NEIGHBORnetwork

Stephanie Fleming

Going Beyond Behnke’s

When a beloved local garden center, Behnke Nurseries, closed a few years ago, gardeners throughout our region mourned the passing of a “cherished Washington-area institution” as Adrian Higgins in The Washington Post wrote. Yet, there is life beyond Behnke’s, as Stephanie Fleming, former Behnke Nurseries vice president and granddaughter of the founders, tells us.

What is your background and experience at Behnke Nurseries? I grew up in the little brick house on the grounds of Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, MD, with my mother, Sonja, and my brother, John Peter Thompson. Growing up in a retail garden center was so much fun. We had 12 acres of adventure between the ponds and could play pretty much anywhere we wanted. When my mother remarried, we moved to western Howard County when I was about 14 years old. I got a job working for a local wholesale grower, Walnut Springs Nursery, and met my soon-to-be husband, Jon Fleming. We got married young—I was 19 and he was 21—and we decided to start our wholesale nursery immediately. At our nursery, Hillside Nursery, we grew annuals, garden mums, pansies, and poinsettias for 28 years till we closed in 2007. We decided to close Hillside in 2006, and I went back to work for Behnke Nurseries, helped with marketing and advertising, and eventually became the Christmas Shop buyer, which I loved doing. Once we closed Behnke’s in 2019, I decided to keep the weekly newsletter going to provide information to help our customers find other locally owned garden centers and see that there is life after Behnke’s. My daughter, Jaimie, came up with the name “Beyond Behnke’s.” Besides the email newsletter that goes out weekly, I also have an online gift store and go to local craft and home shows. I have also become a sales consultant with a company called Norwex, which is all about creating safe havens in our homes by cleaning without toxic chemicals.

What are your fondest memories of Behnke Nurseries? I write a lot about “growing up Behnke,” as I call it. I loved everything about the place I called home for so many years. I loved being able to help with transplanting. When I was just a little girl, I collected duck feathers and sold them to customers who only wanted to buy some plants. We had the best playground with a large silver slide, seesaws, and a killer merry-go-round (that we still managed to survive!). As I got older, I was able to be a cashier, which was a lot of fun, and then I helped my mother and Aunt Ele Behnke with the Christmas shop. There were always things to be priced, bows to be made, and customers to help. Being around our customers and seeing how happy our garden center made them made me appreciate retailing. My more recent memories of the time after I came back to work would be the people. We had the very best people working for us and I am better for knowing each of them.

Can you describe Behnke Nurseries closing and the future site plans? Behnke Nurseries closed in June 2019. The management team and the family worked together to have an exit plan, and I am very proud of how we did it. Our employees were informed a long time before we announced it to our customers, and I think it says a lot that most of them stayed till the very end. It has been a long three years since our last day of business, but finally, the structures came down this year. The new infrastructure is going in for the 7-Eleven located on the corner of Howard and US1. It is exciting that this local 7-Eleven will be relocating to the Behnke property. For so long, they were a few blocks away and the go-to place for our staff to get coffee and the best hot dogs!

Are you still in contact with former Behnke Nurseries employees? Absolutely! We met once a month before COVID stopped everything, but slowly we started back up. We meet at a terrific local restaurant called Remington’s, within walking distance of Behnke’s. Also, a former employee from the 1970s started a private Behnke Alumni Facebook group where many share memories, photos, and updates about what is happening in everyone’s lives. I am in touch weekly with Behnke’s favorite horticulturist, Larry Hurley, who

is (and has always been) my sounding board, plus he edits my weekly email. Larry Bristow, who was Behnke’s operations manager and lived with his family the longest in that little brick house on the Behnke property, is someone else that I am always in touch with. He created and maintains my Beyond Behnke’s website, plus explains the ins and outs of all things techy to me. (Anyone needing a good website really should contact Larry Bristow at Basic Website Designers.) I am also lucky that when folks ask me questions that I cannot answer, Carol Allen (The Orchid Lady) and Miri Talabac (Behnke’s former woody plant buyer) are always right there, giving me the facts. Social media has made being in contact with my friends from Behnke’s so much easier. Along with phone calls and lunch dates, it is always nice to catch up with old friends.

