Established 1946 and celebrating over 75 years!
Firstly, a loud and heartfelt "THANK YOU" to our customers and community! We couldnât have done it without you!
The Early Early Days
Orchard's present-day gift shop, The Lazy K, and our big ole' red barn were standing long before Orchard Nursery's Grand Opening in 1946. The red barn is the original stables and storage for the Kergan family, who purchased the property in 1935. The name 'Lazy K' comes from the design of the brand, the 'Rocking K,' that the Kergan family used on their herd of cattle.
The Kergan family built their ranch on the frontage of what, at the time, was the only main road from Oakland/Berkeley through Lafayette and on to Walnut Creek. Now it's Mt. Diablo Blvd., but back then, it was just a dirt road cut through open fields! Pictured above is The Lazy K in its original location. Look closely to see chickens in the yard and a 2 car garage!
Established 1946
Originally a cattle ranch, pear orchard and fruit stand, our beloved nursery was established in 1946 by Jack Schneider and his partner Stewart Wade.
The entire nursery was conceived and designed with the help of internationally renowned landscape architect, Ernest Wertheim. Wertheim understood how, in the post WWII era, times were changing. So, he reinvented nurseries as a more diverse and immersive "experience", versus just another businesses that sold plants. Although the name ânurseryâ is still widely used today, Ernest knew that a true full service Garden Center was the future of the industry. So, with Orchard Nursery, he created just that!
In the early days of Orchard, the main store was about one third of its current size. The hottest selling items were Camellias and Azaleas -- but also Junipers and various trees, because the numerous new homes being built in the area all needed trees to anchor their landscapes. The nursery filled in the selection with a bounty of summer color from Marigolds and Impatiens, but keep in mind: In the 1940's, most nurseries didnât even sell fertilizer or hoses or shovels, and if you wanted to buy Marigolds or Petunias you had to dig each individual plant out of a âmud flatâ yourself!
Before Highway 24
When the arrival of Highway 24 was looming in 1955, Jack and Stewart were notified by the State that the nursery, in the middle of the constructionâs path, would have to move. They had no idea what would happen to the nursery and tried to continue business as usual while petitioning to fight the eviction.
The top advertisement below reads: Dear Customer...To be honest, we are going slightly crazy. As youâve probably heard, the State has informed us that we must vacate our present location by the end of July. Either that, or the new Lafayette overpass and Cloverleaf goes right through our âliving room.â So we havenât much choice.
Jack and Stewart scrambled frantically to file extension after extension, while simultaneously trying to find a nearby location to which they could relocate the nursery. The bottom advertisement above reads: P.S. After October 16th, if we donât get another extension we will try to conduct business as usual in the barn next to the Lazy K Ranch. The horses donât mind -- we hope you wonât. Enter from Acalanes Road and look for us behind the biggest mound of dirt.
The Grand Reopening
In late 1955, Orchard's owners successfully petitioned to relocate the nursery -- but just slightly! Jack and Ernest knew that many critical changes would have to be made because the new highway was taking away the main entrance into the garden center. Previously, the old intersection of Mt. Diablo Blvd. and Happy Valley Rd. was Orchard's main entrance but with the new highway, customers would now enter from the back of the nursery.
When the finally dust settled in 1956, Orchard Nursery hosted a post-Highway 24 Grand Reopening! An advertisement in The Times Supplement (above in red ink) reads: We've finally gone and done it! Built us a jim-dandy, superhandy, completely remodeled, redecorated "new" nursery headquarters. It's just "back the road apiece" from our former location. Without your suggestions, your encouragement and your continued patronage during some rather trying times, we never could have done it. So now come view the "fruits of our labors"...So walk, run, ride or pogo...but whatever you do, don't miss it. We'll be seeing you.
1950's Fashion Shows
During the Grand Reopening renovation, the very âmodâ pond was added and it immediately became the nursery's social gathering place (just as it still is today!). On Sunday mornings, after church services, a parade of well dressed families and friends came to the nursery to socialize and linger amongst the beautiful plants and flowers while their children played on the playground that was at the west end of the nursery. They also came to shop for what had become an extensive selection of patio furniture, or perhaps to pick up a hostess gift or flowers for a friend!
In the middle of the nursery, we created a picturesque patio surrounded by plants. There were a dozen or so comfortable chairs around tables that invited customers to sit, relax, converse, and take in the lovely flowers around them. Jack and Stewart hosted fashion shows, parties and occasions of all sorts on this patio...Sundays at Orchard Nursery became a routine, a weekly social event enjoyed by the whole neighborhood.
â Chasing Spring by Ernest Wertheim with Linda Hamilton
Atrium Greenhouse
In the years that followed, in order to accommodate the increase in business due to the rapid growth of the surrounding communities (Thank you Highway 24!), the main store was expanded and the classic Lord & Burnum greenhouse was added for the florist department.
Over 150 African Violet varieties!
