Arletta Gardens and Boutique to shut its doors

Owner to focus on her private landscaping venture

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

A group of koi gathered in a bathtub aquarium as Wendy Morin dropped food in their mouths. “They really do have face recognition,” Morin said. “They only gather when they see me.”

Morin isn’t sure what she’s going to do with the koi, now that she’s closed her nursery and boutique, Arletta Gardens. She will open the store one last time — July 24-26 — for an inventory clearance sale, during which the store’s products will be 40 to 50 percent off.

Closing the nursery is the end of a dream for Morin, who grew up in Wollochet Bay and opened the nursery in 2007.

“This is what I always wanted to do,” she said. “But the economy is dictating what we’re doing, and it’s out of our control.”

Morin said it’s incredibly hard for fairly new businesses to survive. When business began to drop last fall, she realized the garden wasn’t going to last another year.

But she has no regrets about opening the store.

“I’ve always wanted to have a nursery,” she said. “The timing was right for me in my life to open a nursery and boutique. The timing just wasn’t right for the economy. I just say, ‘It is what it is.’ ”

Morin will pour her energy and resources into her landscaping business, which she has run out of her home in conjunction with her nursery. She’s been licensed since 2002.

“I’ve done a lot of waterfront properties, so I know where to place things,” she said. “I can help design water features and where the fireplace goes. A lot of people are doing small installs right now.”

Morin has a contractor she works with, but she said clients can use their own, if they wish. She feels her experience with the nursery gives her an advantage, as she already has the connections with growers and will be ordering from the same nurseries. She also knows how to get her hands on hard-to-find plants.

“There aren’t many plants I haven’t grown, tested or tried and know what they’re going to do,” Morin said. “Being in the trenches is where people get their knowledge. I’ve been in the trenches. I’ve done this.”

Arletta Gardens and Boutique’s final sale

The entire inventory will be 40 to 50 percent off from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. July 24-26. For more information on landscaping services, call Wendy Morin at 253-208-1972.