Growing Magic One Seed at a Time For nearly 22 years Annie Hayes, owner and founder of Annie’s Annuals and Perennials, has been growing—growing plants and growing a passion for gardening—one seed at a time. “The nursery is a beautiful place to visit, there are so many plants to see,” said Hayes. “People feel happy when they come in, sometimes not even to buy plants but to just walk around and feel better.” Starting as a novice gardener in her backyard, Hayes quickly developed a following of devoted plant geeks, she described. “I was working at Berkeley Horticultural Nursery. I used to bring in plants to sell that I grew in my backyard,” she said. “They would whoosh off the shelves and soon ladies were coming in with their gardening magazines asking me to grow this and that once they started learning that I was growing old fashioned heirloom varieties.” 58 MARKETPLACEcontrac osta .com july 2015 By Jeannie Howard The increasing demand for her unique plants caused Hayes to need more space than her own backyard could provide. After moving her garden from one location to the next for several years, either because she would grow out of the space or the land owner would sell the property, Hayes finally ended up at her current location where she has been for close to thirteen years. “It has been a long road and in the beginning we never knew where we would be year to year. Finally we found this place and we feel really lucky to be here,” she said. At her industrial Richmond location Hayes sells more than 3,000 varieties of plants, all of which were grown from seed on location or at the homes of one of her 45 employees. “We are a grower nursery specializing in California native and Mediterranean plants. We scour the world for plants that no one else grows,” said Hayes. “We choose
Contra Costa Marketplace - July 2015
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