Skagit Valley Gardens

Southside Nursery Weathers Storm
to Post Strong Growth over Four Years

by Michael Barrett

The Christmas storm of ’96 that dumped two feet of snow on Western Washington was nearly the undoing of Gary Lorenz and his Skagit Valley Gardens. The heavy white stuff caved in his huge greenhouse and left his retail center in tatters.

“It definitely was a turning point,” he exclaims. “At the time, it didn’t seem like we’d make it, but in hindsight, it probably was the best thing that could’ve happened to us.”

The nursery store in the big red barn, so prominent as one approaches Conway traveling south along Interstate 5, got a quick and unexpected makeover in early ’97 and hasn’t looked back since, posting gains of about 30 percent a year.

Lorenz, who earned a bachelor of science degree in horticulture from Michigan State University, went to work for Jim Youngsman when the latter owned Skagit Gardens, still a nationally known wholesale grower on Old Highway 99 South in Mount Vernon. Youngsman, since retired, opened the retail shop along the Conway Frontage Road in 1982 and sold it to Lorenz five years later.

“For about three years, we grew a couple of percentage points a year, going from plateau to plateau,” Lorenz, 51, recalls. Most of the 22 million people a year who drove by paid little heed to the store until the builders came in to correct the extensive storm damage. “Drivers saw the construction, which was something new, and stopped by to see what we were doing. We had a 35-percent increase that year. Every year, now, we try to do something different. We try to do things that are interesting and fresh all the time.”

The attractive red barn is only part of six acres of retail space on a 25-acre site. Behind that are 13,000 square feet of store displays under polycarbonate roofing. To the north is a 1.5-acre display garden. In all, the company employs seven full-time workers and another eight part-time and seasonal employees.

“We sell gardening supplies, gifts, plant material that we get locally — a lot of it from Skagit Gardens, but from smaller suppliers, too — as well as unusual and specialized plants and more,” Lorenz says. “Garden centers are becoming more diversified. It used to be they would try to make it in the spring, but competition being what it is, you can’t afford to be just a seasonal business. You have to bring in customers 12 months of the year.”

Another aspect is putting on events. Lorenz schedules a garden expo and parties during the year and has hosted wedding receptions in the colorful main store. For the last two years, Skagit Valley Gardens also was the venue for the Tulip Festival’s annual poster unveiling, which draws business and community leaders together in the fall, and the Economic Development Association’s annual auction and Christmas party.

“The business has grown large enough that I can see my role changing,” Lorenz remarks. “My role is more in long-range planning, hiring people, dealing with facilities and infrastructure. I see what the staff does and feel the business can support more growth.”

That’s what he was doing when the storm struck.

“I had just finished doing a five-year business plan that included the eventual construction of new greenhouses, which would be covered and out of the weather for the shopping area. When the disaster happened, I had the plan in place,” Lorenz remembers.

“On Jan. 2, I got in touch with a greenhouse man and asked how long it would take to get a replacement. It was a leap of faith because I had not gotten any money for a loan yet. By the end of the next day, I had a contract for the first greenhouse. I was told that if I’d waited a week, I wouldn’t have been able to get it in time. That was the beginning of the upgrade.” He “kicked the last electrician out” of the new building April 12, 1997.

Skagit Valley Gardens has prospered after disaster. But Lorenz doesn’t find it’s all work. When he’s not repairing greenhouses and making five-year plans, he’s doing what he enjoys best.

“Like most people in the business, my first love is growing things,” he concludes, “and not just the business itself.”

For more information on Skagit Valley Gardens, call 424-6760. The store, at 18923 Johnson Road, is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.