Clyde Smith and Sons 1834-2006
Spring is here finally, or will be soon as I write this in early March. This year it won’t be quite the same for me, nor for a lot of other west side gardeners. This year we have lost one of our better sources for gardening supplies, outstanding variety in plant material and a champion in the advancement of gardening as a whole. Clyde Smith and Sons Farm Market has gone out of business.
A family owned business, Clyde Smith’s was in the same location on Newburg Road south of Joy Road in Westland for 172 years and until recently was a thriving concern covering a huge area filled with greenhouses, an open air landscape plant area, glass greenhouse, gift shop, fresh cut flowers, gardening and landscape supplies, tools, garden decorations, and seed supplies. In the summer, they had farm produce, pumpkins in October, Christmas trees and greens for the holidays, and then closed down for 3 months vacation and regrouping every winter. They would reopen every first of March and do it all over again.
Not this year though, this year the greenhouses are all virtually empty, only a few things are still in the glass greenhouse while they wait for the final auction. Gone are the huge variety of geraniums, flats of pansies, petunias and impatiens that they grew from seed and cuttings every year. Gone too are the many employees, some of them local high school kids, thrilled with their first job. Gone are the schoolchildren, scout troops and Junior Master Gardeners getting a tour of the facility, learning how to plant flowers and care for plants. Gone are the gardeners loading up their carts full of tomato plants, marigolds, and snapdragons. Gone will be the ‘Let’s Go Gardening’ table that was welcomed every Saturday in May. Gone are the peacocks, the roosters, rabbits and emus in the barn for the children to see and try to pet. The land has been sold, the buildings, hundred year old houses and barns will be torn down, and yet another subdivision of homes or condos will be put up.
Since I have lived just a few miles away for all of my life, Clyde Smith’s was the place to go every spring and summer for anything I needed. As a child, I went with Mom or Dad to find just the right flowers and plants for the garden, and as an adult, I looked forward to the gift certificate my brother would usually give me for my birthday, so I could go find something really nifty for my own garden. Fruit trees, hosta, perennials of all kinds, annuals in colors not usually found at other garden stores, good, healthy, family grown plants, not mass produced in some plant factory out of state and shipped in. I even met one of my favorite clients there when she spotted my ‘rolling billboard’ (my fancy painted van) and asked about my business. Every time I went over there to shop, I would meet someone I knew doing the same thing. I have so many great memories of trips to explore all of Clyde Smith’s.
I could speculate on the causes of their downfall- competition from big box stores with mass produced low priced loss leader plants, long term poor local economy, too much competition from every other store in the area, maybe all of the above. We may never know for sure, the family could not be reached for comment, nor did I want to impose on them too much. This was a family owned business, and had been for 172 years. For 172 years they have lived and worked in the area, making some major contributions to not only the local economy, but benevolences, schools, churches, gardening programs, children’s programs, and who knows what else. They are in mourning, so am I, and so should you be, for the death of this gardening icon. 172 years is a good long life, but as far as I’m concerned it wasn’t long enough, and I will miss them terribly.
See you in the garden,
Ellen Leigh 
My heart breaks to read this entry. Where we live, family farms are being sold and McMansion Subdivisions take their place.
We had a nursery here that was family owned and operated that sold a few years ago. I worked there for a short time. I never knew why they decided to sell, but I do know that they are missed.
I am so glad that you found EG101.
Katie- BlackStar
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oh my goodness. It broke my heart to discover that Clyde Smith’s had gone out of business. I learned about it the day after the auction from my brother (a former Smith student employee) who lives in Alaska. A man in his office is also from Michigan and somehow he found out about it. My older brother worked there for a few years and helped my younger brother get a job; who in turn helped me get a job as a cashier. I worked there every summer from 17to 21. The winter I dropped out of collage I even transplanted in the greenhouses with the hispanic workers. They were much faster than I was but I loved the smell of the soil and the feeling of accomplishment, knowing I had assisted in giving life to beauty that would one day be displayed in someone’s garden. The rest of the story is the best part. I met my husband there when I was 18. He had been working for Clyde since age 14, starting out picking tomatoes (when they still had land to plant)and had earned quite a bit of responsibility by the the time we met in 1966. It wasn’t until August 1967 that he finally got the nurve to ask me out. (he was shy) Our relationship developed over the potatoes and geraniums as we sorted out the bad spuds and dead blossoms each evening. We were married in Dec. 1968 to the delight of the Smith family who attended our wedding. That was 39 years ago and we are still together, building our retirement home in Northern Michigan where we have lived for the past 30 years. So you see Clyde Smith and Sons was more than just a greenhouse and farm market to us. I would give anything to have just a small piece of it. We visited occassionally over the years but it had been several since we were there last. If only we could have said goodbye. Newburg Road will never be the same. The big boxes just don’t have the atmosphere or nostaliga. It is the sad end of an era.