand the increasing difficulties homegrown nurseries face. “The only way you’re going to beat a chain store is with excellent service,” he says. At chain shops, you generally take home a plant and a Hail Mary that it will survive. With family-owned operations like Whitfill and Harper’s, homeowners can present smartphone images of their ailing shrubs to get expert treatment advice, Blake says.
Can superior service save private nurseries? Sometimes, more drastic action is necessary. For example, the Harper family shifted their business model from retail to full landscaping services. “The path we’re taking is more about installation and design,” Harper says. “When big stores sell plants and supplies, we’re left with the hard stuff.”
Harper’s also offers seasonal classes and assists with everything from fire pits to BBQ grills. Whitfill will transport and install a 25,000-pound tree to your backyard – a perk you’re not going to get from a big-box store.
But even if Phoenix’s heritage nurseries survive the competition, a new generation of growers isn’t guaranteed. Both Harper and Blake are born growers, yet neither is pushing their heirs to take over the family business. “I wasn’t forced or expected to do it,” Harper says. So until the next generation matures, their focus is on filling the gaps that large retailers don’t, from planting trees on family farms to helping locals create their dream backyards. “Those of us with small nurseries have a lot more of our heart in this,” Blake says. “I love to grow trees… I live a charmed life.”
Family Trees
Take advantage of knowledgeable staff, classes and landscaping services at these locally owned heritage nurseries.
A&P
2645 W. Baseline Rd., Mesa
480-839-5362,
apnursery.com
(Additional locations)
Moon Valley Nurseries
14225 N. Seventh St., Phoenix
602-904-5792,
moonvalleynurseries.com
(Additional locations)
Harper’s Nursery
and Landscape Co.
2529 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale
480-946-3481,
harpersnurseries.com
Whitfill Nursery
2647 E. Southern Ave., Phoenix
602-268-9096,
whitfillnursery.com
(Additional locations)
Treeland Nurseries
2900 S. Country Club Dr., Mesa
480-725-3099,
treeland.com
Jackrabbit Nursery
4421 S. Jackrabbit Tr., Buckeye
623-386-4700,
jackrabbitnurseryaz.com
