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Business & Tech

Blue Ridge Gardens Offers Plants Not Found at Home Improvement Stores

Blue Ridge Gardens' owner says he 'investigates' plants before growing them.

People looking to plant a unique flower in their front yard can stop by the Oak Marr Farmers Market and meet with John VanSice.

Growing his potted plants, flowers and shrubs in his greenhouse, VanSice is the proud owner and marketer of Blue Ridge Gardens in Virginia.

At the Oak Marr Farmers Market, VanSice sits in his wheelchair next to the back of his open minivan, waiting to answer any questions a shopper may have about the different flowers he has to offer in his sunny area of the market.

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VanSice said his sister’s neighbor asked him if he would be interested in buying her greenhouse more than 12 years ago.

“You know, 11 or 12 years doesn’t seem very long but I don’t remember doing anything else; I have put in more time here than I had with anything else before,” he said.

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While he said he was more interested in messing with shrubs when he first bought the greenhouse, VanSice said he knew he had to branch out to flowers and other potted plants.

“All my sisters are very plant-oriented as well, and it was something I always had lying under the surface which I never really knew about,” he said.

To set himself apart from other vendors and the big home improvement stores, VanSice said he spends much time investigating plants, looking for different things he has never seen before and newer plants with good qualities to them.

“If I am out there selling Black-Eyed Susans or Petunias, I’m not going to sell any, but I want it to be where I have people ask me what’s this, I have never seen this before, that’s the key to being successful,” he said. “You have to have different stuff; rare items that they have never seen before or have seldom seen before.”

While VanSice tries to find plants his customers have never seen before, he said he only sells plants that are easily grown.

“I don’t really do anything to force anything, I just let nature take its course,” he said. “I don’t like selling things that are difficult for me to grow, because I know if it is difficult for me to grow they are going to be difficult for homeowners to grow and they are not going to be happy with it.”

Though he is not seeing as many impulse shoppers these days, VanSice said he always learns something from the people who stop by his area.

“I’ll learn something from my customers everyday and I hope I can impart some wisdom onto them too, but … they are well-read and they know what they are looking for,” VanSice said.

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