In 1994, we moved to a vacant lot on the corner of Ninth Avenue and 22nd Street, where we created a much larger garden center complete with brick walking paths that lead visitors on a journey through display beds of plants. At the heart of the new garden center was a large purple leaf plum tree that soon became an iconic symbol of our growth and eventually served as the foundation for our brand. During our time on Ninth Avenue, we also opened the Chelsea Garden Store, which introduced a line of garden furniture, houseplants, fountains, and a comprehensive selection of garden books and elegant gifts.

In the summer of 1999, the burgeoning real estate boom forced us to relocate the nursery. Off we went to lower Manhattan, where at the corner of second Street and Bowery, we found ourselves another empty parking lot. This location offered us more space than we had ever had before. Of course, we couldn’t leave behind that gorgeous plum tree, so we brought it with us to the Bowery and there it would reside as the shining star of our new home. We again expanded our inventory to include a wider selection of plants that would add to the city’s much-needed green spaces. Again, we were forced to move to make room for a new NYU dormitory. Fun fact, we donated the plum tree to Bette Midler’s, NY Restoration project where it was planted in one of their gardens.

Responding to our customers’ needs for more houseplants, furniture, and gifts, we opened the 6,000 square-foot Chelsea Garden Center Home Store on Hudson Street, just above Tribeca. This spacious, loft-like space allowed us to provide an enormous selection of the finest tropical plants in Manhattan, combined with an extraordinary garden-inspired collection of furniture, home accents, pottery, and gifts for the modern metropolitan home.

In 2001, the quest for larger and more suitable spaces began again and we relocated our primary garden center in the Chelsea neighborhood where we’d gotten our start almost twenty years earlier. We settled downtown on West 16th Street in a large lot just above the Meatpacking District. We filled the lot and store space with an even wider variety of outdoor nursery plants and indoor plants and maintained our stock of other gardening materials, tools, and supplies.

In the spring of 2004, we opened a second garden center location near the Javits Center at 38th Street and tenth avenue. We felt we had finally found a location that allowed us the best of both worlds: plenty of space for outdoor plants, supplies, and materials, as well as an indoor space to house our growing houseplant, gift, and furniture selection. However, Manhattan’s full-blown real estate boom forced our hand, and we consolidated our business and made the move to Brooklyn and are so glad that we crossed the river.

We opened our first Brooklyn location at 444 Vanbrunt Street in Red Hook in March of 2007 and opened our second Brooklyn location at 87 Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg in November of 2015. We used this opportunity to refresh our vision and get back to our roots. We brought the most successful elements of each of our previous locations together in each of our new Brooklyn spaces to serve the unique communities in each of these neighborhoods. From the casual shopper to experienced garden enthusiasts, our vast collection of nursery plants, landscaping and gardening materials, houseplants, a wealth of accumulated knowledge and gifts offers a little something for everyone.