Over 40 years, Riverside Gardens Garden Centre has changed hands, changed locations and changed products.
But in a world of change, one thing has stayed the same — the commitment to helping Shepparton grow.
The Smith family’s history with the complex began in 1982 when Moira and Bob Smith bought the nursery, then on the banks of the Broken River.
In the first six months, the nursery was manned by the Smiths and their son Murray, with another son, Larry, travelling from Melbourne on the weekends to pitch in.
After Larry left his position at the Melbourne Government House gardens to move his family back to Shepparton, he made the jump into the business — with his brother Rodney not far behind.
Now, Larry, Murray and Rodney are at the helm, along with the garden centre’s much-loved cocky, Charlie.
Since then, the journey hasn’t been without trials and tribulations.
“We’ve quite literally weathered our fair share of storms with the old and new nursery,” Larry said.
“Both the old and new nursery have been severely damaged in four storms, we’ve been burnt by a couple of devastating fires, survived more than 10 years of drought and suffered regular minor flooding at the old site.”
He said the 1993 floods affected the business in a devastating way, as they did many others, prompting the move to the Emerald Bank location.
Throw in a pandemic, and the nursery has just about seen it all; but regardless, the support and generosity from the community has been “heart-warming”.
“Back then, moving a few kilometres out of town surrounded by cows was a gamble,” Larry said with a laugh.
“But it’s one that’s proved beneficial over the years. We were a lonely tenant for a while but we’re grateful to have neighbouring businesses that have made Emerald Bank more of a destination point than we could’ve thought.”
Across 40 years, Larry said the whole industry had changed.
“Initially it was ‘you work for a nursery, you just sell plants’ and quite often they were just wrapped up in paper. Now it can’t be dirty at all — you can’t be dirty coming into a garden centre,“ he said with a laugh.
While it began with simply plants, the store has since become a seller of all sorts.
Additions include a coffee shop, gift lines, home and garden decor, and furniture all the way through to clothing and, of course, the iconic mini golf course.
“To actually grow the nursery from what it was; it was very small and now it’s one of the leading nurseries in Victoria,” Larry said.
The nursery won the Best Medium Garden Centre of Victoria award three years running from 2008 and while that was a huge achievement, Larry said helping people achieve their garden dreams, no matter if they were beginners or avid, was what had kept the family coming back every day.
”Over the years, there’s the many and varied people we have employed — all characters in their own right — their environment and passion built lasting friendships and memories grown,“ he said.
“And yes, a great deal has changed over 40 years, but one thing that will never change is that we are forever appreciative to our customers who have supported us over the years, and we thank them for being a part of our journey.”