Do you garden for yourself? If so, what do you like to grow? For so long, while my husband and I had our wholesale nursery, we did not have the time to garden. We raised the plants for others. However, once I returned to Behnke’s and he retired, I started bringing home trees, shrubs, and perennials. Landscaping for the Flemings finally arrived. I was always an annual girl, but now I will say, perennials also have a special place in my heart. My absolute favorite plants are African Violets and pansies.

What advice would you give beginner gardeners in the greater DC area? First, start small and accept that some things will do okay and others won’t. The main thing, however, is to find a local garden center and explore what they offer. Talk to the staff and read the labels. Read articles like you will see here in the Washington Gardener Magazine or on Beyond Behnke’s website. Just keep trying. Keep a garden journal about what works and what does not—what plants you love, and where you planted them. Join a garden club. Most of all, SHOP LOCAL. Support your local independent garden centers.

What do you do when not working? I do not consider what I am doing now as working. I love to write, and I love people, so Beyond Behnke’s brings me joy. Plus, going to the craft shows—I get to meet so many wonderful people, along with many of our customers who take the time to drive out and say hello. I also am having a blast selling Norwex products and learning the ins and outs of this business. When I am not doing these things, I see my mother, Sonja Behnke Festerling, each day and enjoy my grandchildren. I also enjoy reading and listening to audiobooks.

How can our readers contact you or find out more? You can reach me at beyondbehnkes. com or my email, sfleming@behnkes. com. I would love for you to join our weekly Beyond Behnke’s email list, which you can enter from the front page of our website. o

Urban Tree Summit continued from page 7 sparingly because tree diseases can become immune to the fungicide. Current work by the Bartlett Tree Research and Diagnostic Laboratory is focused on the science behind vaccinating trees, along with the induced resistance (IR) concept. Tree vaccination—or the idea of inducing resistance—was discovered in the 20th century. Inducing resistance usually involves taking a healthy tree and exposing it to one that is diseased to promote disease resistance. The idea of induced resistance agents and plant protection technology has led to the creation of commercial IR agents commonly used by professionals and at-home gardeners, like Agri-Fos (potassium phosphite). Induced resistance agents work by being applied at different points of growth, depending on the type of IR agent being used. These IR agents can protect against diseases like scab and blight. Percival has worked on the grounds of Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth II stayed occasionally, and the back gardens of Buckingham Palace. Percival can be reached at gpercival@bartlett.com with any questions about tree health and disease.

Trees in Cities: Health and Economic Value

primarily focused on trees’ impact on human health, specifically concentrating on mental health. Wolf’s research examines the micro scale and experiences people have in nature. Wolf spends a lot of time doing “research to carefully collect and synthesize peer-reviewed evidence concerning urban trees and human health.” “Having trees in our surroundings promotes general wellness,” she said. Wolf finds that people who spend 20 to 30 minutes day in nature feel less stress, while those who spend more than 30 minutes a day in nature experience a decrease in depression and blood pressure, and those who have one garden visit a week experience less depression. People who spend 120 minutes a week outside experience a high state of well-being . “Having trees in our communities benefits people in all stages of the human life cycle—cradle to grave—the very earliest hours and days of our lives to the very end,” Wolf said. Like other presenters, Wolf highlighted studies that show having some interaction with nature benefits children from as young as kindergarten to high school age. Studies find that students who experience nature have higher standardized test scores and graduation rates. In adulthood, interacting with nature helps reduce cardiovascular disease, obesity, and feelings of anger and frustration. The link between health issues and lack of movement is a driving force for debt in the medical field as more people are diagnosed with chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and respiratory illnesses every day. “If nature is a motivation for healthy lifestyles and can help diminish chronic diseases, there’s potential healthcare savings across society,” Wolf said. Wolf suggests that everyone spend more time outside in nature, especially since studies are showing declines in mental health during the pandemic. o

Brandie Bland is a senior multi-platform journalism major in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener.