Whether you are looking for pumpkins, straw bales, and potted mums to enhance the seasonal curb appeal of your home, or a full landscape redesign, complete with maintenance service, the new Monarch Nursery and Garden Center in Riverside should be your go-to destination this fall.

Co-owned by Chad Williams and Mike Kennell, the nursery and garden center started as an extension of William’s other business, Absolute Outdoor Services (AOS).  AOS is a full-service lawn and landscape company, providing design, construction, and maintenance for area properties, such as those at Hy-Vee stores.

Eager to expand AOS and frustrated by the quality of landscaping material they were receiving from third-party sources, the pair determined opening their own nursery would be an ideal solution.    

“We got to this idea where instead of having to buy third-party plants and constantly brokering to get the stuff that we needed, it was like, hey, we have an opportunity in this space.  Let’s open up a garden center to start doing our own stuff,” Kennell says. 

Now Kennell, who specializes in landscape design, can choose the specific plants and trees he wants to purchase from the growers he works with. 

“We’re making a conscious effort to choose all high-grade quality.  We’re not bringing in any low quality,” Williams explains.  “We want to be considered high end.  You know when you [come here] you’re going to get high end material.  You’re going to get high end customer service.  That’s our long-term goal.”

Consider mulch, for example.  Williams says that a typical mulch consists of a single-ground wood pallet, sent through a shredder once.  It may have big pieces in it, and it doesn’t retain its color.  In contrast, the mulch sold at Monarch is double ground hardwood, which is also double dyed so that it retains its color. 

Trees, also, are an item where quality matters.  Williams explains that blue spruce trees sold at big-box stores are generally grown in the wet conditions of the Pacific Northwest, which results in Rhizosphera Needlecast infections in many trees by the time they are available for sale. 

“Whereas we’re selectively choosing growers that, because of geographical constraints, have the ability to grow a better product for us,” he says.

What sets Monarch apart from other lawn and garden centers is that it can help clients with landscaping projects from conception to maintenance.  For example, a person wanting to redesign the landscaping in front of their home can bring in a photo of the house, and Kennell and his designers will put the photo into their software and design new landscaping, including the softscape (the living part, such as plants) and hardscape (the unchanging part, such as retaining walls). 

Because Monarch purchases such a high volume of goods for AOS, it can procure items quickly and easily if they aren’t currently in stock.  For example, Monarch recently had a customer who wanted a large quantity of Viburnum bushes, but the nursery only had eight in stock.  It was easy for Monarch to add the desired bushes onto their order for the next week.

When it comes to maintaining landscaping, Monarch can help with that too.  They offer a broad spectrum of services to both commercial and residential customers, from pruning and shaping shrubs in the spring to checking for diseases or replacing ailing plants. 

“If you’re making this kind of investment, we want you to have the ability to take care of it.  And if you can’t take care of it, we like to offer the ability to come back and just keep that investment looking the best it can look,” Kennell says.

Monarch Nursery and Garden Center opened its doors this May with a broad selection of items, including perennials, trees, annuals, and containers.  The owners look forward to adding Christmas trees and containers, birdseed and feeders, and decorative items and furniture for the winter and spring seasons.

Although the new business is located off the beaten path at 5276 Oakcrest Hill Road SE in Riverside, the new owners hope you will come out to see them.  They are open 7 days a week: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m.- 2 p.m.

“I think once people find a good destination, they’ll kind of make the trip,” Williams says.