the selections of bird food (they are 

 exclusive purveyors of Lyric 

 products) and feeders. And in the 

 gift shop, there's a walk-in cooler 

 from which customers can choose 

 their own cut flowers. The shop 

 continues to carry the Austin 

 Sculpture line and Tracy has 

 stocked 'Snowbaby,' a much sought 

 -after Dept. 56 item. There's a 

 broad selection of candles and 

 containers and Tracy has increased 

 the selection of "country-style" 

 objects and folk art. 



Strong gift shop items include 

 custom silk work and a variety of 

 wall arrangements made from dried 

 materials. These are made in the 

 flower shop) — which has a new 

 designer — ^usan Miranda — and a 

 new, less-stylized look. Susan calls 

 this "the garden look." Arrange- 

 ments stress a natural appearance 

 — traditional, using flowers that are 

 in season. 



The flower shop has both FTD 

 and Teleflora services and contin- 

 ues to turn out a wide range of 

 arrangements, but it's "in transi- 

 tion:" hopefully, new decor will 

 reflect a more natural style as well. 



THE 3,000 sq. ft. Rough 



^ Brothers greenhouse (one 

 W of the previous owner's last 

 additions) to the right of 



the foyer, "was state-of-the-art 

 when it was built," its cement floor 

 reenforced to allow the display of 

 large pieces of garden sculpture. 

 The Grattar^s buy in finished plants 

 from Rorida and from area distrib- 



utors; "We keep the inventory 

 pressure off with small shipments 

 delivered more frequently." The 

 plants' labels include instructions 

 on appropriate care. 



"We sell a lot of cacti," Tracy 

 says, "but we feel variety's impor- 

 tant to our customers." There's a 

 wide range on display, from floor 

 plants to 3" pots, from spider plants 

 to dendrobiums. ("There's a market 

 for the exotic") 



The Garden Shop was re-organ- 

 ized for better service. "People 

 were asking for organic and natural 

 products" and the shop now stocks 

 a wide range: Vermont Organic 

 Fertilizer, Espoma and Hoffman 

 products. Ringer, Safer natural 

 pesticides.... Doug stocks compos- 

 ters and accessories — which move 

 well. Service is more than stocking 

 the products requested — the 

 Windham staff provides informa- 

 tion. They suggest landscaping 

 ideas and help with customer 

 problems, "even if it involves doing 

 some research and calling back." 



The garden shop opens into the 

 nursery yard. The yard is big, and 

 because it's hidden from the road 

 by the greenhouse, its scale is 

 unexpected. "We have a problem," 

 Doug says; "no one knows what 

 we've got here because no one can 

 see it from the road." The seven 

 acres is organized into raised beds, 

 some shaded, separated by broad 

 paths. There's a section for an- 

 nuals, another for perennials. 

 There's a gazebo and demonstration 

 gardens. The range of material 

 offered seems broad: Montgomery 



blue spruce, red-twig dogwood, 

 weeping crabs.... There are topiary 

 (spirals and poms) and bonsai. And 

 Windham will special order. 



The equipment was already 

 there — from wheelbarrows to a 10- 

 wheel dump truck, so to bring in 

 money during the summer, Doug 

 organized a landscaping division. 

 The seven-man crew reworked the 

 landscaping around Windham's 

 front parking area, then went on to 

 do a number of commercial and 

 residential projects. The biggest of 

 these was landscaping the Mall at 

 Rockingham Park, but some of the 

 smaller projects seemed equally 

 satisfying: Doug mentioned "a 

 wooded area in Methuen...a granite 

 bench, crushed gravel, 

 rhododendror\s . . . ." 



At the Garden Center itself, 

 Doug and Tracy began creating 

 events to draw people back. There 

 was a "Mother's Day Kick-off' with 

 refreshments served. At Christmas, 

 the sold trees — both living and 

 cut — and eight "theme trees" were 

 created to give customers 

 decorating ideas. 



CLASSES are given. This 

 ^ winter, Susan taught three 

 W sessior^s on floral design 

 and two seminars on feed- 

 ing winter birds were organized by 

 Deb Useilka. In summer, there are 

 classes on lawn care and landscape 

 design. And employees are sent to 

 classes as well: last summer, "we 

 sent four people to lawn school," a 

 two-day seminar in Natick, Mass. 



April/May 1992 19 



