When Betty and I first came to
New England in 1980, we purchased a still-being-built home for which
landscaping did not rise even to the level of an afterthought. We needed to learn about what kinds of trees
and shrubs could survive in the deep pine forest out of which our new homestead
had been carved. In our first weeks, we heard about and visited
a place called Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton.
Weston turned out to be the
answer to our needs. It was – and
still is – a source of freely offered and sound, professional advice about
plants provided by a dedicated and long-serving staff. We populated our three acres with Weston
plant material and it thrived. We stayed
in that home ten years, then decamped for corporate opportunities, first in
Connecticut and then in Virginia. When
we returned to New England in 1999, we again gravitated to Weston Nurseries for
our landscaping needs, sometimes one or two plants at a time and sometimes
in bulk.
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| A jazz band played at a 1920s-themed party |
Yesterday afternoon I had the
pleasure to help Weston Nurseries celebrate its 90th birthday. It is a remarkable achievement for any
business to endure ninety years, much less to thrive. It is all the more remarkable for a family business to reach that
milestone.
Last month, I wrote about Blanchette
Garden’s announcement that it will close its doors after 32 years. Weston Nurseries, by contrast, appears
positioned to thrive over the long run.
It has not been easy, though, and it has not been without wrenching
change.
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| Weston Nurseries Chairman Wayne Mezitt with family memorabilia |
Weston’s story begins with Peter
John Mezitt, who was born into a family of Latvian farmers in 1885 and studied
agriculture before emigrating to America in 1911. Mezitt found his way to Massachusetts where
he would become superintendent of a vegetable farm. By the early 1920s, he had set his mind to
becoming a nurseryman and, in 1923, he and his wife Olga purchased 80 acres in
Weston (then a country town far outside of Boston) and began Weston Nurseries.
Their children became part of
the business, which grew steadily while establishing a reputation for growing
New England-hardy plants. By 1941,
Weston Nurseries encompassed 200 acres.
After World War II, urban development began encroaching on Weston and
the family began looking for new land.
They found 300 acres of hilly, rocky abandoned farmland in Hopkinton
that had the advantages of having a microclimate of a more southerly region
(thus extending the growing season) and being firmly beyond Boston’s urban
sphere. The land was cleared, terraces
were built, ponds were dug and roads were created.
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| Weston's Hopkinton Garden Center offers a lot more than plants |
The course of Weston Nurseries’ history
changed in 1945. For several years,
Peter Mezitt’s son Ed had worked to crossbreed rhododendron to create stronger
colors and more vigorous plants. In
early May of that year, a remarkable hybrid bloomed and, with it, the PJM
rhododendron. Weston Nurseries can be
said to have fairly singlehandedly created the rhododendron (and its
taxonomical little brother, the azalea) as a must-have ornamental shrub.
By the 1970s, a third generation
of Mezitts had joined the business. Ed’s
sons, Wayne and Roger, became part of Weston Nurseries, which now sprawled
across 900 acres in Hopkinton. The PJM family
of rhododendrons became the gold standard of spring blooming ornamentals and
Weston’s Hopkinton retail store a destination for anyone serious about quality
horticulture. Those acres yielded not
just rhodies, but a full range of trees and shrubs. The fourth generation of family members joined
the company in 1996 (today, Wayne’s son, Peter Mezitt, is president).
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| Employees dressed in flapper costumes were everywhere |
The world – and the industry – does
not stand still, though. The high cost
of growing plants from seed to finished product in Hopkinton began pressuring
margins in the 1990s. Bringing in trees
and shrubs from specialty growers became much more practical. In the meantime, Boston’s suburbs grew and
prospered… and urbanization headed inexorably west. By 2005, the 900 acres owned by the Mezitt
family was more valuable than the nursery business that occupied the site.
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| Weston Nurseries' 900 acres. The land below Route 135 was sold in 2005 and is being developed |
Family pressures can both strengthen
and divide an enterprise. After 2000,
Roger Mezitt asked to be bought out of the business. That began a years-long effort that could
have – and nearly did – extinguish Weston Nurseries. It took a voluntary bankruptcy filing in
October 2005 to open the way for the $23.7 million sale of 615 acres – two-thirds
of the Mezitts’ land - for residential development that provided the liquidity for
Roger’s exit. The new community, called Legacy Farms, is now rising on the south side of Route 135. Wayne Mezitt continues as
Chairman of Weston Nurseries.
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| Legacy Farms can fairly be called the price of securing Weston Nurseries future |
Yesterday afternoon, the events
of eight years ago seemed remote. The
retail center hummed with activity when I was there even as guests enjoyed a
jazz band and flapper-dressed employees greeted long-time customers. Weston-created cultivars are well represented
at the New
York Botanical Garden’s new Azalea Garden. Today, you can purchase
everything from upscale lawn furniture and pizza ovens to tropical plants at
Weston Nurseries. There is even a
two-year-old satellite operation in Chelmsford, twenty miles away.
I spoke with Wayne Mezitt at the
event. At 71, he is the steward of a
legacy of horticultural quality and no mere figurehead. He recognizes that Weston Nurseries must
continue to evolve, and he and son Peter will guide that evolution. Weston Nurseries still owns several hundred
acres, part of it dominated by hoop houses that are no longer needed. Planning is underway to determine how best to
use surplus acreage.
Betty and I have made our
decision to ‘downsize’ from our overly large house in Medfield. We are looking for property on which we can
build our ‘final’ home and where Betty can create a new garden. We know two things about that pending event: that
we will stay in the Boston area and, wherever we build that third home, we will
make the drive to Hopkinton to find exactly the right trees and shrubs for it.
