SPRAINBROOK NURSERY IS GOING OUT OF
BUSINESS
With tears in my
eyes and a very heavy heart I am forced to make the gut-wrenching announcement
that after 68 years of serving the horticultural community Sprainbrook Nursery
is closing its doors. This will be our last fall season. We will be going out of
business at the end of the year because of economic reasons. I wish this were
not true but unfortunately it is.
The handwriting
was on the wall for a long time but I’m not a person to give in easily. I ended
up pouring all my recourses back into Sprainbrook Nursery. My hope was to be
able to weather the storm and turn the tide. I knew I could bring the business
back into full potential. I knew I had the knowledge, the talent and the hard
work ethic that my parents instilled in me. I am a person who could fight back,
for losing is not in my DNA. I also knew that this spring would be a do-or-die
season so I set out with a positive attitude to produce a great crop of plants
and win the battle. In some ways our hard worked paid off. The quality, the
diversity and the beauty were there but the economy just wasn’t. Sprainbrook
Nursery customers are the best; they are loyal and passionate about gardening
and I love them dearly. Unfortunately there are not enough of them to sustain
the business.
The old fashioned
Garden centers concerned with plant quality, variety and a knowledgeable
horticultural staff are no longer supported by the large majority of people.
Garden Centers as we knew them are slowly becoming obsolete in an environment
where plants are being sold at every retail outlet. Many are convenience or
impulse sales outlets. However they make an impact.
Homeowners are relying on two people in the family to work. They employ
gardeners and when they need a plant or product they choose to have them do the
work rather than buying the product or service from the Garden Center. Garden
Centers are a sad casualty of the times as the pendulum swings to alternative
buying patterns. In the process, a trip to the Garden Center is being
bypassed.
We worked hard
this year, as we knew it was a make-or-break year for us. Production was up but
sales were not. We are a spring business and we rely on a good season to carry
us through the year. Due to the economic recession our sales have dropped and
our costs continue to rise. With health insurance, rising fuel prices, a huge
jump in water bills and a very high property tax for the area we are battling
huge costs before we ever open the doors.
I am sharing this
narrative so you understand that I did not give up easily or willingly and would
have continued if I possibly could. I always thought if I could hang in there
long enough, other Garden Centers would go out of business and the few of us
left would be in demand and able to survive. Unfortunately I have become one of
the early casualties. The changing times have left me with no other choice but
to close the doors and put Sprainbrook Nursery up for sale. I share this with
you because I want you to understand this was a forced decision not a personal
choice. Sprainbrook has been my life and I had hoped it would be able to take
care of me until my death. This is not meant to be.
I feel badly for
my loyal customers. You have become my friends and my inspiration. I will miss
you and I know you will miss Sprainbrook. I feel sad for my loyal staff. Many
have been with me for 25-40 years. They are the best in the industry and they
are what made Sprainbrook special.
Although this
last month has been difficult on me, finding myself going through phases of
mourning, depression, distress, disbelief and the reality that the nursery will
close, I have no personal regrets. I lived a great productive and fulfilling
life because of Sprainbrook. I was brought up at the nursery and I had a great
childhood here. I entered a business and a profession where each day was a
challenge but a pleasure. I enjoyed going to work every day. I spent every
moment surrounded by beautiful plants. I was able to graduate from Cornell with
a great horticultural education. I got to work in a family business with my
parents and enjoyed my mother’s daily company until she died at age 95. I was
able to raise my children at the nursery, have them go through the Edgemont
School District and was able to pay for their college education. They turned out
to be two great kids. I have a lovely and beautiful wife, best friend and
business partner. She stuck with me to the end. I enjoy my customers and the
relationship I was able to build with them.
12 STEPS TO NATURAL
GARDENING
I was able to
hang in there long enough to write my book “12 Steps To Natural Gardening”. If I
had given up earlier this would never have happened. I think the book has a
powerful message to convey and I am dedicated to spreading the word for an
organic approach to gardening. Our environment and our health are important and
I believe if we are going to make a change, we all need to work
together.
I went through a
process of change in my own growing operation and I witnessed the difference.
