Owner Janice Stevenson originally operated Wackenhut Gartens out of a twelve-by-eight garden shed on Liberty Road just west of Parker. While she didn’t have a drive-up window, she did offer curb service. “I literally stood outside selling mulch and topsoil to passing trucks,” she laughs. In comparison, her new 1,500-square-foot space on Jackson Road in Lima Center feels downright spacious.
Stevenson, a perky fifty-seven-year-old with lots of laugh lines around her eyes, stills sells mulch and topsoil, along with stone, sand, rocks, boulders, and flagstone, but the extra space has allowed her to expand her stock considerably. Now it’s hard to say just what kind of store it is. It’s a full-service garden center—using the German spelling of garden—but Stevenson also now offers complete floral services. She also carries gardening tools and books, equipment for birdwatchers and butterfly enthusiasts, dragonfly candles, handcrafted furniture, ironwork, kitchenware, landscaping materials, and more. On an acre of land out back, customers can get design ideas from a number of small gardens.
And then there’s the artwork. “It’s a bit of a gallery,” says Stevenson. “Everything focuses on nature or gardening.” That includes prints, paintings, and sculptures, many of them by local artists. But the most popular item may be blown-glass birdbaths, globes, and yardarms from Jordan Valley Glassworks in northern Michigan. Stevenson admits they’re a little pricey—not to mention breakable. “A lot of people don’t want to put them out in their gardens,” she says. “They use them for decorating in their homes.”
Wackenhut Gartens, 11511 Jackson Rd., Lima Twp. 475–9088. Mon.–Sat. 9 a.m.–
6 p.m., Sun. noon–5 p.m.
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Amber Sears says opening a second Frivolities in downtown Dexter last year was a good idea—but calling it Frivolities was not. “It just got too confusing for a lot of people,” says Sears, who opened her first gift shop in Dexter Crossing six years ago. Some thought Frivolities was a chain store and refused to shop there out of principle. Others didn’t realize she owned both stores and criticized her for stealing the name. So she has changed the name of the downtown store to the Whatever Shop.
And that’s pretty much all that’s different. She’s still carrying antiques, French Country and Victorian-inspired furniture, books, rubber stamps, and holiday accessories. Sears has concentrated most of her antiques in the downtown store and most of the new merchandise in the original store.
Sears co-owns both stores with her mother, Yvonne Sears. She says they couldn’t come up with a good name for the downtown location until “One day my mom just said, ‘Let’s call it the Whatever Shop.’ And I said, ‘That’s perfect.'”
The Whatever Shop, 3207 Central, Dexter. 253–2605. Thurs.–Sat. noon–
6 p.m. Closed Sun.–Wed.
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The Polka Dot Puppy is gone, but only from Dexter. Owners Julia Kesten and Tina LaFleur closed up shop at the end of April and are selling the business to a couple who plan to relocate it to West Bloomfield Township.
Kesten and LaFleur, both in their mid-twenties, opened the Polka Dot Puppy Paw-tisserie and Boutique last year to sell specialty dog treats baked from scratch, using their own recipes and organic, all-natural ingredients. The recession took a bite out of the business, but Kesten says that’s not why they’re selling. LaFleur’s husband got a job that required her family to move to Saginaw, and what had been fun became too much work for both of them. They may continue their partnership, though. “We still own the rights to the recipes,” says Kesten. “We’re talking to a publisher about putting out a cookbook.”
