After repurchasing the garden business last month they sold two years ago, a Naples couple is getting ready to plant themselves into a new location and services.
Rod and Ann Jordan owned Sebago Gardens on Route 302 in Windham for more than 20 years before selling it in January 2005 to Kerry Fairlie and her husband Mark Gunville.
Fairlie declined to comment on operating the business or reasons for selling it back, but the Jordans said they are in the process of moving locations and split the company into a garden and design business and a landscaping service.
“It feels great to be back,” said Rod Jordan, who along with his wife Ann bought the nursery on Route 302 in April. “The move is a little challenging, but once it’s settled down, it’s a great opportunity,” he said.
The new location will be at 889 Roosevelt Trail, just up the road toward Raymond.
The Jordans bought Sebago Gardens from John and Sandy Lowell in August 1984. Rod Jordan said the previous owners opened the business in the mid 1970s and sold it in order to move to Florida.
Ann Jordan, who is a self-taught floral designer, said she and her husband of 29 years didn’t have much experience before they dug into the business in the 1980s, but their skills have since blossomed.
Rod Jordan was a postal employee and started building greenhouses when they bought the business, which is located at 875 Roosevelt Trail. He said he had no experience with carpentry, gardening or landscaping when they started.
“I basically learned as I went along,” he said. He is now a real estate agent and is going to be in charge of the landscape business, which will keep the name Sebago Gardens.
Ann Jordan is going to be in charge of the decorating and floral spinoff business, which will adopt the name Studio Flora. She currently teaches floral design four times a year at the New York Botanical Garden, located in the Bronx in New York City.
She also teaches periodically for Florists’ Transworld Delivery, one of the worlds largest flower delivery companies, and American Institute of Floral Designers.
Ann Jordan said she teaches at the botanical garden for a week at a time, and the other teaching positions are mostly for one-day conferences.
“I like exposing people to good design,” she said. Her next teaching appointment is in Denver, Colo., in June.
In addition, the Jordan’s children are also going to be active in the two businesses. Their daugher Elizabeth Sawyer, 25, is going to be a floral designer and her husband Nathan Sawyer will manage the landscaping businesses.
Their son Dustin Jordan, 26, is a graphic design artist and will help with landscaping. His wife Rosemary Jordan will do the bookkeeping and office work for both the landscaping and the floral businesses.
“Customers are happy we’re back, and I’m working with my kids every day,” said Ann Jordan. “You can’t beat that.”
Ann Jordan, left, bought Sebago Gardens in Windham with her husband Rod in April. They are returning to a business they sold two years ago, but changing it so Ann will concentrate on floral design with Studio Flora as her husband operates a landscaping business. Jordan will be joined by her daughter Libby Sawyer, right, at Studio Flora.
Comments are no longer available on this story