Meet the horticulturalist who bought ‘wild and magical’ Annie’s Annuals

Years ago, when Colleen Wheeler was a horticulture intern at Cal State Fullerton, practicing the art of re-propagating native plants, or breeding new ones from their propagated moms, her boss told her about a unique nursery in Northern California with go-go dancers and games of musical chairs.

And along with such quirky merriments, were hundreds and hundreds of plants, many rare and exotic.

It was Annie’s Annuals and Perennials, a “wild and magical” place, Wheeler remembers him saying.

Back then she never imagined that one day Annie’s would be hers.

At 9 a.m. tomorrow, Nov. 2, Wheeler and her team of a number of former employees, will reopen the former Annie’s Annuals and Perennials, which unexpectedly was closed by its former owner a month ago, as Curious Flora.

Wheeler did visit Annie’s briefly 20 years ago in her internship days. And she returned there two years ago as a manager after decades of working as a horticulturist and farmer around the globe.  

But owning the popular place — or any business — never crossed her mind, she said. That is, not until Annie’s was closed on Oct. 4, shocking workers and customers. The owner, Sarah Hundley Garcia, with almost no notice to her employees, hired a liquidator to sell off business assets under a form of bankruptcy. Hundley said in a letter posted on the website at the time that she needed to sell for health and business reasons.

After learning of this news, Wheeler said it was a whirlwind as she scurried to come up with a plan to buy the nursery with help from her mother, Penny Orland, also an avid gardener, who lives in Southern California.

They went from the idea to opening their first business in a matter of weeks. 

“I went full Pollyanna,” Wheeler said, referring to her exuberant optimism. 

The liquidator sold Annie’s in two parts. Wheeler bought the retail and wholesale business, including existing stock or plants, which were cared for while the business was closed. She is also taking over the lease for the 3-acre site at 740 Market Ave. in North Richmond.

The Annie’s name, website, and catalog were purchased by Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply, which runs GrowOrganic, a web-based organic seed, edible plant, and gardening supply business that has a retail store in Grass Valley.

The two new entities plan to support one another, said Wheeler, and Bill Hageman, who owns Peaceful Valley with his wife, Jill Hageman.

Curious Flora will supply plants to Peaceful Valley’s online Annie’s, expected to launch  next spring.

Wheeler said she knows this may compete with her business, brick and mortar versus cyber.  But, she said, “I’m confident that the charm and the appeal and the plants we sell here are kind of value-added; you get to come and experience the garden, you get to talk one-on-one with knowledgeable and experienced horticulturists, you have a place to spend the afternoon.”

Other than new name signs and some changes in the plant display, Wheeler said Curious should look a lot like Annie’s. And feel much the same, too, she hopes.

“The last thing I want to do is upset the apple cart,” Wheeler said. She said she spoke to the original Annie’s founder, Annie Hayes, recently, calling it, “Forty magical minutes of my life.”  Hayes was supportive, encouraging, and shared wisdom and knowledge, she said. Hayes, who sold the business to Hundley in 2021, was heartbroken when it closed last month, former employees said. 

Wheeler hinted, cryptically, that the familiarity of Curious Flora opening day will include the much-loved large cow sculpture greeting visitors inside the front gate, which disappeared mysteriously in the frenzy of Annie’s closing.

Much of Wheeler’s past few days have been spent on tasks such as setting up internet and phone service, she said. 

Curious Flora owner got her hands dirty finding horticulture work on the road

Wheeler, who is in her 40s, said she’s loved being outdoors since she was a child. As she got older, she became an avid hiker, backpacker, and traveler — in California and beyond; finding work on the road, often at farms or nurseries.

Along the way, she got a degree in horticulture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It was a perfect fit, she said. “I always liked being dirty and playing in the mud. I always liked being around a bunch of color and textures.”

Her grower resume includes organic farming in New York, the southern United States, and Europe, France, Spain, Scotland. She’s worked at fancy botanical gardens. She’s worked with livestock. She even has run horticulture programs in jails. 

Gardening provides her with a creative outlet, and she likes the physical work, she said.

When traveling, she’d notice plants, natural and landscaped. “You just pay attention to the world in a different way, it’s an endless entertainment that’s generally free. The buy-in is very low.”

One thing she learned about herself while adventuring is that while farming appealed: “Every chance I had, every break I had, I was running away to go to ornamental gardens, to horticulture.”

She made her way, happily, back to California, eventually landing at Annie’s a couple of years ago, as a manager.

“[Horticulture] offers so many delights you can take with you. I’m still excited to share that with people. I want to help people become more comfortable with gardening so they can share in those delights as well,” said Wheeler, who lives in Santa Rosa. 

“I do love the natives most of all, but I’ve been a longtime enthusiast of plants from all over the world. The crazy weird stuff that comes out of South Africa and Australia; Chile has amazing flora,” she said.

“Natives from California are sort of my heartsong; the thing I’ve known the best and the longest.”

Wheeler called Saturday’s opening a christening. “Rain or shine.”

She stresses that the business is a team effort with many longtime employees, including some who started with Hayes in 2021. She’s hired back about 15 recent Annie’s workers from Annie’s and hopes to rehire more once the business is established. 

Many of these employees, including Wheeler, were kept on by the liquidator after Annie’s closed, she said, to care for plants and provide information about the business.

One of these is Carlos Castillo, a nursery manager, who started working at Annie’s in 2004.

Castillo, who lives in Richmond, said he was “super happy” when Wheeler asked if he’d stay. “She said there’s a chance she can keep it going,” he said, “And she’s going to need us to make it work.”

Castillo said he’s worked most positions at Annie’s, liking them all. He takes special pleasure in transplanting. “When you get the babies and grow them to 4-inch. You have to choose the best ones from the bunch of seedlings, pick the best size, and make sure you don’t plant them too deep or too high.”

He says his love for plants started at his family home in Mexico where he grew up. “Growing vegetables with my grandfather.” The yard was a bounty of flowers and vegetables. Corn, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, he said.

At any given time, Annie’s had about 1,000 different types of plants for sale, Castillo said. A number —and variety — Wheeler said she plans to keep.

“We grow plants from all over the world,” Castillo said, “Each one is different to take care of.” He said the workers learn to care for all the plants. “Every year we add new plants to keep it interesting and fun for customers and the public.”

Guillermo “Memo” Galarza, another longtime nursery manager, started at Annie’s in 2003.

“We are so happy; I am so happy that Colleen bought it, we are very excited,” said Galarza, who lives in San Pablo, a couple of blocks away. “It was a roller coaster; we’re down and now we’re up, in just three weeks.”

Galarza said his specialty is taking care of plants when they’re ready for sale, moved from the propagation area to the retail tables. Until a customer takes them home, the plants need “quality control,” he said, weeding, cutting back, culling.

 “I love everything about the growing of plants; seeing them grow from the seedlings; watering them, the whole process. I like everything that has to do with those plants,” Galarza said.

Galarza and Castillo both said they feel confident about the nursery’s transition because it will continue under people who know it well.

What leaves them a little nervous, they said, is simply hoping customers come back.

As for reintroducing musical chairs and go-go dancers, Wheeler said that can come in time. Festivities will definitely be on the agenda, she said. 

“I’m just so focused on getting the nursery open, getting the word out. I want go-go dancers so badly; I think what we’re struggling with now is time. Other things are far more important now.”