Cottage Gardens, the Damariscotta florist and garden center, is for sale and will close by the end of 2012, owner Russell Barden said Aug. 24.
The business will start to discount merchandise, including trees and shrubs, Tues., Sept. 4, and will continue to offer fresh flowers daily until it closes.
Barden said he appreciates the patronage of his customers during his 11 years at the business, but cites the economy, expenses and competition from the Internet and the neighborhood as contributing factors to his decision.
The business evolved to meet the demands of the Internet age, offering worldwide shipping through its website, for example, but ultimately it wasn’t enough.
“The economy has been very cruel to garden centers in general and we haven’t been any exception,” Barden said.
The closing of the business will result in the loss of three full-time jobs and some seasonal positions.
The approximately 1.75 acre property includes the main building, which houses the office and retail shop, seven greenhouses, two sheds and a parking lot. The entire package is available through Drum & Drum Real Estate.
The property, at 85 Church St., has a long history as a garden center.
Calvin and Marjorie Dodge write the “Damariscotta History” column for The Lincoln County News and rummaged through their archives for information about Cottage Gardens or, as it was known for many years, Few Acres.
The 1927-1928 edition of the Annual Register of Maine features an advertisement for Walter M. Boynton, florist.
The advertisement offers “flowers for all occasions” at the greenhouses at Few Acres opposite Hillside Cemetery in Damariscotta, where Cottage Gardens stands today. The ad lists a three-digit telephone number, 126.
Boynton was also the proprietor of The Flower Pot Exchange, a retail shop at the approximate modern-day location of Rite Aid on Bus. Rt. 1.
In the 1930s, before the construction of a bypass or most commercial development in the area, The Flower Pot sat alone on then-Rt. 1 opposite a wide, fence-lined meadow.
Another advertisement for Few Acres appears in the Chronicles of Lincoln County and, in addition to evergreens, shrubs and flowers, touts “early vegetables,” strawberries and “Jersey milk and cream.”
By 1942, the advertisements for Few Acres read the name, Jesse H. Boynton. Her 1944 ad in the Lincolnian, Lincoln Academy’s yearbook, offered a free bridal bouquet to the first bride of the class of 1944.
John E. Bickford, a U.S. Navy veteran, bought Few Acres from Boynton in 1946.
Bickford’s daughters Susan Rose and Jean Ross still live in Damariscotta and talked about their family’s years at the greenhouse with The Lincoln County News.
Bickford and his family lived in a house next door to Few Acres, Rose said.
In 1953-54, Bickford demolished a barn and garage at the site and built the existing showroom and adjoining greenhouse.
Ross, from the age of 8 into her early teens, would ride along on deliveries, particularly during the busy holiday seasons – huge occasions for florists in the 1950s.
She and her sister would plant seedlings and water plants and, at Christmastime, Ross would help her father make and decorate wreaths.
Bickford was the proprietor of the business until his September 1961 death at the age of 44. His wife, Ruth Bickford, kept it going until 1967, when she sold to an employee, Norman Knipe.
Ross believes Norman Knipe continued to operate a greenhouse for at least 10 years. Sometime thereafter, he sold to a doctor who used the shop as his office.
The history thereafter is less clear, until Russell Barden and Gregory Holmes bought the property and opened Cottage Gardens in 2001. They built more greenhouses and opened a downtown annex in 2006.
The Main Street shop closed around 2010. Holmes is no longer involved with the business.
Now, Barden hopes someone else will step forward to continue the legacy.