Garden Center helps locals grow dreams

By Judy Babb

Brumley Gardens isn’t like a garden center in a typical big box store. Owner Chris Brumley is proud of that. He lives on his farm in Wills Point — a farm that provides 80 percent of the plants to the garden center. He makes the typically 45-minute to an hour drive to the center at 10545 Church Road, just a block off LBJ Freeway. In fact, the Church Road exit dead ends into the center.

He bought the farm where he lives six years ago after inheriting money from his mother. He now runs about 50 greenhouses there, as well as his “barn-dominium” — a full complement of farm animals, including a goat and her new baby — and a small retail store. Brumley loves that his farm provides so much to the center, and even after he retires from the day to day in three to five years, he will continue to provide plants for the garden center. Between the farm and the center, about 40 people work for him, many of them for decades.

After graduating with a degree in horticulture, Brumley went to work for a large landscape company in 1989. He learned what they were doing right and wrong. The company was foundering, so Brumley, at age 29, decided to go out on his own. “I thought, if they can do it, I can,” he said.

“The first six months, I worked out of my garage, like a lot of people,” Brumley said. “I worked from can to can’t building the business.”

His first foray into becoming a landscape company was in the early ’90s, when he opened a small garden center called Sticks and Stones near downtown Dallas. He was still evolving. 

“I started building clientele from there and just worked really hard,” he said. “I dedicated every day and didn’t have a social life.”

In the early to mid-’90s, he purchased the land and opened at his current location on Church Road, primarily running landscape crews out of the center. That wasn’t the end of his vision, although landscaping is still a big part. He has two landscape designers, Chris Byro and Larry Brinkley, who work off property to create their customers’ dream yards.

Byro has worked for Brumley for more than 13 years and made a point that longevity was commonplace with Brumley Gardens Center — something that is not typical at a lot of landscape businesses. Byro said that Brumley has a foreman who has worked for the center for more than 20 years.

“He’s a businessman and he’s good to work with,” Byro said of his boss. “It’s highly unusual to have landscape people stay with a company that long. He’s kindhearted.”

His customers are like family. Kay Walker is one of them and has been a Brumley Gardens Center proponent and customer since 1998. She and Brumley connected at once, since she was from Mississippi, and he was from Arkansas. She joked that he too said “azalea” with 52 syllables.

“He never tells me no,” she said. “He did tell me Mississippi plants don’t flourish here. He was right.” Angel, one of his landscapers, was at Walker’s home. “He can walk by a plant and make it turn greener.” 

“The personality of a house comes from the garden,” she said. She said her son and many of her neighbors also use Brumley. “Everyone always compliments my garden.”

The garden center and store are cozy. The store contains unique items and beautifully potted plants. Manager Kathy Walls makes their candles, which tease customers in with their fragrance. While not everything in the store is made in-house, the items in the store are inviting, unique and speak to the creativity of a long-time employee and one of three managers, Anderson, who is currently recuperating from a knee replacement. 

The store morphs twice yearly. The Sunday following Thanksgiving, it makes its transition to a total Christmas theme. “It takes months creating it and taking it down,” Brumley said. “We try to create an experience when people come. It’s a lot of stuff in a little space,” he said. “It’s your mom-and-pop type store although there is no mom — although we call Kathy the mom sometimes.” 

Brumley also hosts two parties a year for his customers and the public. One is at Christmas and the other in the spring. They grill hotdogs and provide sodas and water. The spring party happened in March.

Manager Douglas Johnson has his eye out for the unique. He also makes it easy for customers to choose plants that can take full sun and those that flourish in moderate to no direct sun. Kat Christenson rounds out the three managers. All three are readily available to customers. 

Brumley Gardens Center calls to both current customers and those who appreciate quality. While Brumley is no longer looking for leads for landscaping, each person who goes into the store gets top-notch service and beautiful plants. And while the store is special every day, Brumley provides 25 percent off for seniors every Thursday.