Neighborly Nursery
A third-generation owner keeps good vibes going at Kelley & Kelley
Where else would Steve Kelley be on a snowy morning in late February than in the greenhouse? Snipping unruly bits from a lemon-scented geranium topiary, the proprietor of Kelley & Kelley Nursery in Long Lake rubs the trimmings between thumb and forefinger to release a scent that smells like summer. “Isn’t that wonderful?” he asks.
He does the same with the potted lavender and rosemary, releasing delicate scents into the moist air, while plants in brilliant and soft shades of green wait patiently for warmer days ahead. Steve himself conveys the same sort of tranquility, in sync with the seasons of the Midwestern garden. He’s the third generation of landscape-loving Kelleys to grow plants on this land, a portion of the 40 acres originally homesteaded by his great-grandfather in early 1900s.
Kelley & Kelley’s current 5-acre site is a destination for in-the-know gardeners in the western suburbs. Regular customers look forward to Steve’s annual newsletter, “In the Garden,” a delightful blend of chattiness, horticultural updates, and pragmatic advice—one of those welcome harbingers of gardening season. The best time to visit might be Kelley & Kelley’s spring open house, held each year on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, but it’s worth the trip anytime to browse the potted daylilies, hostas, grasses, coneflowers, phlox, and herbs all grown on site. Don’t see what you want in a pot? Choose your new hosta from the lush rows of some 300 varieties growing in the raised beds, or pick out wildflowers, ferns, and trillium from the shady woodland garden (a helpful and knowledgeable staff member will dig it up and pot it for you on the spot). Kelley & Kelley is the antithesis of a big-box garden center. “We have our little niche,” Steve says. “It’s not a place people just stop in because they’re going past. People come here because they want to come here.”
Photo by Todd Buchanan
Customers have wanted to come for generations. Steve’s great uncles started the business in 1922, back when the grand getaway estates were going up around Lake Minnetonka. The founding Kelleys’ skills—Rod was a landscape architect and Bill a land surveyor—met the needs of those wealthy homeowners. “People needed landscaping, and [Rod and Bill] worked well with the old families,” says Steve. “We still do business with some of the children and grandchildren of the original customers. The old estates are gone, but the people are still here.”
Steve’s father likewise worked in the family business, but Steve himself, often drafted to do weeding and watering as a kid, never wanted to get into it. After he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a journalism degree, however, he reconsidered. “Uncle Rod took me to some of his jobs, and I found I really did like it,” he says. “I enjoyed working with the people, enjoyed working outside, and thought, ‘Hey, I could make a living at this.’”
Almost 40 years later he’s still at it, though now he does more supervising than digging. He designs informal, naturalistic residential gardens—a look he carries over to his own garden which, not surprisingly, is dotted with potted plants. His wife and constant collaborator Arla Carmichiel, the head gardener at Noerenberg Gardens in Wayzata, is affectionately known as “the pot lady,” Kelley says. “We both love gardening. There’s nothing we’d rather be doing than be out there together, gardening.”
Chris Lee is editor of Midwest Home.
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6 ISSUES (1 YEAR)
