October 17, 2024
When I visited South Pleasantburg Nursery, I found Rory Tyer doing what he does best – running a thriving garden center that’s been a Greenville institution for nearly six decades.
Cold Email
Rory’s path to ownership started with something surprisingly simple: a cold email to the previous owner.
No business brokers. No complicated negotiations. Just genuine curiosity about what it meant to run a garden center.
That initial conversation in early 2024 quickly turned into serious discussions about acquisition, and by May, Rory had become the new owner of South Pleasantburg Nursery.
Local Roots
For Rory, who moved to Greenville in 2021, the decision to pursue this business made perfect sense.
He wanted something close to home, where he could be part of the community. As a customer himself, he already knew the nursery’s reputation for quality.
When the previous owner showed interest in retirement, everything aligned perfectly.
The Edge
What sets South Pleasantburg apart from big box stores isn’t just its local ownership – it’s their entire business model.
While chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s operate on consignment, paying growers only for what sells, South Pleasantburg takes a more invested approach.
“We actually buy our inventory from growers. We’re invested in every plant’s success.”
Premium Choice
During my tour, Rory shared insights about the garden center industry that most customers might not realize.
Their premium-grade soils, for instance, are carefully selected for quality. It’s a stark contrast to big box stores, where customers sometimes find growth issues in potting soil.
“We really stand behind everything we sell here,” Rory emphasizes, and it shows in their carefully curated selection.
Full Service
South Pleasantburg isn’t just about plants. The business has evolved to meet all gardening needs:
They maintain a thriving pond department, complete with koi fish and construction supplies.
Their selection includes high-end pottery and home goods.
Every product is chosen with their customers’ success in mind.
Video Gallery
Watch our full conversation where Rory shares his journey of acquiring this 60-year-old garden center and what makes it special in Greenville’s retail landscape.
Conclusion
What struck me most during my visit was Rory’s commitment to maintaining the nursery’s legacy while bringing his own vision to its future.
His focus on quality over quantity, genuine customer service, and strong grower relationships shows that South Pleasantburg Nursery isn’t just surviving – it’s thriving under new ownership.
In a world of big box stores and mass-market retail, this sixty-year-old garden center proves that personal touch and quality still matter in the garden business.
Full Video Transcript
Rory Tyer: I just cold emailed the owner. Initially it was like, I want to sit down, just ask you about what it’s like owning this business. And on a follow up phone call he was like, why are you interested?
Rand Larsen: I’m here today with Rory Tyer at this garden center and nursery he just acquired. Rory, tell us a little bit about this acquisition.
Rory Tyer: Yeah, this is South Pleasantburg nursery. It’s almost 60 years old. And I’ve lived here in Greenville since 2021. We were buying plants here. My family and I was looking for a business and I wanted something that was close to home. And I just cold emailed the owner, it wasn’t listed, and asked him if he. Initially it was like, I want to sit down, just ask you about what it’s like owning this business. And on a follow up phone call he was like, why are you interested? And I said, well, I’m looking to buy a business from someone who wants to retire. And he was interested. So it kind of snowballed from there. We closed at the beginning of May this year.
Rand Larsen: That’s awesome. And tell us a little bit about what you guys sell here at Pleasantburg.
Rory Tyer: South Pleasantburg Nursery. Yeah, yeah. So we’re retail nursery and garden center. And so we sell plants. We don’t grow any of them. A lot of garden centers or a lot of nurseries will grow their own plants. But so we buy plants at wholesale, sell them at retail. And our goal is to have like the best quality plants and the highest customer service at a location that’s like really convenient for the population of Greenville.
Rand Larsen: You also sell a few other things. You sell fish, you sell fountains. Tell us about these other things you sell on top of amazing plants.
Rory Tyer: Yeah, so the former owner built a lot of ponds for people. And so we actually still have a ton of pond care and pond construction products. We sell koi fish and goldfish. We have a lot of stuff to care for them. We have some, like, home goods, a ton of pottery, indoor and outdoor fertilizers, pest control, weed control stuff. All the kind of things you think of at a garden center.
Rand Larsen: That’s wonderful. And tell us something not a lot of people know or understand about your industry.
Rory Tyer: Oh, yeah. So two things that I think are really interesting because a lot of times, like, I don’t think of them as our competitors, but if a lot of people are going to buy plants and soil and stuff, they might think of like Home Depot or Lowe’s. And something you should know about the stuff that is there. Let’s start with the soils, their Soils are not as good of quality as the stuff that we sell here. You know, potting soil in particular, we’ve had customers open the bags and find growth stuff in it. We’ve had customers buy plants and put it in their soil and call us up asking, what’s going on? And we’re like, where’d you get the soil? And they’re like, oh, well, from a big box store. And the reason, it’s just lower quality, which is part of why they. Why it’s cheaper. So the soils we have, like, we really stand behind. And that’s true of a lot of independent garden centers, IGCs. The other thing I would say is if you look at Lowe’s or Home Depot, you see a lot of plants, and a lot of them seem pretty cheap. And the reason they can do that is because they don’t actually buy their plants from the growers. They have them, and they only pay the growers for what they actually sell. If you return a plant to Home Depot, it’s not off Home Depot nose. That’s off the grower. And we don’t do that. So, like, we source plants that we think people that, like, work in people’s yards and that we think people will love, and we strive for really high quality partnerships with our growers. And so we just have a much more locally focused quality approach, and I think that stands out to our customers when you look at our inventory.
Rand Larsen: That’s wonderful, Rory. Well, thanks for showing me around your nursery, man. It’s been great getting to know you for the past couple years.
Rory Tyer: Yeah.