In full bloom
Baddour Garden Center’s shift to more fertile site pleases patrons
“I like plants,” said little Shands Gray Orrell, just a week shy of 3.
The Oxford tyke was perched on the cart her grandmom, Emmy Jarjoura of Senatobia, was wheeling through rows of colorful, leafy wares at the relocated Garden Center at The Baddour Center south of the Tate County seat’s downtown area.
“We’re going to plant some flowers on Good Friday,” Jarjoura, a teacher enjoying the day off, assured Shands. “We’re enjoying all the pretty f lowers here.”
But what Jarjoura, a regular customer at the center, and others especially enjoyed was its new, more spacious location to the rear of the 120-acre Baddour campus near the greenhouses.
The center opened for business April 4, with an official grand opening on Good Friday, a time of preparation for rebirth and growth.
“It’s not all bunched up,” as people and earthy products were at the former location on U.S. 51 South, said Jarjoura. “I’m so excited. They do such a good job here.”
Baddour executive director Parke Pepper, Garden Center horticulturist Linette Walters and her staff of nine residents
are glad to hear the endorsements.
Pepper said the move was decided to nurture productivity and safety for Baddour’s 150 residents across the pastoral campus.
“We needed to centralize our whole garden center operation,” said Pepper. “It just made sense to move the garden shop back here where the horticulture thumbprint is, and to get traffic away from the group home area where our residents walk or ride their bicycles or golf carts.”
Said Walters, a Batesville native who has been with Baddour for 10 years: “The best thing now, my customers won’t have to hear me say, ‘I’m growing it, but I haven’t brought it up yet’” from the greenhouse.
And the move rises from the Garden Center’s slogan, “Growing people and plants,” she and Pepper say.
“Instead of seeing only one or two residents assisting at the shop, our customer base will be able to mingle with all residents in horticulture,” said Pepper.
“And that contact is good for the residents,” said Walters. “It makes their day.”
A new driveway on the campus off Woolfolk Road leads into the Garden Center. From U. S. 51 South, turn west on Miracle Drive, which becomes Woolfolk, to access the new entrance. Pepper says signs should be up by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, plans are to remodel the former garden facility into a welcome center.
Faith-based Baddour, in its 36th year, is dedicated to providing a model resi- dential community for adults with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. Staff and volunteers strive to promote maximum growth intellectually, spiritually, physically, socially, emotionally and vocationally for residents.
“For our residents working at the greenhouses and Garden Center, it promotes concentration, responsibility, teamwork and learning there’s procedures, like fertilizing plants,” said Walters. “They learn that if they don’t treat plants like they should, those plants won’t shine.”
The residents, she added, “are family to me.”
Baddour resident Kath- leen of Tuscaloosa, Ala. — Baddour doesn’t allow release of full names — says she has done duty in the community’s occupational workshops, but she likes working in the Garden Center and greenhouses the best.
Kathleen says the colors appeal to her the most. Her favorite is purple, splashed on plum-vein petunias in mixed pots with yellow biden and red verbena.
Coming soon, hopefully starting the weekend of Mother’s Day in May, there will be learning sessions for the public at the Garden Center, said Walters.
“We’ll have people here to answer questions on lawns, shrubs and trees, and talk about and demonstrate things like planting a flower bed for the first time.”
The programs will be announced on the Baddour Garden Center page on Facebook.
The Garden Center, in operation for more than 30 years, is rooted in peoples’ lives.
“I like the friendly people here and they have beautiful plants,” said regular shopper Iva Stribling of Senatobia, a retired nurse. “It’s just a good atmosphere.”
For more information about the Garden Center or Baddour, go online to baddour.org.