Business abloom with perennials

— The concrete statues on the side of the highway are mute, but visible testimony to the sensual beauty beyond.

Entering through the arch, one traverses a mulched trail winding through beautiful plants accented with yard ornaments.

Over the rise, and down the hillside are rows upon rows of perennials, colorful flowers, various hues of green, ponds full of goldfish, yard art and everything needed to establish and maintain a beautiful garden.

On one side is a house, beyond is a shed which houses the business. Inside the shed are yard rugs made from recycled material, gardening tools and fertilizers - blood meal (a high-nitrogen fertilizer), cottonseed hull, elephant ear bulbs. Between the two cabins are brass, concrete and pottery yard ornaments, bird baths, ponds full of gold fish and water plants. Wind chimes hanging from the ceiling of the porch tinkle in the wind, water gurgles from the fountains. A white concrete blue heron strains its neck as though preparing to catch a fish, a blue pottery fish sits bloated on the side of a pond, while Susan Davison is engaged with a customer from Fayetteville evaluating and collecting various plants which attract butterflies. A graygreen brass goose appearsto land among the tulips just beyond the peony bush. A tall bird bath is full of purple and lavender pansies. A giant brass butterfly is stationary above the pond while huge orange goldfish swim beneath the water’s surface. And there are colorful Talavera flower pots.

One of Steve Davison’s favorite bird baths is a sculpture with bright brass bowls and black metal leaves and cat tails.

It stands beside the path winding past the tulips and ferns.

“Everything we grow you can plant any time of the year,” Steve said, who highly recommends “amending the soil” with compost and fertilizer, and adding a root stimulant when planting to avoid root shock. He also recommends watering “deeply” especially when the weather is dry for long periods of time.

Perennials Etc. is nestled in the crannies of the Ozarks hillsides along the winding roadway of U.S. Highway 62 which stretches from Rogers to Eureka Springs. Along that roadway come customers to the quaint business from Tulsa, Fayetteville, Rogers, Bentonville and Eureka Springs.

Perennials are plants that grow year after year without replanting.

Perennials Etc. was planted nearly 30 years ago and continues to grow.

Susan and Steve Davison moved from Cape Cop, Mass., to northeast Benton County in 1972 and bought 50 acres.

Susan began enjoying her hobby of gardening, but she couldn’t find a good source of perennial plants.

By 1980, the couple started a business.

“I was looking for perennials and couldn’t find any, so I started raising my own.

Soon I had too many and had started sharing,” Susan said, adding that in the early days, she contracted with a couple of local businesses - Bradfords and Landscapes Inc. - and sold her plants wholesale.

Visible along U.S. 62 just east of Garfield, customers stopped by often. So, the couple began a retail business.

The Davisons are meticulous about growing plants that are hardy for the climate in northwest Arkansas. They have four greenhouses on the property.

“We grow almost everything we have,” Steve said.

“The large discount stores don’t care what they’re selling,” referring to whether the plants are appropriate for this hardiness zone.

“We’re zone 6,” he said, referring to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

The zones are defined by climatic conditions.

Northwest Arkansas is in zones 6A and 6B, with low temperatures from negative 5 to negative 10 degrees in 6A and 0 to negative 5 degrees in 6B.

“We know because we grow this stuff. We’re gardening as well as selling,” Steve said.

Some plants that aren’t really hardy this far north can be grown if placed close to a building as the building emanates warmth and protects the plant from extreme cold.

Another specific condition to this area is the soil.

“A lot of gardens are really rocky,” he said. Steve said he can test the soil to determine its chemical composition if a customer brings in a gallon of soil.

Whether the area is usually dry or moist also governs how to amend the soil by adding specific components. Additives may include manure or peat moss.

Mainly, Steve said, a customer tells them what conditions are in their garden area - shady or sunny or acombination of both - and he recommends plants that thrive under the given circumstances.

“You can plant a mixture of shrubs and other perennials,” he said, pointing out a bird’s nest spruce and a crape myrtle.

He said many herbs are perennials and live year after year, dying down to ground level and returning in the spring. Lavender and thyme emit a pleasant fragrance, he said. Another useful herb is tarragon.

“Many people used to have an herb garden right outside the kitchen door,” he said.

Pansies adorn may gardens right now, but the best time to plant them is in the fall, he said, because they don’t like the summer heat.

“If you plant them in the fall, they’ll live all winter.”

Some plants that are typically perennial in warmer zones will grow here, but they won’t survive the winter and must be replanted in the spring, he said.

In addition to plants,the Davisons sell concrete statuary, Talavera Mexican painted flower pots, gazing balls and everything necessary for a small pond.

“We specialize in perennials, herbs and aquatic plants,” Steve said. Fish, plants, liners and pumps are available, as is advice about installing a garden pond. Water lilies and lotus adorn the fish-laden ponds on the property.

“I’ve been ponding since I was a kid in Ohio,” Steve said.

He was reading an old Handyman’s magazine when he learned about installing a pond. One thing led to another, and a customer wanted a pond. Now, Steve carries everythingneeded for the project.

“I put water lilies in boats and toilets,” he said with a laugh, recalling the early days of adding aquatic plants.

There are butterfly koi and Japanese koi - five or six different kinds, he said - aswell as snails to eat algae.

Just walking around the property and through the greenhouses is a feast for the eyes: Yellows, oranges, reds, blues and purples, along with myriad shades of green, are visible from the ground up. There are hanging baskets above the tables of plants.

The Davisons live on the property.

The couple have three daughters, all of whom graduated from Rogers High School and moved back to the East Coast.

They have six grandchildren.

“My parents retired in Pea Ridge,” Susan said, explaining their attraction to northwest Arkansas.

Susan and Steve met in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She’s originally from Pennsylvania, and he’s from Illinois.

“I quit school when I had to figure out what I wanted to do for a living,” Steve said. His trade is trim carpenter and builder.

Community, Pages 8 on 04/11/2012