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DANVILLE — With 60-degree weather in February, it’s hard not to start thinking spring will be here soon, and that means a new planting season.
It’s not just an exciting time for customers, it’s also exciting for Danville Gardens co-owners Nathan and Lisa Campbell.
Their daughter, Kendall, with her husband, Andrew Swanson, and their two children, have moved back to the area to start learning the ropes as Nathan and Lisa look to retire in the next few years.
There also are more changes this year for their locations. There are new roofs on the greenhouses at the main Danville Gardens location at 1307 Cleary Ave., and both the main location and the now two-year old building at 3585 N. Vermilion St. will open at the same time this year on April 15.
But before that, there is a Spring Teaser at the main location from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 21, in addition to some other March yoga events in the greenhouse that were booking up fast.
It’s now 33 years that the Campbells have owned Danville Gardens. They are only the third owners. Danville Gardens started around 1910 by Billy Welchel. The original greenhouse still stands.
Walter and Mildred Ahrens were the second owners for 54 years.
The Campbells took over in 1993 and have enjoyed a successful run that Nathan says they are excited they’ll keep the business in the family when he and Lisa retire.
Andrew, originally from Iowa, moved to Danville with Kendall and their family about nine months ago.
“We’re kind of Nathan and Lisa’s retirement plan in the next, you know, five-ish years,” Andrew said.
Nathan said they’re excited Andrew and Kendall will buy the business from them. They’re still working on a timeline of their retirement, Nathan said, adding that Andrew and Kendall will be working and learning the business over the next few years.
Kendall studied engineering, and worked with real estate, but Andrew said in talking with Nathan and Lisa, he and Kendall thought this would be a great opportunity for them.
“The family aspect of it, of just getting to be so close. I can literally run home on break and go see them …,” Andrew said.
There is a lot to learn with the business, but he also said his in-laws are great to work with and learn from.
Andrew said the customer base that they have and the people who are so loyal “just speaks a lot about how hard they work and how hard the team works here. It’s a great place to work even for just the last eight or nine months,” Andrew said.
The business was a natural fit for the family. Nathan grew up in the greenhouse industry. He was working in Virginia, and they started looking at having a greenhouse themselves. In a Greenhouse Grower magazine, there was an ad for Danville Gardens.
When they moved to Danville to run the business, there was about 70,000 square feet of greenhouse. They tore down 40,000 square feet and kept the one original greenhouse which is called House 1 in the back today. They then rebuilt everything else and tied it all together, now having about 100,000 square feet of greenhouse space.
The seasonal garden center is open from April 15 to June. They are closed July and August to grow mums and items for fall. Then they re-open in September and October.
“So, we are really only open five months out of the year. So, we do a lot in a hurry,” Nathan said. “Our spring season is our big one. We make about 80 percent of our money in about six weeks.”
He said they open a little bit later in the year because they want to make sure the weather is cooperative for everybody and the business can get busy right away.
Customers love and get excited with the opening dates throughout the year, he said.
”It works really well,” Nathan said.
For the ferns, they get them as a small start in August or September.
“It’s not full, but we have something here all the time,” he said about the greenhouse space.
Geraniums are big, too, but they are doing a little something different this year where they purchased the unrooted cuttings and will root their own starts. It means a little less crop time for the geraniums in the greenhouse, trying to be a little more efficient, Nathan said.
In the offseason, from October to last week, they also recovered about 80 percent of their greenhouse roofs with new plastic. It’s now brighter in the greenhouses, with more light for more growth.
Nathan said when they changed the roofs before, about every 12-15 years, they could see a two-week reduction in crop time.
He said when the temperature this winter was below zero, the greenhouses are still kept in the 60s.
With a warm spring, and if it comes early, the flowers and plants will get more light and heat, and the crops will be a little quicker in growing.
On Monday and Tuesday, they were to plant about 10,000 perennials.
They also typically have about 6,000 ferns and more than 30,000 hanging baskets.
Next week, they have several thousand plants, small starts for those coming in and about 100 in a tray, that they’ll plant in baskets.
“We’ve got a lot to do. Next week is going to get really busy,” Nathan said.
They will also have a couple hundred thousand of individuals pots.
They don’t grow the bedding flats, but sell them.
“We just don’t feel like we have the space to do everything, so those get outsourced from a grower in Michigan. But we’re growing most of what we sell and we like that,” Nathan said.
They have a production crew of about 10-12 employees.
During the spring, they have up to 50 full- and part-time workers.
“We’ve got some great help,” Nathan said, adding that a lot come back every year.
They love to see generations of families shop at the business. It draws not just from the Danville area, but some people come from hours away.
Nathan said it’s a little crazy leading up to each spring, but it’s also a fun, enjoyable time.
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