Almost everyone with a demanding desk job has had the daydream: walk away from the screen and go work in a plant shop. Ashleigh McKenzie actually did it. After years in information technology, much of it spent traveling the country and staring at a computer, she now runs The Plant Shoppe at the corner of Section Street and Morphy Avenue in downtown Fairhope, a seasonal garden center and gift shop that has turned a once-ordinary corner into one of the most colorful spots in town.
The path there was not quite as simple as a wiggle of the nose, but it was guided by something deeper than a career change: the memory of a father who loved the outdoors and made beautiful landscapes his signature.
Growing Up on Pier Avenue
McKenzie moved to Fairhope from Mobile in 1995, when she was in the 10th grade. Her father, Dennis Ledbetter, was a developer who moved the family into a beautiful old bay house on Pier Avenue and later developed the property into Moss Oak Court.
She was very close to her father and spent a great deal of time outdoors with him. Ledbetter was known for residential developments in Mobile with beautifully landscaped entrances that he designed and maintained himself, an attention to plantings that left an impression on his daughter.
Pier Avenue runs down the bluff toward Mobile Bay near the Fairhope Municipal Pier, one of the town’s most familiar landmarks. The streets around it are lined with live oaks and older homes, and growing up there gave McKenzie a front-row seat to the gardens and landscapes that have long defined the character of the Eastern Shore.
A Heart-Shaped Leaf and a Sign
When her father passed away a few years before the shop opened, McKenzie noticed a building for sale on the corner of Section Street and Morphy Avenue. She and her husband, Bricken, bought it.
She knew she wanted to make that corner something beautiful, and she kept thinking about her father and his love of nature. “When I walked into the building, there was a heart-shaped leaf on the floor, and it felt like a sign,” she said. The property also sits across from the columbarium at Fairhope United Methodist Church, where her father is laid to rest. “I just knew we were doing the right thing in purchasing the property, but was uncertain of what the space would become.”
Her original plan was to lease the building to another garden center. Instead, the plan changed, and she decided to open a shop herself.
From IT to Interior Design to Plants
McKenzie’s background is more varied than most garden center owners. She earned a degree in interior design, with a concentration in construction management, from the University of Alabama and started her career with TAG, an architectural firm in Mobile. She later served as a lobbyist for the American Society of Interior Designers and helped pass a law requiring certification for interior designers. After that came the long stretch in IT.
“I wanted to work with my hands, and my friends at Leaf N Petal, a plant shop in Birmingham, and others encouraged me and told me I should and could open a shop, myself,” she said.
Her design training shows throughout The Plant Shoppe, from the way plants and containers are grouped to the arrangement of gifts and home décor inside. And her tech experience has not gone to waste; the shop’s website was built to be easy to navigate, with online buying and payment options.
A Seasonal Shop Built on Expertise
The Plant Shoppe operates seasonally, opening in the fall and spring, which are the prime planting seasons on the Gulf Coast. In the Deep South, fall planting gives trees, shrubs and perennials the cool months to establish roots before summer heat arrives, while spring brings the rush of annuals, vegetables and flowering plants.
McKenzie is highly motivated to find plants that thrive in local conditions. Coastal Alabama’s long, hot, humid summers, sandy soils and occasional hard freezes can be tough on plants sold at big-box stores that were chosen for a national market. She travels to farms, researches and sources varieties that grow well in the region, and she requires her team to earn certification in the Proven Winners line of landscape plants. She proudly notes that the shop is a Certified Elite Garden Center, the only one in the area.
In January, while the shop is closed for winter, the team attends markets, visits growers and goes to trade shows to learn everything they can about their niche. McKenzie describes her staff as a top-tier team of plant specialists with a strong focus on customer service.
What You Will Find Inside
Beyond a broad selection of landscape plants, The Plant Shoppe carries everything needed to get them in the ground and keep them healthy, along with gifts and furnishings for indoor and outdoor living. Offerings described by McKenzie include:
- Landscape plants suited to the Gulf Coast climate
- Pots, potting soil, mulch and fertilizer
- BERG living plant containers from Denmark; McKenzie said the shop was the first in the United States to sell them, and because they come directly from Denmark, the shop can offer them close to wholesale prices. “I want to be a resource for the landscape community,” she said.
- Outdoor furniture for porches and patios, along with pillows and throws
- Gifts and décor for indoor and outdoor spaces
- A Fresh Flower Bar, where customers can buy individual stems of roses, tulips, Queen Anne’s lace, greenery and more to make their own arrangements at home
For the spring 2024 season, which opened March 1, McKenzie added gardening apparel, hand-embroidered lingerie and pajamas, and faux florals from the United Kingdom, along with other botanical items.
The shop also offers drive-through pickup for customers who have trouble finding parking downtown or need help loading heavy plants and bags of soil, a practical touch on a busy downtown corner.
A Town That Takes Its Flowers Seriously
The Plant Shoppe fits right in. Fairhope is famous for its flowers. The city maintains colorful plantings throughout downtown, with seasonal beds, hanging baskets and street corners that change with the seasons, and visitors often remark that the town looks like a garden. Residents take pride in that reputation, and home gardening is a popular pastime across the Eastern Shore.
That culture gives a specialty garden center plenty of customers who care about quality and want advice they can trust. It also means a new business on a prominent downtown corner is expected to look the part. By most accounts, The Plant Shoppe has done that, turning the corner of Section and Morphy green, and every other color of the rainbow.
Tips for Gulf Coast Gardeners
For readers inspired to plant something of their own, a few general rules of thumb for coastal Alabama:
- Plant trees and shrubs in fall. Cooler weather and winter rains help roots establish before summer.
- Choose heat- and humidity-tolerant varieties. Ask local nurseries which plants perform well in the region’s climate.
- Amend sandy soil. Compost and quality potting mixes help retain moisture and nutrients.
- Mulch generously. A layer of mulch conserves water, suppresses weeds and moderates soil temperature.
- Watch for late freezes. Keep frost cloth handy for tender plants in late winter and early spring.
Visiting The Plant Shoppe
The Plant Shoppe is located at 140 South Section Street in Fairhope, at the corner of Morphy Avenue. Because it operates seasonally, customers should check the shop’s website for current hours and season dates before visiting. Online ordering and drive-through pickup make it easy to shop even on busy downtown days.
It is a small shop on a small corner, but it carries a lot of meaning for the woman who runs it. What began with a heart-shaped leaf on an empty floor has become a garden center rooted in expertise, design and a daughter’s tribute to her father, who, one suspects, would be proud.