Today we’d like to introduce you to Robyn Jacob.
Hi Robyn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in this part of Texas, and I grew up loving rural life. I’ve been raising and riding horses for almost as long as I can remember, and when I met my husband, it felt perfectly natural for me to partner with him in running his family’s feed store business in nearby Carmine.
Many years ago, we had an opportunity to expand operations by opening a second feed store here in Giddings. Our nursery actually began as a small addition to that second feed store, when we began offering tomato and pepper plants for local farmers and ranchers to pick up alongside their feed and livestock supplies. As interest in wider offerings began to grow, we added annuals and more vegetables. We eventually became a destination for both garden and landscape customers, some of whom might otherwise never have ventured into a feed store at all.
All of this really spoke to my lifelong love for plants and gardening, so it was easy for me to keep pouring more and more of myself into our lawn and garden department. To better serve our community, we continued to diversify our offerings, eventually ordering perennials, citrus, and shade trees. But before long, our modest setup at the feed store began to outgrow the available space. With inventory spilling out into the parking area, my husband and I knew it was time to expand.
So we decided to make a big leap and turn the department into its own business. We purchased the block across the street and officially launched as Giddings Nursery & Garden Center in 2022. Today, we’re proud to say that our customers–some of whom have been with us from our first days at the feed store–have made us one of central Texas’ premier destinations for live plants and gardening supplies.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road getting here hasn’t been easy. Like any growing business, we’ve made our share of mistakes, but we’ve learned every step of the way.
One of our early challenges was working with our city water supply and learning how to properly amend it to keep our plants healthy and thriving. Another hurdle was scaling our inventory—ensuring that we had enough stock readily available to meet customer demand, especially during peak seasons.
We’ve also learned the importance of sourcing locally whenever possible. From vegetables to natives, perennials, shrubs, and trees, we strive to buy from local growers because we’ve learned that this gives our customers the best chance at success–a key to their repeat business. Besides, it supports our reigional economy, and this helps us develop better vendor relationships and feel like we’re contributing something meaningful to other area businesses as well.
Staffing is another area where we’ve had to adapt. Working in a nursery is tough: It’s hot, physical work that requires genuine passion and dedication. Finding employees who can handle the demands of the job while also delivering the high level of customer service we’re known for has been a challenge, but it remains one of our top priorities.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Giddings Nursery & Garden Center?
Our nursery aims to be Lee County’s premier destination for live plants and gardening know-how. We don’t simply want to be a place where customers can find the particular plant species they’re looking for. We want to be a place where customers find inspiration and shared passion.
That’s why we strive to hire knowledgeable people and build strong alliances with area horticulture and conservation organizations. Our nursery regularly hosts free community events where customers can connect with area leaders who are all too eager to share their expertise on all things plants. Recently, for instance, we hosted a speaker who educated customers on the benefits of capturing and repurposing rainwater for their gardens.
We also believe in connecting our customers with each other through fun events like our annual Christmas celebrations–when Santa himself has been known to make an appearance–and occasional Sip n’ Shop nights, when we host live music and area food vendors for a relaxed evening out on the garden patio.
We pour considerable energy into developing strong vendor relationships so that we can have maximum selection year-round. We’re not miracle workers here, but if there’s something our customers want and it can be sourced in the area, we’ll try harder than anyone else to find it for them. We invest considerable resources into keeping our plants as healthy as they reasonably can be in our climate so that customers can buy with confidence, knowing their plants were cared for under the same conditions they’ll encounter when they get home.
And we believe in delivering exceptional customer service. We know that business at the nursery is about so much more than selling plants and garden supplies. It’s about developing relationships with our customers, building their trust so they’ll come back season after season.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I believe in delivering a memorable shopping experience for our customers. I don’t just want them to find what they were looking for. I want them to find more than they knew they were looking for when they first got here. I want them to leave feeling like they had a lot of fun wandering around and shopping at a place were our people “get” them and genuinely share their passion for plants.
We do that, of course, by offering the area’s widest variety of plants and by sourcing our plants such that we carry an extraordinary selection of native plants that are grown locally and well-suited to our climate. Our customers know that this means the plants they buy here don’t just look pretty because they’re fresh off a truck. They’ve been given the same kind of care that they expect to give them at home in their own gardens.
But more than anything, we do this by making each and every customer a priority. We can’t make everyone happy, of course, but we pride ourselves on having a knowledgeable team that knows many of our customers by name and will stop at nothing to satisfy their needs.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.giddingsnursery.com
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/GiddingsNursery
Image Credits
Johnathan Kana