In the late 1940's and early 50's, rare and unusual African Violets were the height of fashion and Orchard's hillside greenhouses were packed with them. One of the three greenhouses was used as a dedicated sales area for the violets and on any given day you could find it crowded with customers adding to their collections. Additionally, Orchard shipped violets across the country.
At that time African Violets were $2.50 each and we advertised varieties such as Double Pink Arbutus, Buds Pink Mermaid, Little Artistocrat, Buds Pink Cupid, T.V. Rose Frills and many more!
Go Giants!
Fun Fact: In the late 1950's through the 60's, if our customers were out and about during baseball season and driving down the newly built Highway 24, they could look over to Orchard as they drove by and they would see the updated score of the ball game(s) posted in enormous numbers on scaffolding above the garden center. Tom Giantvalley, who was the nursery manager in the fifties and sixties, would climb up and change the âscore boardâ as the game progressed.
It's hard to read in the photograph above but below "Orchard Nursery" reads: "1964 Great Jazz Tonight WC Library - SF vs. CHI" and we must have lost to Chicago that day because there's a sad crying face next to SF.
This tradition did not last as, over the years, trees that Cal Trans planted along the freeway grew up and obscured the view of the garden center altogether.
Christmas Shop
Beginning in 1949, Orchard Nursery presented its first Christmas âshowâ and over the years that followed, the nursery become well-known throughout the state and country for the extensive inventory and extravagant holiday displays and seasonal merchandise.
The idea behind putting on a Christmas show was strategic on Jackâs part: He didnât want to lay off his nursery staff during the rainy season and take the chance of them not returning in the spring. So, he put them to work decorating the place for the holidays. In 1949 they actually lit and trimmed fresh cut Christmas trees indoors!
On the weekends the Christmas âelvesâ handed out gallons of our famous Hot Apple Cider and hundreds of copies of the recipe. To this day, we see many past employees and their families return to enjoy the holiday displays as they gather for a perennial Christmas visit to Orchard -- and often a picture with Santa Claus!
Until this year, all the cut Holly that's been sold at Orchard over the years came from Jack Schneider's garden on Springhill Road in Lafayette. Even after Jack sold the nursery to our current owner, he continued to supply Orchard with the homegrown holly every holiday season. And even after Jackâs family sold the home, the new owners, Rochelle and Bob Holbrook, continued the tradition until they moved away in 2020. Evidently the new homeowners arenât interested in the prickly chore of cutting 100's of pounds of the thorny stems!
Above is our November 1981 newsletter advertising Orchardâs famous Christmas Shop. For many years Tom Giantvalley, the same Tom Giantvalley behind the Giantsâ scoreboard, hand-wrote our newsletters from his office on the second story of the Lazy K House. Each month he hand cranked hundreds of copies out on a Mimeograph machine, folded them and mailed them out. At the same time he was also handwriting all the informative signs, similar to the ones you see on our plants on display in the nursery today. He produced thousands of signs over the years. His signs, often witty and unique, educated and often entertained the staff and guests alike.
Present Owner, Tom Courtright
Tom Courtright has owned Orchard Nursery for 49 years. Tom was born into what eventually became a family "dynasty" of local nurseries and garden centers. Tom's father Gordon opened East Bay Nursery in Berkeley in 1942. At the time, it was one of the first retail garden centers in our area, but itsâ diversity of products and services set it apart from all the other nurseries in the Bay Area. Much like present-day Orchard, East Bay Nursery sold seeds and bulbs, vegetables and annuals and pots to put them in, fertilizer, shovels, you name it -- everything a gardener needed! Tom's sister and her husband later bought East Bay Nursery from Tom's father and their son still owns and operates it today! Tomâs father also helped Flowerland Nursery in Albany get itsâ start. Not to be outdone, Tom's wife, Jacquie, owns the widely beloved Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore. Plus Tomâs daughter, Kathy now helps run Orchard Nursery! It's a family affair!
There have been plenty of ups and downs since the purchase of Orchard in 1972. Still, Tom has always been known as a risk taker and a forward thinker. He has travelled around the world with industry peers, visited hundreds of garden centers, and to this day he is constantly researching and discovering new, innovative ideas and products for Orchard to try. We can't count the number of times we've heard Tom asking âWhat is the harm in trying it?â or confidently declaring âYou canât sell from an empty cart!â
Over the years heâs experimented with a variety of products: Barbecues (the samples were delicious), portable buildings (the office in our parking lot), stamped concrete patios and walkways (The Lazy K walkways and the covered patio outside Gardenâs Gate), solariums and hot tubs (now long gone but the stories live on!)
Alongside his lovely wife and partner in industry philanthropy, Jacquie, Tom has always supported the nursery industry in every way possible. Together, they believe that you only get out what you put in, so a life in the nursery and garden world has always been a winâwin. As a President and board member of many statewide and national nursery associations, Tom has forged lifelong friendships around the globe. He is also a lifelong member of Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce in Lafayette and he was named Lafayette's Citizen of the Year in 1989.
Our current owners, Tom and daughter Kathy Courtright