Jim Duncan, a retired city planner, has written more than 600 short histories of Austin businesses. We introduced him and this series, “Jim Duncan’s Austin,” on July 6. This week, we adapt four of his histories of garden nurseries. — Michael Barnes
1971: Useful Wild Plants
Scooter Cheatham founded Useful Wild Plants in 1971.
American-Statesman File
Tucked away in a nondescript at 4700 Loyola Lane in Northeast Austin strip center is a nonprofit enterprise dedicated to saving the planet by showcasing the edible and medicinal potential of its wild plant life.
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For more than five decades, University of Texas graduate Wiley Lewis “Scooter” Cheatham Jr., a botanist, artist, photographer and architect, and his associate, Lynn Marshall, have researched, cataloged, photographed and studied more than 5,000 wild plants.
Their findings have been published in a monumental four-volume opus entitled “The Useful Wild Plants of Texas in the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico.”
Because Texas has 10 different bioregions, Cheatham says, “It’s the rainforest in your own backyard.”
In conducting his research, Cheatham has held many educational programs and led numerous Weedfeed field trips to forage for edible plants.
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Two little-known “Scooter” facts: Before budding plants got his full attention, he was a budding thespian with Zach Theater; and his investigative interests and skills were probably inherited from his father, a South Texas district attorney who was responsible for sending the Texas state land commissioner to prison for cheating World War II veterans.
1978: Red Barn Garden Center / Barryhill
“Have trees, will travel” would be a catchy catchphrase for the Red Barn Garden Center. After functioning as a division of the Sage Department Store for nine years, Red Barn spun off as a separate business in 1978.
To be near developing neighborhoods and potential customers, it has had many addresses, including 6500 Airport Blvd. (1978), South First Street and William Cannon Drive (1979), 8801 Research Blvd. (1982), I-35 & 1325 in Round Rock (1990), 502 Ben White Blvd. (1990), 6800 North Lamar Blvd. (1994), 13858 Research Blvd. (2000), 12881 Pond Springs Road (2002), and 690 Bagdad Road in Leander (2022).
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At one time during the growth boom of the 1980s, it operated nurseries in eight locations. In 1988, after the savings and loan bust, it added a stall in the Austin Country Flea Market on U.S. 290.
In 1993, Emelie McDaniel, a three-year Red Barn employee, purchased the business. She says that the most important ingredient in running a nursery is people skills. “I have to remind my employees that the customer is the boss, not me,” she says. McDaniel owned and operated the nursery until 2019, when she sold it to Kevin Barry, another three-year Red Barn employee.
Also in 2019, the former Red Barn Pond Springs location was reopened by Moon Valley, a national nursery chain. Barry rebranded the business as Barryhill Garden Center.
1984: Garden-Ville / Natural Gardener
Education coordinator Chrissie Robertson points to an attendee as she hosts a free class on vegetable garden setup at The Natural Gardener.
Mikala Compton/American-Statesman
For more than four decades, horticulturist John Lee Dromgoole has helped Austin gardeners keep their yards and plants vibrant and flourishing. And he has done it as both an entrepreneur and a media personality.
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Dromgoole has owned the eight-acre Natural Gardener organic nursery on Old Bee Cave Road in Oak Hill since 1993. The nursery includes a teaching garden, a display garden, a plant nursery, a garden store, farm animals and a wildlife habitat.
From 1984 to 1993, he operated Garden-Ville Nursery in the Old Rock House on U.S. 290, but he moved when his business outgrew the location and road work became a pain.
Natural Gardener is a four-time winner of Today’s Garden Center’s “Revolutionary 100 Garden Centers,” and a 15-time winner of Austin Chronicle’s “Best of Austin.”
In 2000, he also founded Lady Bug Natural Brands, an organic fertilizer.
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Dromgoole is also a very busy media personality. He hosted the nation’s longest continuously running organic gardening radio talk show on KLBJ, and appeared regularly on “Central Texas Gardener” on KLRU and “Weekend Gardener” on KXAN. He hosted a weekly country music radio show on SUN Radio. Dromgoole won state, local and regional awards for his work in promoting organic gardening. He retired in 2019.
1986: Barton Springs Nursery
Barton Springs Nursery on Bee Cave Road is a tempting spot for gardeners. Whitney Abbott was pleased to make her first visit in search of indoor succulents and outdoor herbs.
Suzanne Majors Davis/Westlake Picayune
Conrad Bering’s first foray into the flower world was as a vendor of bromeliads and orchids from Central America on the Drag in the 1970s.
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In the 1980s, he worked in Austin’s booming construction industry until the bust hit. It was then that his wife Bernadine’s brother, the owner of the Antique Rose Emporium in Independence, Texas, encouraged him to start a native plant nursery.
In April 1986, he and Bernadine took the advice and opened Barton Springs Nursery on one acre behind Chuy’s on Barton Springs Road. As their business grew, they needed space to expand. They found a four-acre former horse ranch in Westlake Hills that included a house — now the shop — and a barn — now the garden supplies store and tropical house. They purchased the property and moved the business to 3601 Bee Cave Road in 1992.
Three decades later, the Berings passed the torch of ownership to Amy Hovis, William Glenn and Greg Thomas.
From the beginning, the Berings blended into the Austin way of doing business by regularly holding on-site events where speakers and singers entertained and educated the public about native plant life and landscaping.
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Three more stories in this series
Please send tips and questions to mbarnes@statesman.com
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