PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2023

sometimes exotic-looking plants in a way that made them accessible to novice gardeners. In 1998, Hornbaker was a host for the American Hosta Society Convention. Both gardens and business expanded over the next few years. From granite statuary to pottery to bedding plants, gardeners could get practical advice and the wares to make it work. For a while, the constant growth probably obscured what may have been the family-owned business’s biggest crisis: Kathy Hornbaker suffered from demen tia. Her personal contact with custom ers was a key feature of the company. “She was the most social,” Dave Hornbaker said. As her dementia progressed, the family had cards printed and offered them to those who might not understand why Kathy did not recognize them after years of patronage. “It was really painful,” said Jaggers. “She was a special person and we didn’t know how we could go on without her. But we did. We had to.” GROWTH FOR GROWING’S SAKE Over that same sad time, more shopping options, more greenhouses and more gardens were added. That included a 2.5-acre native prairie and a children’s garden in memory of Kathy, who died in 2014. By then, lushly landscaped Hornbaker Gardens was a destination. Along with plants and products, the nursery continued to add experiences. Open houses. Workshops. An artisan market. And visitors prompted the family to develop a whole new venture. “People were always asking, ‘Can we get married out here?’” Rich Hornbaker said. “We’d say, ‘Well, you can, but there’s no backup plan.’” A ‘SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP’ Irises beds gave way to a better-than backup plan, an event center called The Barn, which opened in 2015.

David Hornbaker helps customers pick out the right tree

Airy and spacious, The Barn can hold 350 people, including a banquet table and modest dance floor. The terrace and surrounding gardens have become showpieces for local materials like the massive tan boulders and Osage orange favored by hands-on designer Dave Hornbaker. Not surprisingly, visitors to the garden center discover The Barn and wedding guests discover the gardens. “It’s a definite symbiotic relationship,” Rich Hornbaker said. A HICCUP, BUT NO HOLDING BACK NOW COVID put a pause on all this growth, but didn’t stop it. The pandemic was a mixed blessing for garden centers. According to industry statistics, about 18.3 million new gardeners started digging in the dirt — a 65 percent increase in millennials and 44 percent increase in GenZ — during that time. Most nurseries were unprepared. Stocks ran out; workers were hard to come by. Hornbaker Gardens tried to keep staffers working, despite closures, which was toughest for events like weddings. But in some ways, it was like pruning back a mature plant because the new growth is so vibrant. 2022 was a big year for weddings, said Rich Hornbaker, and 2023 looks to be even bigger, with 75 weddings slated for the property so far. In the meantime, the family improved all kinds of infrastructure. The winding road out to the nursery is repaved. A point-of-sales system instituted by

CEO Molly Hornbaker Blogg — credited by all parties as the administrative mastermind here — is paying off with more responsive orders and data. The website has been updated and redesigned accordingly. “Keeping up with technology over the years is something we’ve evolved into,” Blogg said. Shifting from pen-and-paper to a point-of-sale system means you, the visitor/gardener, can peruse the perennials before you pop over from Peoria; can view hundreds of hostas in full color and sorted by size; can check out new plants and natives, trees and shrubs and aquatics — and ensure what you want is available before you arrive. The revised Hornbakergardens.com launched late last summer. Making something easy to use is often a lot of hard work. Feedback from customers this spring has proved it was worth it, said Bragg. “People are using it,” she said. “We’re excited.” Sometimes growth comes full circle. The 75 weddings scheduled for this year included one for a very special couple: Rich Hornbaker and his new wife Ann on Memorial Day weekend.

Terry Bibo is a recovering journalist who spent 45-plus years in Peoria as a reporter, editor and columnist. She now gardens, helps various volunteer groups near her home in Elmwood, and writes her books, pretty much in that order

JUNE 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE 37