He wanted to sell plants roadside. She refused. Now they run Port Royal’s new garden center
Initially, Jimmy Varnes suggested that his wife, Lyndsey, sell the plants that she loves so much from a stand on the side of the road. Lyndsey had a better idea.
“Here we are,” she said Thursday, spreading her arms toward the new retail garden center and direct grower nursery she and her husband recently opened in Port Royal.
Customers milled about among row-upon-row of green plants, trees, shrubs and bright-colored flowers. Inside, there’s a coffee shop.
The husband-wife team from Shell Point opened LowCo Gardners at 1 Marina Blvd. in June, but the grand opening was Thursday. It’s located on Parris Island Gateway across from the Food Lion-anchored Midtown Village Shopping Center.
Jimmy Varnes, a residential home builder who also owns CHS Clean, a professional pressure wash cleaning service, said he opened the nursery because he saw a need for one north of the Broad River.
That, and his wife loves plants.
“Jimmy realized I was buying a lot of plants,” Lyndsey Varnes said.
She says they make a good team because she’s a “worker bee” and her husband has experience as a business owner. She’s a Georgia native. He grew up in Shell Point, the son of two Marines. Several spouses of current Parris Island Marines work at the center.
“They keep us going,” Jimmy Varnes said.
He originally bought the property for his CHS Clean business but decided to open the garden center instead.
Varnes recalls riding his bike around the area as a boy, and even getting his hair cut in a barber shop that was once in the building the couple now own and operate. It feels good to be contributing to the health of the area today, he said.
“It’s a blessing,” Varnes said of the business, which he calls a “boutiquey” type of place with a family atmosphere. Its motto: “Neither he who waters nor he who plants is anything, but God who gives the growth.”
Greenhouse is in the works
LowCo Gardeners is a grower-direct nursery, which means it grows many of the plants it sells.
The couple is growing 30% to 35% of their inventory in the backyard of their Shell Point home, a half-mile from the business. But they already are planning an on-site greenhouse. Their goal is to eventually grow everything they sell.
Until then, the business buys some of its inventory from local growers, said Kimberly Granquist, the general manager. That way, she said, customers can be assured that what they purchase will thrive in the Lowcountry.
LowCo Gardners also offers professional landscaping and irrigation services. Its hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
