The Garden Center recently hosted the Garden Centers of America Tour consisting of industry professionals visiting different garden centers around the country.
“It was quite an honor,” said Grandma’s Gardens’ advertising manager, Marybeth Taggart, who helped with the event. “These are people who are at the top of the field.”
Taggart was delighted to see a 77-year-old top female executive gleefully riding around on the miniature Sugar Pie Railway that is designed to ferry children and their parents to the pumpkin patch in October.
What the business does: Grandma's Gardens & Landscape is a four-season business that caters almost equally to retail and landscaping clients. In an effort to make the center convenient to shoppers, Rhinehart created a concrete pathway covered by a pink awning that leads customers from the separate shady and sunny Perennial areas to Grandpa's Barn where seminars and classes are offered to the public. From here, the pathway meanders past a pond, the pygmy goat enclosure and through the shrub and tree section where modern sprinkler hoses drip reclaimed irrigation water from the pond onto wrapped root balls. Colorful signs and maps, designed by Rhinehart's son, Jake, direct customers to specific areas like the fountain sales area and the Grandma's Gift Parlor, a garden shop that offers everything from Vera Bradley purses to a large selection of miniature garden items. The Gift Parlor is also where Rhinehart sits down in front of a screen with landscape clients to show them plans for their property. He then takes them in a golf cart down the pathway outside to show them first-hand the suggested trees, flowers and decorative items.
What makes the business stand out: In addition to the longevity and knowledge of staff members, who have worked there 15 years on average, customers and landscape clients experience pleasing views and vignettes like flowers dangling from old tractors that are designed to give them ideas for their own gardens. The fish pond, pygmy goat enclosure and miniature train also make it a fun experience for children accompanying parents on a buying trip.
How the business started: Although it started as a small landscape business operating out of a garage, it quickly grew into a full-service retail and landscape company, thanks to some help from Rhinehart's parents, Jim and Pat Rhinehart of Centerville.
“My dad was nice enough to let me use his garage for my business until I had a large pile of mulch dumped in the middle of the driveway,” said Rhinehart, whose favorite color, purple, forms a motif seen in the flower arrangements and colorful posters. “He helped me find the farm and Paulette and I moved into the old farmhouse. It was in pretty bad condition, but we lived upstairs for five years, while we fixed up the lower level and built the business.”
An old travel trailer that had earlier housed a pony on the farm remained there until Rhinehart found a buyer, who moved the structure to Lake St. Mary where it now serves as a summer cottage.
Thanks to Rhinehart’s mother, Pat, Grandma’s Gardens & Landscape has a name that evokes childhood memories spent gathering flowers in the garden with precious grandmothers.
Customer comment: "Grandma's Gardens has helped turn our 10-acre bean field into more than we could have ever imagined," said Pat Bracci, a Springboro customer for the past eight years. "We have three seasons of color thanks to the Grandma's garden team. The staff is knowledgeable and always eager to help. Can't thank Doug and his team enough.
Contact information: Open 9 a.m. – 8 p.m., Monday – Friday, Sat. 9a.m. – 6 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.,; (937) 885-2740; www.grandmasgardencenter.com
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