Hicks Commercial Sales growing facility
Photo courtesy of Hicks Commercial Sales
POSTED BY KATE SPIRGEN
Source: www.gardencentermag.com, March 2023
The longtime Top 100 garden center is in its sixth generation of family leadership.
Hicks Nurseries, Long Island’s largest garden center, is celebrating 170 years of serving the local community. This sixth-generation family-owned and operated business was established in 1853 by Isaac Hicks and has helped transform the landscape of Long Island through continuous innovation. Hicks consistently ranks highly on Garden Center magazine’s Top 100 Independent Garden Centers List.
At the turn of the century, Hicks Nurseries invented and patented the equipment for moving big trees that were desired by Long Island’s new Gold Coast estate owners. Some famous estates include Vanderbilt, JP Morgan and Phipps (which is currently Old Westbury Gardens), and many of those trees still flourish today.
Around 1930, in another innovative move, Hicks Nurseries made pre-dug plants available for customers. This marked the beginning of the walk-in, cash-and-carry customer business that developed into what is now called a retail garden center. In the 1960s, with western Long Island’s evolution from a rural to a suburban community complete, they refocused the business in order to keep pace with the new generation of Long Islanders, and over the next ten years converted the nursery into a thriving family-oriented retailing and growing operation that served hundreds of thousands of people each year. Seasonal experiences were introduced, such as the Fall Festival and the Flower & Garden Show, highly anticipated annual events that have further expanded its customer base.
Today, the sixth-generation Hicks family in the business includes siblings Stephen Hicks, who serves as President, and Karen Hicks Courts, the Director of Human Resources. Stephen led the launch of Hicks Commercial Sales (the wholesale division) in 2008, and the re-launch of Hicks Landscapes in 2011.
Very few small businesses make the successful transition past one generation, never mind six. Hicks Nurseries has overcome many obstacles, such as the Civil War, Great Depression, two World Wars and a global pandemic. It has been able to not only survive but thrive as an industry leader and a vital part of the Long Island gardening and landscape community.
“Our success stems from the ability to consistently offer our customers top quality products along with expert advice to help them succeed,” Stephen Hicks said. “We have responded to the changing needs of the community and are focused on providing the very best shopping experience. We’ve built our reputation on that since the very beginning and continue to innovate with some exciting changes in the works.”
Taking place this month is Hicks Nurseries’ 33rd annual Flower & Garden Show, March 9-26. The show titled “A Novel Approach” takes inspiration from popular book genres including fantasy, romance, western adventure, travel through time and space, a children’s story, mystery, and, of course, history, which will pay tribute to Hicks. See photos from the 30th annual show here.
Find out more about Hicks’ history in the video below:
