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"My husband couldn't succeed in getting me to make a business plan, but I do have a mission statement," declares Amanda Fraley of Savannah's Classic Gardens, on Waters Avenue.
Business plan or no, nothing about the nursery's spacious corner lot, packed with healthy, immaculately presented growing things, appeared by happenstance. Mandy Fraley recognized a potential niche market in the local green industry, as growers and sellers of plant materials call it. She believed sophisticated Savannah gardeners desired specialty plants, antique or hard to find garden materials, and acquatic plants.
Starting with a shoestring operation, Fraley has developed a unique business devoted to the sort of gardener who shops with a wish list. Fraley, obviously passionate about gardening, understands wish lists; her shop may be the only local nursery which will undertake a search for the particular plant item for which a client yearns.
Mandy Fraley had worked in the green industry several years when in 1989 the chance arose to rent her present space and found her nursery. She formed a corporation with Kimberly Harrison, borrowing $3,000 from Harrison's husband to start the business. "I bought a few plants and did all the planning and the plant work. Kim, who worked at Savannah Tech, did the books and worked at the nursery on weekends.
"It all happened so fast. I was terrified by what I had done, but people came in. We had sales from the beginning. We reinvested every penny," Fraley recalled.
After a year, Harrison had greater...