When I first moved to Virginia from Texas in 2009, one of my first goals was to find a grand garden center to buy my plants, similar to the amazing one I left behind in San Antonio.
MERRIFIELD GARDEN CENTER IN GAINESVILLE
Although it took a few years of lots of misses, I finally found Merrifield Garden Center on the back roads of Gainesville, Virginia, only 5 miles from my house.
Wow! It was even better than the nursery I left behind in Texas!
At this locale was the hoped for massive selection of fun plants that were obviously well tended, along with landscape stones, garden supplies…including an amazing gift shop and a cute cafe!
Visiting every spring, I collected mostly flowers for my container gardens, along with new perennials to add to my grand flower bed in the front yard.
When my daughter began attending the local junior college, I often drove to Merrifield to enjoy hot tea at the cafe while perusing a book, before picking her up on her short class days.
MERRIFIELD GARDEN CENTER IN FAIRFAX
After I moved to Fairfax County, a few years ago, I began visiting a sister garden center in the Merrifield family, located in Fairfax.
Although it was a bit smaller property wise, they offered the same grandness of plant varieties, garden supplies, along with amazing garden vignettes to whet the palate of home remodel!
And they, too had an amazing gift shop that extends to the outdoors!
BIOGRAPHY OF MERRIFIELD GARDEN CENTER FOUNDER
While shopping their last spring, I found a book for sale about their founder, title The American Dream: The Rags to Riches Story of Bob Warhurst and the Founding of Merrifield Garden Center.
Warhurst grew up in Alabama during the Great Depression where he quickly learned the value of working hard to make ends meet.
After WWII, Warhurst moved to Northern Virginia to join his older brother, Lee, who had, after war service, found employment in the building trade amidst the growing economy south of Washington, DC.
BRICKLAYING
Thus, Lee taught Bob how to lay bricks.
Toiling industriously, Bob eventually became a rare specialist in the most difficult of the brick laying tasks…laying corners and chimneys, which earned for him extra pay.
While bricklaying was a full time day job for Bob, he earned additional income by working as a private detective to photograph evidence of illicit trysts.
Meanwhile his new wife and brother joined him to keep a look out while he napped, just to squeeze in a bit of sleep into his hectic schedule.
As his family grew to include two children, he moved from hectic Arlington to rural Vienna…which is an amazing description to me because it is all city these days.
Riding his horse down the road from his house to see what he could see, Bob met his neighbors…who became best friends and eventually partners in the future Merrifield Garden Center.
TRASH COLLECTING
Since bricklaying was a seasonal job, Bob decided to begin the Warhurst Trash Company in 1963 at 25 years of age.
Since it cost money to dump trash, Bob used all the cardboard customers trashed to build up the sides of his truck to create larger hauls, then burned the cardboard at home.
Meanwhile, if any of the trash he collected was good enough to reuse, he took that home to his family, proving himself a regular dumpster diver trash collector.
When the customers caught on, they separated their reusables from their non-reusables to make the dumpster diving easier on Bob.
If Bob learned that a customer was ill or lost a job, he collected their trash for free.
TRADIN’ POST
Storing the excess in his garage, Bob spent his spare time repairing broken items for reuse.
Eventually, Bob moved the excess to a property he rented and named, The Tradin’ Post, where he sold the refurbished items to the public like a thrift store.
Soon he started traveling to buy goods in bulk to resell at The Tradin’ Post.
MERRIFIELD GARDEN CENTER FLAGSHIP STORE
In 1971, when Bob turned 32 and his family had grown to five kids, he expanded his business endeavors to include plants…for which he ultimately became most famous.
Initially renting less than an acre of land in Merrifield, Virginia, Bob and his team cleaned out the lot then sold plants out of the backs of their cars.
When they needed to water plants, their arranged with the gas station next to their property to allow them use of their spigot.
Overtime they added more plants, gardening supplies, and even a unique gift shop to the premises.
Throughout all his ventures, Bob made friends far and wide, many of whom he employed at the nursery along with family members.
Also, he hired the best garden experts he could find, that came up with the idea of holding garden workshops for the customers.
Eventually, Bob purchased more land for the Merrifield site, and then land for a new site and Fairfax, and finally they opened their Gainesville site.
MY GARDENS THANKS TO MERRIFIELD
From Merrifield I was able to buy bougainvilleas for my Virginia garden to remind me of Texas.
Their hibiscus selection is also amazing.
