The Mail-Journal, Volume 27, Number 1, Milford, Kosciusko County, 17 February 1988 — Page 54

PROGRESS EDITION — Wed., February 17,1988

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At Country Home Floral, You'll Find . . . Complete W Floral Service & Hanging Baskets • Planters Silk Arrangements VxMt Ir'\ Rich (Mgr.) I ’* W & ill I J a v ne l Timmons «h Country Home ffi -- J Floral Shoppe fl 624 N. Huntington • Syracuse 1457-5131 | Hl Mon.-Fri. 9-5:30 “Telefloral Sat. 9-3 Wire Service” 24 Hour Telephone Service ffidMMi

Clayton Garden Center & Greenhouse MORE THAN 32 YEARS OFFERING QUALITY LAWN & GARDEN SUPPLIES "Most Everything For Lawn & Garden" • Echo Trimmers • Lawnboy Mowers , Saws — Blowers • Ortho Products • Plants • Scott Fertilizers • f ! ow ® rs • Greenview Fertilizer • Beddhq Ftents * ,w & Flowers * seed • Bulk Garden Seeds • Stoneware | 834-2249 SR 13 North NORTH WEBSTER

Country Home Floral Shoppe offers the best in design

Country Home Floral Shoppe, 624 North Huntington St., Syracuse, offers the best floral designs in the market. This is important when it comes to special occasions. “We offer good quality work that is one of a kind and will hold together,” commented Rich Timmons, co-manager of the shop. One can sense the uniqueness of the shop, stepping into a warm atmosphere, displays on antique furniture, an open fire burning in the fireplace. Proudly displayed on a shelf is a photo of the shop owners with Baseball Hall of Fame’s Mickey Mantel, taken in conjunction with The Image Group and Carriage Inc., of Millersburg. The shop is the only floral shop in the lake area where its designers have taken professional schooling for design. Thus a wider range of designs can be offered. Designs from the old fashioned fresh look to the newest in high style can be given. Since there are professional designers at the shop, the local business is a member of the Society of American Florist. SAF offers members meetings and conventions to update them on new styles, plus design contests for the professional designers. Business is not all floral designs. The shop caters to most any occasion. Items range from ceramic gifts to stuffed animals to balloons. A new line of gourmet foods will be added in the spring in the areas of gifts. New coffees, teas, short breads and chocolate candies will be added to the gourmet food baskets and fruit baskets. Those receiving a special delivery during the various holiday seasons are given an extra special surprise. The shop has its delivery people dressed for those occasions. Timmons noted at Christmas time, deliveries were made by Santa Claus; for Valentine’s Day, cupid will make deliveries. This has been a big hit. The shop subscribes to the nation’s two top wire services, FTD and Teleflora. These services provide customers with complete wedding service, hospital arrangements, silk arrangements, helium balloons, house plants and home arrangements, special oc-

Clayton Garden Center is a year-round business

Eldon Clayton, whose business suit is bibbed overalls, started his business in 1956 when people were unfamiliar with a garden center. Now, 32 years later, Clayton Garden Center, is a year-round business. Customers come from all around northern Indiana for their lawn and garden needs. Clayton’s reputation of being the best grower is one the 73-year-old owner is “quite proud of.” In addition to being a good grower, Clayton’s drawing card is quality. Anything which is handled at the garden center is of number one quality. “We don’t sacrifice price for quality,” commented Clayton. The motto at the garden center has been “Everything for the lawn and garden,” which they try hard to fulfill. There is over 5,000 square feet of growing space at the center. Clayton grows a lot of his own plants, bedding plants, geraniums and the like. Clayton, who oversees the greenhouse personally, does the hanging baskets available at the center. He commented he has made up to 800 hanging baskets in a year. His specialty is petunias. Business has grown, allowing Clayton’s to become a year-round business with the selling of Lawn Boy push mowers, Echo chain saws, trimmers, leaf blowers and hedge trimmers, Purina feed and a large supply of pottery. Clayton’s is also an authorized service center for McCulluch equipment. The months from mid-March to mid-July are the busy times for the center as people prepare their lawns and gardens. But the work really begins in February when the seeding of plants begins, allowing things to be ready by April. The business then swings to plants and shrubbery, then to insecticides and pesticides moving into the fall planting of bulbs and the holiday season. The singling out of a good selling item is hard for the business dealing with the four seasons. “It depends on the season,” remarked Clayton, adding sales go from one seasonal thing to the other, with Christmas trees, wreaths, poinsettias at Christmas, snowblowers and chain saws during the winter to spring plants. A small amount of landscaping work in the fall only, is also offered by the center. Clayton started in an 18x24 room at its current location handling fruit, bait and

casion florals and funeral arrangements. Along with the wire service is a computerized system allowing orders to be sent quicker while also getting them in sooner. Harder to find flowers are also found easier with this system. Customers can find they can call an order in the morning and have it ready that same day. There is also daily delivery to all local hospitals. Orders are delivered within a 30-mile radius of Syracuse. Weekly specials are common. Flowers come to the store from all over the world, giving customers assurance of top quality produce. J®!» Jayne Timmons, owner of the business, along with her son Rich, Jr., have 21 years combined experience in floral arranging. r rhis has helped provide customers with quick friendly service. Timmons is a graduate of American Floral Arts, Chicago, Ell. He was named one of the state’s top three designers in 1985. Also involved in the shop’s operation are Richard Timmons Sr., and the couple’s other son and his wife, Greg and Janet Timmons. Richard Jr., is a parttimeemployee. Mrs. Timmons has studied floral arranging at Indiana University, South Bend. Both attend wire floral sponsored seminars and classes keeping up on the new styles, colors and home decor, along with refining their skills. Country Home Floral Shoppe is currently open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except Thursdays when the hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday.

plants when in season. Clayton grew his own strawberries, gladiolas and vegetables which were sold at the stand. He started the business when being a farmer meant having so many cows and when the equipment prices increased. “I couldn’t see going into farming that heavy. I always wanted a garden center.” From this small start, the business has grown with demand adding lawn and garden equipment and buildings. In 1959 Clayton added a small greenhouse which has grown annually. The original stand has been expanded seven times, giving the center a 45,700 square foot retail sales area, including the parking lot. With the selling of equipment a 20- by 50-foot storage and repair shop were added as well, plus a nursery block. There is now 457 feet of frontage along SR 13 and Clayton recently purchased the McGee Pottery business, located to the south of his business. He stated the purchase resulted to protect is business and use the space for additional parking. “We have the parking pace for approximately 24 cars and a lot of times, that’s not enough.” The business has “grown by leaps and bounds for us,” remarked Clayton, adding during the busy seasons as many as 12 people are employed with Clayton managing the greenhouse and his grandson, Ed, managing the equipment and shrubbery. Tie elder Clayton’s wife, Louise, is the company bookkeeper. Elaborating on the company’s growth, Clayton stated business has gone to the point w iere peat moss and planting soils are bought by the semi loads for retail sales. “We used to buy 10 bags at a time, then pallets,” he stated. “We’re going to be around for a long, long time,” announced Clayton, adding his grandson, Ed, is “just a kid. When you have something like this, you wonder what will be the end of it.” Future plans for the center include growing with the demand and Clayton commented that so far, every year the business has grown 10 percent above the year before with the last couple of years being higher than the 10 percent. “We’ve never had a stack year yet.”