A Growing Business

WALKING AROUND Seasons Garden Center, all of your senses are awakened immediately, from the visual beauty of the seasonal blooming flowers to the scents of the trees, perennials and shrubs. With each step in the store or in a landscaped yard, founder Daniel Piestor wants his customers to be able to engage all their senses so they can feel connected to these designed spaces.

From a young age, Piestor was intrigued by landscaping. He started out by planting seeds at his childhood home, mowing neighbors’ lawns and, as he got older, expanding into more design work. Although his daily career was in retail management, he continued his landscaping work on the side and took classes to learn more about it. Eventually, he decided to leave retail and focus on his growing commercial landscaping business full-time.

“It wasn’t my intention to make a career of it, but it grew in that direction,” Piestor says. “It’s a passion of mine and one of those things I would do even if I wasn’t getting paid for it. You have to appreciate the look of nature and how it’s evolving and get joy from that, which I do.”

BLOOMING PROSPECTS

The location of Seasons Garden Center on River Road was owned since the 1930s by the Polka family. They rented space on their property for years to a garden center called McGary’s Plant Haven.

Piestor used to purchase items for his company from McGary’s. When the owner wanted to retire, he offered the rental space to Piestor, who eventually accepted it. In 1996, it was renamed Seasons Garden Center and became the new home to Piestor’s landscaping company. Nine years ago, Piestor purchased the land from the original owner.

“What I like about this business is that we know so many customers by name,” Piestor says. “When we do our garden buying trips, there are certain things I know a customer will love. So when we bring an item back for them, they’ll say, ‘This is perfect for me’ and I’ll say, ‘I bought it for you in mind.’ It’s such a tight-knit relationship, and I like the personal aspect.”

Piestor has landscaped hundreds of homes in Upper Makefield Township. Ron and Eileen Kapusta are local residents and use Seasons Gardens Center for all their indoor needs and outdoor landscaping year-round. They also hired Seasons to adorn their home with magnificent floral arrangements for their wedding last year.

“They care about your personal taste, they take into consideration what your property looks like, what your home looks like or what the occasion is, and they work with us in a great way,” says Eileen.

“What’s nice about Dan is he is so knowledgeable,” says Ron. “Everyone who works [at Seasons] are just lovely people; they really hold a special place for us, and so it’s like shopping with friends.”

A COMMUNITY GEM

Seasons Garden Center offers a full range of services, which include shopping at the retail shop, designing container gardens, creating floral arrangements for events and doing home landscaping. Piestor considers all of his staff to be part of his family, and most employees have educational backgrounds in landscaping and gardening. Deborah Pomroy is the education, floral and garden center director, and Dirk Dilbert is the director of off-site services; they have worked alongside Piestor for years.

“Dan supports us in everything we need, and he always wants to know how we can make the garden center a better experience for the customers,” Pomroy says. “It’s refreshing to work for someone who has that energy and is always open to changing things.”

“The overall environment here [is that] everybody is lovely from our staff to the clientele,” Dilbert says. “I love that each day is something new. I just enjoy working outdoors and with the customers.”

Since purchasing more acres, the business has expanded to include an event space and an educational studio and gardens. For the event space, they’ve held weddings, birthday parties, art exhibitions and book signings. Then four years ago, Pomroy approached Piestor about creating educational courses for the community such as floral design, gardening, fine arts, healthy living and kid-friendly events. The program includes around 52 classes a year and keeps expanding.

“When teaching classes, I always tell people to think like a plant, because planting is scientific—it’s more than just a bunch of fun flowers you put in the ground,” Pomroy says. “We want them to understand the watering needs of the plant, the soiling needs and what the root system does. So then they can plant things with success, show them off to their neighbors and get that really good, heartfelt feeling we should get from nature.”

NATURAL AND NATIVE

The garden center’s team travels nationally and internationally to trade shows to see what’s on trend for retail and planting. Piestor says he’s constantly reading garden magazines and following social media to spark ideas and then adapt them to what he thinks the people in the community will want.

“Everything is leaning more toward native plantings because the theory is that if [a plant] naturally would grow in Pennsylvania or the Delaware Valley, then it will be more successful in your yard because of the natural environment,” Piestor says. “Each year we bring in almost double the amount of natives than the year before, like redbuds, tons of shrubs and perennials to create native gardens.”

Although Piestor is an overseer of the entire business, he still does a ton of design work. He is currently designing the Upper Makefield Memorial Butterfly Garden in Brownsburg Park to honor the people, including children, who died in a flood two years ago in the township.

“I did a lot of research into making sure everything in the space either nurtures or attracts butterflies,” he says. “There will be walking paths, colorful natives, trees, flowering trees, perennials and a meditation space so people can have a place to reflect.”

As a resident and business owner in Upper Makefield Township, Piestor says it’s so gratifying laying the groundwork for a new township garden or landscaping someone’s property. He considers landscaping an investment because people are investing their time and money in something they want to be there for as long as possible and improve over time.

“It’s really rewarding when I drive by a home I landscaped 30 years ago and see how big the trees are and see things you put in a long time ago,” Piestor says. “I’ve been doing designs in Washington Crossing for so long, there’s often times I’ll go back to a house I originally landscaped three owners ago, and I’ll look around and think, I did this, and I feel so fulfilled.”

BY DARI KOTZKER