Once I made the change I set out to develop a blueprint that other people could
follow so they could also make the change. I have written programs to follow
that will make your garden more beautiful. The organic approach will insure a
healthy environment for your children to grow up in, your animals to play on and
your family to live in. We need to be good to our earth and put back into it the
organic supplements that will perpetuate life. We need to stop destroying it
with our chemical and pesticide applications. We need to be conscious of the
food web and the teeming life that exists there. The book is filled with
formulas, calendars and advice. I have tested my formulas in the field and
followed my calendar to test and tweak my programs.
Even without
Sprainbrook Nursery, the book can guide you through a process of how to grow
beautiful plants the natural way. My daughter in California gave her colleague a
copy of the book. She wrote my daughter an email stating that she fell in love
with the book and it has become her bible. She is overjoyed with the results she
has achieved. My hope is that everyone who hasn’t purchased my book will, and
those who have will pass the information along to others. There will always be a
part of me in it and I always want me to be a part of you. In its pages I will
still be able to answer most of your gardening
questions.
The information
in this book was written to help you become a better gardener. A customer said
it is so easy to have a beautiful garden when you do everything organic. She
said, “It is incredible how everything flourishes. It is amazing” she claimed.
She said “how few people realize how to make the simple switch”. I learned this
the hard way but once I made the choice to follow an organic program I never
turned back. My commitment is to spread the word to as many people as I can that
we all need to change to a natural approach.
At age 77 there
is not much more time to get the job done. I need your help, read the book and
help me spread the word. I need to get a book review by a national name so it
can reach a larger audience. We are all in this together and we all need to work
together to solve this problem. “12 Steps To Natural Gardening” is available at
the nursery as well as on line at:
WHAT WILL THE FUTURE
BRING?
I am trying to
sell Sprainbrook Nursery as a nursery. I have written a letter to prospective buyers. If interested you can read it or send it on to
someone else you may think would be interested. It is viewable at: http://www.sprainbrook.com/sprainbrookforsale.pdf
This would be the
best ending to a sad situation. If we could sell the Nursery to someone who
would carry on the organic approach, we could continue and promote the
movement.
My sister is a
Real Estate broker and will be listing the nursery for sale under multiple
listings this month. We welcome anybody in the real estate field to contact us.
I am having a difficult time finding lists of potential buyers. Please contact
Norma Weisbrich at weisbri9@aol.com or
call her at 203-536-2540 with any interest or leads
What will happen
to my employees? If we sell it as a nursery hopefully many of the employees will
stay on, if this does not happen and the property goes for Real Estate, many
will go into business on their own. If they do, I will keep you informed of
their where-abouts and their business addresses. You will want to contact them
and hire them before others do. They are the best and most knowledgeable in the
horticultural field. Many people who have worked at Sprainbrook have gone out to
some amazing horticultural jobs. Sprainbrook, just by the way it is structured,
is a learning center. We grow our own plants and know the trials and
tribulations involved in that. Our philosophy has been to provide our customers
with lots of information and a wide selection of quality plants. I am proud that
everyone at Sprainbrook is a part of this process and thus everyone in order to
keep up has received a great Sprainbrook education.
I will continue
keep you posted in my emails and Facebook posts and I will continue to write
Krautter’s Korner Monthly News Letter. I will maintain http://www.sprainbrook.com and will keep
http://www.gardeningthings.com open where
you can shop on-line for your organic gardening supplies. I am dedicated to
keeping you informed.
We will not be
turning on the heat this year so we will not be growing Poinsettias nor doing a
Christmas business. We are placing almost everything on a huge sale including
fall landscape jobs. We will list details in September Krautter’s Korner. We
have a huge amount of beautiful inventory to sell
off.
I will set up an
extensive fall lecture series. It will be the last at Sprainbrook so I hope you
can attend. It gives me one last chance to talk with you about these subjects
here at home in the Nursery. The lectures are free and I look forward to passing
this information on to you.
Take advantage of
the fall sales; pay us lots of visits as we try to clear out our inventory.
There are lots of beautiful plants that need a home and lots of supply items
that can be bought at reduced prices.
I am taking it
one day at a time as I realize life takes many twists and turns. I am not sure
where the next turn will lead but I will follow it moving in as forward a
direction as I can.
Hopefully I will
see you this fall. No matter how it turns out, I would like to thank you for
making my life such a pleasant one. I have been blessed for 77 years and you
have played an integral part in making it worthwhile, enjoyable and
productive.
Meanwhile there
still is a lot of fall gardening we have to do.
Sincerely
Al
Krautter
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