We believe in the power of dreams. Our founder, Bob Warhurst, established our garden center in 1971, alongside his wife Billie Jean and his friends, Buddy and Doris Williams.
What began with a small roadside store and less than an acre of plants, is now one of the largest nursery and landscaping companies in the country.
Bob Warhurst grew up in the small, rural town of Russellville, Alabama in a modest house with no running water or electricity. With his father traveling for the railroad company and his older brothers already out of the house, Bob became the man of the household at the young age of 7. He took care of his mother and three younger siblings by working at the local grocer and growing their food in his backyard vegetable garden.
Bob’s dream of creating a better life for himself and his family started taking root in 1955 when Bob followed his older brother, Lee, up to Virginia on January 4, 1955, less than a month after he turned 16.
Bob, a hard-working young man with a can-do attitude, was eager to follow in his older brother Lee’s footsteps and see what opportunities a larger city might bring. As soon as he arrived, he started working as a bricklayer for his brother. He was willing to do whatever it took to succeed and quickly developed a reputation as a skilled bricklayer.
Lee taught him how to lay brick and together they built many houses throughout Northern Virginia—including the Ridgley Estates neighborhood in Mantua.
In the fall of 1962, Bob Warhurst and Buddy Williams met for the first time. Buddy was working as a fireman and living with his wife and their three children on the family’s historic property in Vienna, Virginia, and the Warhurst family had recently moved in just down the road. One day, Bob rode his Pinto horse bare-back down the one-lane dirt road to introduce himself to the Williamses. They immediately formed a bond, which would eventually grow into a lifelong friendship and business partnership.
The suburbs of Northern Virginia were growing quickly. While building homes in Mantua’s Ridgely Estates neighborhood in Northern Virginia, Bob saw the opportunity for a new business and founded the Warhurst Trash Company.
Always a showman, Bob rode his prized Palomino horse Goldfinger up to the new homeowners and said, “Hello, I’m Bob Warhurst and I’m your trashman.” Not asking if they wanted or needed such service. Within a year he had all 60 families under contract. He went on to service customers in Stonewall Manor in Vienna, Greenbrier in Chantilly and other areas of Fairfax County.
Bob got to know his customers well and considered them friends. Because of this close relationship, Bob began collecting items from them that they no longer wanted or needed, but that still had value—items like used clothes, tools, furniture and other household necessities. Bob put these items to good use for his growing family, including a silver tea jug that still holds the iced tea today. Knowing that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, Bob opened The Tradin’ Post in the Kamp Washington section of Fairfax, where he resold the usable items he collected.
Eventually, Bob decided to add plants to The Tradin’ Post product offering. Thanks to his upbringing working in the vegetable garden, Bob was a natural when it came to caring for the plants he sold. He quickly saw that they were a big hit with his customers and more profitable than his second-hand items, so he increased the amount and types of plants he carried. That’s when Bob realized he wanted to start his next venture and formulated the idea to open a nursery.
He approached his good friend, Buddy Williams, to see if he wanted to join him in the new venture. Buddy immediately agreed, and they began driving around Northern Virginia looking for the right location to build their dream nursery. One of Bob’s greatest qualities was his ability to see beyond the present and visualize potential. He saw huge potential in a weedy, junk-strewn lot filled with scraggly brush and abandoned, rusty cars that was next to an Exxon gas station at the very busy intersection of Route 29 and Gallows Road in Merrifield, Virginia. On April 9, 1971, Bob and Buddy opened Merrifield Garden Center with a quaint red barn, a small store and less than an acre of plants.
Merrifield Garden Center started out incredibly small, but with the highest of standards. Bob and Buddy emphasized outstanding customer service, exceptional quality and superior selection. Their approach proved to be successful and customers began visiting from far and wide to purchase quality plants at Merrifield Garden Center. Throughout the 1970’s Bob and Buddy slowly expanded their business by adding more land to the original footprint in Merrifield, Virginia. In 1979 Bob and Buddy made the dream of opening a second location a reality by purchasing 33-acres of land in Fairfax to serve as their second location.
In December of 1988, Merrifield Garden Center officially opened its Fair Oaks location in a temporary facility across the street from the 33-acres where the permanent garden center would one day exist. The new facility expanded the Merrifield Garden Center customer base into the western suburbs of Fairfax County.
After five years of construction, Merrifield Garden Center opened its permanent Fair Oaks location in December of 1993 on the 33-acre site at 12101 Route 29 in Fairfax, Virginia. The property was developed in stages and by 1995, the main store was finished and connected to a 10,000-square foot greenhouse by a breezeway. Later, the team added the large annuals and perennials houses, which you can see at the store today.
The expansion continued west in the early 2000s and in July of 2004, Bob and Buddy purchased 40 acres of land in Gainesville, Virginia, with the plan to build a new, large nursery to serve the growing customer base. In October, 12 members of the Merrifield Garden Center team embarked on a week-long trip through Europe visiting garden centers and touring greenhouse manufacturers. They returned inspired to build one of the largest garden center facilities in the United States with a state of the art store and greenhouse.
Since construction for the large store would take some time, the Merrifield Garden Center team decided to open a temporary garden center on the same property in October to bring in business and help customers get used to shopping at the new location.
Merrifield Garden Center opened the state of the art greenhouse and garden center in 2008.
Buddy passed away in 2011, Bob in 2015, and Buddy’s wife, Doris in 2021. Today the Warhurst family continues to work hard to deliver the highest quality plants and gardening materials to all Merrifield Garden Center customers. All five of Bob and Billie Jean’s children, two of their spouses, all 11 grandchildren—and three of their spouses—and Bob’s youngest brother and his family are all actively working to continue the Merrifield way.
The Warhurst family is proud to carry on the legacy that their mom and dad and Buddy and Doris started 54 years ago, and they are committed to operating the business with the same principles and values that it was founded on: always keeping the focus on offering the highest quality plants and striving to make their customers happy.
