SEQUIM — Roger Fell is sprouting his old nursery business anew after seven years away, reopening Peninsula Nurseries at the corner of Port Williams Road and Sequim-Dungeness Way.
During that time, Fell has been operating his 22,000 square feet of greenhouse on 10 acres at Cays Road in Dungeness, growing about 80 varieties of lavender, along with landscape grasses, shrubs, perennials and trees.
“Lavender takes up so much of it, and we ship them all over the country,” Fell said, adding that he has made sales as far away as Great Britain.
The nursery also sells to Dungeness Valley lavender farms, including Graysmarsh and Martha Lane Lavender.
Fell plans a soft opening Tuesday with a full-blown grand opening celebration Saturday, Sept. 3, through Sunday, Sept. 4, at the 2.5-acre nursery.
The celebration will feature his friend, gardening expert and Seattle seed company owner Ed Hume.
Fell decided to return to the nursery in Sequim after the couple that a rented his land and ran a Henery’s nursery there opted to retire and sell the business back to Fell this year.
Now 63, he is a seasoned hand in the nursery business.
Started with weed cutter
“I started out with a borrowed weed eater cutting weeds at SunLand,” he recalled.
Fell ended up landscaping much of SunLand.
Born and raised a fifth-generation Skagit Valley farm boy, Fell’s line of work is not more than a short rock throw away from what he has done for more than 20 years in the Dungeness Valley.
He also earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Central Washington University.
Peninsula Nurseries Inc. was the result of a merger of Landscape Services and Peninsula Landscaping and Nursery in 1989.
Doug Cockburn started up Peninsula Landscape in 1973.
Originally devoted to landscaping, Cockburn began propagating plants during slow times to build up an inventory to supply his own landscaping plant needs.
In 1985, Cockburn had accumulated enough plants to open a retail nursery at his home in downtown Dungeness.
In 1985, Fell formed Landscape Services, initially providing basic maintenance services in the SunLand development, growing to the point of providing grounds maintenance for all of the condo divisions at SunLand and operating a landscape construction division.
In fall of 1987, Fell started growing stock for a nursery.
Cockburn left the partnership in 1992, and Fell in 1996 purchased the 2.5 acres of former 1800s farmstead he still owns today at Port Williams Road and Sequim-Dungeness Way.
Buildings at nursery
The nursery is fronted by an 1883 five-bedroom farm house that was remodeled in the 1930s and where Fell once lived.
A high-profile old milk cow barn on the nursery property that was once used by the nursery in the 1990s was condemned by the city in 2000 and later torn down.
Fell is handing over operations of his Cays Road greenhouse plant-growing operations to his daughter, Jessica.
The Cays Road greenhouse operation employs three, and the nursery will employ up to five, he said.
Because he grows about 30 percent of his stock at the greenhouses, he can swing lower prices for customers without a middle man, he said, adding he also has a knack for finding lower prices on stock he does not grow for the nursery.
“We plan to come back with an extensive selection and lower prices,” he said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
