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Sandy's Plants
States Served: VA, MD, NC, DC
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Address:
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8011 E. Bell Creek Rd.
Mechanicsville, VA 23111 |
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Phone:
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Ph 804 746 7092 |
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Website:
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www.sandysplants.com |
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Company Profile:
THE STORY OF SANDY’S PLANTS, INC.
Sandy’s Plants, Inc. is a family-owned perennial wholesale and retail nursery that has been in operation since 1979 in Mechanicsville, VA.
The story of Sandy’s Plants, Inc. is one that exemplifies the nursery industry’s belief that hard work and determination yield great rewards. The company began out of desperation and has evolved into a perennial nursery that serves garden centers and landscapers in four states and boasts one of the largest selections of perennials on the East Coast.
In 1979, Sandy McDougle was perfectly content as a Special Education teacher for the Hanover County School system. She and her husband, Wayne, had just moved into their new home and were looking forward to getting settled. Sandy’s love of gardening had led her to spend an extensive amount of time and money establishing her gardens at their previous house, so you can imagine her disgust and disbelief when she drove by that house and saw all of her wonderful perennials lying in a discarded pile on the driveway waiting to be replaced by meatball shaped shrubs.
When Sandy’s mother moved a year later, Sandy was determined that her mother’s perennials would not meet the same horrible fate that her treasured plants had experienced. So she dug up her mother’s creeping phlox and lined it out in the front yard of her newly built home until she could have time to establish her borders. The next spring, Gary Hutt from the former Pocono Garden Center twenty miles away, happened to wander up her driveway looking for a nearby pick-your-own strawberry operation and spotted the phlox in bloom. He offered Sandy $0.50 for every creeping phlox that she could dig and put in a cardboard berry basket. Sandy jumped at the opportunity for “free money” as she saw it. Her two children, Ryan, 8 and Mitzi, 6, were enlisted to help dig the Phlox by truck headlights in the morning before school, and to help with the deliveries after school.
It wasn’t too long before Sandy’s husband, Wayne, realized that digging these plants out of the rows year after year would eventually create a pool in the front yard due to soil loss, thus they started experimenting with growing assorted perennials in plastic containers using a pine bark mix as a soil substitute. Two-quart plastic nursery pots were new to the market and Virginia Tech was just starting to experiment with soilless mixtures. There was no guarantee that the novel idea was going to work but fortunately it was a successful experiment.
The business continued to grow slowly with four production beds and the occasional help of after school kids. It wasn’t until eight years later that Sandy decided to give up her teaching job and take on Sandy’s Plants as a career.
Today, the nursery is still a family operation. Sandy’s daughter, Mitzi (remember she started at age 6) is the company’s CEO and her son-in-law, J.R. is the CFO. Together, along with Sandy, they have turned what began as a hobby into a highly successful and respected company that grows over 1500 types of perennials on 30+ acres.
One thing the nursery prides itself on is selecting only the strongest growing, adaptable perennials to grow. Each year, plants are evaluated to determine their performance and their distinct characteristics so that customers know that they are being offered the best of the best. Plants that don’t perform well are discontinued to make room for other varieties. The company’s focus is specializing in rare and unusual perennials as well as carrying the perennial “bread and butter” items. Most plants are grown in either 3 qt. or 4 qt. containers outside so that the plants are acclimated to the Mid-Atlantic’s climate and ready for planting any time. A line of 1 qt. plants are grown for early spring sales.
The nursery currently has fifteen full time employees on the grounds as well as several truck drivers who make deliveries whenever needed. The number of employees expands to about forty people when the nursery is going “full-tilt” in the springtime. This includes extra planting crews, truck drivers and extra ‘pullers’ and ‘groomers’, who fill and prep the orders for delivery.
We have seven greenhouses, two of which are dedicated to STEPABLESTM production. We propagate much of our own material using seeds, cuttings and divisions as well as bringing in unrooted cuttings and plugs. This keeps our greenhouses busy in production throughout the year.
The nursery is open year round and offers an excellent availability, especially to landscapers during the winter months. A unique aspect of the nursery is that it is open to retail and wholesale customers who drive golf carts around the nursery to pick out their plants. Each variety of plant is labeled with a sign that includes a picture and cultural information, plus a retail price. This system also allows designers and installers to bring or send their customers to the nursery without worrying about wholesale pricing disclosures.
The nursery is open 6 days a week from mid-March through mid-October and Monday through Friday the rest of the year. We are located just northeast of Richmond in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Please come visit our nursery or website at www.sandysplants.com. Look for the SPI tags and “Grown by Sandy’s Plants” stickers when you shop any of the many garden centers and nurseries we sell to in Virginia and surrounding areas.
Community Activities
Sandy frequently speaks to local groups, such as garden clubs and nursery associations about perennial plants. She also invites the public to tour her personal gardens when they visit the nursery.
Sandy has also served on the board of the Richmond Children’s Museum, donating both time and plants to help enrich the experience of children who visit. She frequently donates plants to other community groups, as well.
Personal Notes:
Sandy McDougle, the owner, is a true gardener at heart and she loves working on her display gardens, both in the public areas of the nursery and around her home, which is on the nursery grounds. She is always on the lookout for new and unusual plants and loves to share what she has learned about them. She loves to propagate plants - any plant that dares to overfill its pot is fair game to be converted into babies.
Sandy also enjoys reading and spending time with her grandchildren. More than once we’ve seen the children accompanying Sandy on her rounds about the nursery in her golf cart. Sandy is a member of the Central Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, the Perennial Plant Association, the American Horticultural Society and her local garden club.
Mitzi Marker, our CEO, enjoys her personal gardens and cooking for her family and others. Her kitchen goodies are always a huge hit at the Open House and Designer Day events at the nursery and a welcome thank you to the employees when they’ve been working extra hard. When she is not working at the nursery or spending time with her children, Mitzi likes to read or spend a little time at her sewing machine being creative.
Elise Zylstra, our sales manager, is an avid gardener and spends much of her free time in her perennial gardens while her husband tends to the vegetable gardens. She also enjoys photography, backyard birdwatching, and reading.
Many of the other workers here enjoy gardening, often spending the last few hours of daylight in spring and summer working in their home gardens after spending a long hard day at work in the nursery. Sharing garden successes and failures, as well as plants, helps to keep the workers feeling more like family than just co-workers.
Testimonials:
This is our first year growing STEPABLES® and we’ve already had a great response from our retail centers. This is a line their customers have heard of and it has proven very popular where STEPABLES® have been available in the past. We’re sure these will be a winner for our customers.
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