History of Polly’s Planting and Plucking

Yes, there is a ‘Polly’ behind Polly’s Planting & Plucking. Polly Hudson-Cummings started the company in 1983 after heading to meet some friends and noticed that the Pier’s flowers were in dire need of better care. Soon thereafter, Polly was working out of her station wagon with a wicker basket full of small tools and Polly’s Planting & Plucking was born.

Kim (Maguire) Buntin came aboard in 1984 to help Polly with her quickly growing new business. Kim acted as general manager of maintenance, scheduling, and staff training.

During those early years, the ‘Pluckers’ met at Polly’s kitchen table and drove their own vehicles.

It wasn’t long before we had the Pier looking GOOD!

After a few seasons, we needed more space; the fleet was increasing, along with the staff, to keep pace with growth. We moved to rental space in Franklin Park.

By ’95 it was time to commit to a more permanent location.

Polly constructed the office where we still operate today.

Up until this point, we still purchased the bulk of our plants from local nurseries. With our new space, we began direct-buying flowers for our garden services.

In 1996, Polly decided to retire. Kim had taken a leave of absence in 1994 to raise her young children but Polly knew she would be the right person to take over Polly’s P&P. So she turned to Kim with an offer to take on the business as owner. Kim and Bob Buntin purchased Polly’s in July of 1997.

The flowers needed a better place to live so we built our first greenhouse in the spring of 1998.

People kept seeing our vans around the area bringing beautiful flowers and asked if they could buy them.
Following the closures of several local nurseries, we decided to fill that void and open for Retail with a ribbon-cutting ceremony!

We started with flowers on a few simple benches on blocks…from you know where 😉

And a small shade house for those impatiens. Watch your head.

The early days with a simple cash register in the garage converted to our retail space.

2003 was a busy construction year. We added three retail greenhouses starting with Greenhouse #2. You can see the beginnings of Greenhouse #3 (our shade perennial house) to the right.

The ‘bones’ of GH4 going up between April (snow) showers.

We also added a shade structure to reduce the solar tax on our perennials.

Our resident artist of the day (TS) designed and painted a beautiful path through the store.

Needing more storage and vehicle parking, we added our pole barn in late 2006.

Polly’s has always been a big proponent of recycling. In 2009 we worked with Emmet County Recycling and East Jordan Plastics to host a Plant Plastic Recycling Day. In this one morning, we collected enough plant plastic (pots, trays, cell-packs, tags, etc.) to completely fill a semi-trailer. All of which went back to EJ Plastics to become new pots! Today you can recycle your plant plastic at Emmet County Recycling’s Pleasantview Rd drop-off location April 1 through November 1 annually.

Just a cool photo 😎

It was time to dress up the front parking gardens by adding a pergola.

We occasionally host groups for educational activities. This was a group of young students from Concord Academy learning how to pot their own flowers.

We look forward to seeing you at the Garden Center soon!