With summer in full swing, gardening season is upon us! As the warmer weather creeps in, the itch to plant those gardens can be tempting for garden lovers. And if you don’t have a green thumb, Reit’s Garden Center can help.  Reit’s Garden Center is a local, family-owned garden center and nursery in the heart of Stanley. Owned by Dwight and Roxanne Isenberger, Reit’s Garden Center began in 1957 by Harm and Lucille Reit. Originally dairy farmers, Harm and Lucille started the garden center as a side business eventually including their teenage daughter Roxanne to help in the greenhouses where her love of gardening sprouted and grew. In 1976, Roxanne and her husband Dwight took over and for forty-seven years have grown Reit’s Garden Center into a thriving, successful business.  Roxanne and Dwight now have eight greenhouses where they house decorative plants, fruit and vegetable plants and succulents for sale. They also sell fruit trees, shade trees and other shrubs.  With over 400 trees available to choose from, they are quickly becoming known for their annual bare root tree sale. One popular tree at Reit’s Garden Center is Autumn Blaze, a hybrid of the red and silver maple. This tree is an adaptive, fast-growing tree that displays a beautiful fall color with bright red and orange red hues. 

With 8 spacious greenhouses and a cozy shop, Reit’s Garden Center has blooms for every taste and style from decorative flowering plants, annuals, perennials, fruit and vegetable plants, herbs, and succulents. It also supplies everything a gardener needs to have a flourishing garden such as tools, mulch, planters, home and garden ornaments and so much more. One perk of having a greenhouse is that the temperature and humidity levels can be controlled to allow for the ability to optimize the temperature and humidity level for plants. A greenhouse can also be used year-round whether the weather is cold and rainy or warm and sunny because the energy from the sun heats the greenhouse during the day and at night the heat is trapped inside by the glass. Because of this, greenhouses can intensify production and produce off-season providing the ability to grow year-round.  And while the busy season for a garden center is in May and June, the work of the Isenberger family begins long before the snow melts. Dwight and Roxanne’s son Jason is the family mastermind behind the success of the garden center. Beginning in July or August, Jason begins ordering seeds for the following year. Then starting in February, he begins to prep and finally plants in early March. It quickly becomes a family affair with his whole family chipping in to finish the work. The family tradition continues to be passed on with Jason and his wife, Becky, who first met each other at the greenhouse in 2002, and their four children continuing the family business started over 60 years ago. Still, Roxanne says retirement is not something she is planning for at this point. “I’m happy to be here as long as I can be,” Roxanne admits.

Having lived in Stanley her entire life, supporting the local community is important to Roxanne and her family and Reit’s Garden Center is known for their generosity to the City of Stanley. They host field trips for area schools and community container gardening classes which fill up quickly. Every year, Roxanne decorates the front of the D.R. Moon Memorial Library brightening the library with gorgeous blooms and planting the beautiful flowers throughout downtown Stanley as well. But Roxane is also grateful for the support of the City of Stanley after one of the recent snowstorms covered with the greenhouses with heavy snow. “They saved our greenhouses. They would’ve went down,” Roxanne said explaining that employees from the City of Stanley removed the snow off the greenhouses. “We appreciate our community. Our community has been so supportive of us. We hope to be supportive to them,” she said expressing her thankfulness.

Tips for growing healthy plants:

-Know the shape of your plant

-Make sure you have fertilized soil with good drainage input

-Check if the plant will go in sun or shade

Reit’s Garden Center is open year-round with summer hours Monday through Friday 8am to 7pm, Saturdays 9am to 5pm and Sundays 9am to 3pm. For more information visit their website at reitsgardencenter.com or follow them on Facebook.