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By Crystal McGough
Warren Family Garden Center and Nursery provides the residents of Moody and surrounding communities with one of the largest full-service garden centers in the area.
“We’re a larger garden center,” owner Wirt Warren said. “We actively work seven acres for retail. Wehave a bigger and better selection than, I would think, anybody in the metro Birmingham area.”
The company, founded by Warren in Clay in 2009, relocated to Moody in Sept. 2015. “My son was at Auburn getting his degree in horticulture and I bought the former Leath’s Greenhouse building in Clay and started getting a little bit of an education, myself,” Warren said.
In addition to selling a wide variety of shrubberies and trees, the Warren’s are also finishing growers, growing their own annuals from seedlings.
“The fact that we grow a lot of our own annuals is real big,” Warren said. “No body else in the state does that on site.”
Among Warren Family Garden’s wide selection is last year’s Petunia of the Year, Night Skies, and many other award winning annuals, including petunias, calibrachoa (commonly called Million Bells) and lantana.
“We have a bunch of different coleuses and caladiums,” Warren said. “A real nice selection of Elephant Ears. We have a nice crop of roses that we’re growing ourselves this year. A lot of Drift Roses and Knock Out Roses, and some of the floribundas that are kind of unique, a real nice red called Oh My, a true purple called Ebb Tide, and then a spicy smelling yellow called Julia Childs.
“This year’s plant of the year won’t come out until later in the year. We may be growing it, but we don’t know what it is yet.”
Warren said that the Night Skies petunia is available to purchase in five-inch cups and 12-inch cocoa moss “swinging baskets.”
“You only get a ‘swinging basket’ at Warren Family,” he said. “We grow ‘swinging baskets’ instead of hanging baskets. We think they are a little bit nicer than other places.”
Warren Family Garden Center also boasts a 2000-square- foot showroom gift shop with a wide variety of pots, fountains and other interesting yard art, including a 17-foot Mexican tin art giraffe and other tin art from both Mexico and Haiti.
“In Mexico and Haiti, they take oil drums and turn them into yard art,” Warren said. “We keep a stock of those and usually restock a couple times a year.”
Another service they provide is bulk material handling and delivering for mulch, sand and gravel, available by the pickup-truckload or the yard.
“A customer could come get that in the back of a pickup truck and it saves a lot of money over bagged mulch,” Warren said. “We’re just here to help people with their gardening needs. We have professional son staff who will make sure to help you with the plants you buy from us and any plants that you have problems with. We want to help you with the right chemicals to kill ants, insects or funguses. Whatever it takes to make your yard or your little portion of the garden how you want it.”