5 Questions and a Secret: Michele Thompson, third generation owner of Thompson’s Nursery in Waldport

 

Editor’s note: This is a new feature called “5 Questions and a Secret” where we will be doing bite-sized profiles of community members and asking them to answer five questions — and tell us a secret. It appears every other Wednesday.

 

By JORDAN ESSOE/Yac­­hatsNews

Michele Thompson, 50, of Waldport and her children represent the third and fourth generation of Thompsons to live on the land that her grandparents turned into a thriving rhododendron farm called Thompson’s Nursery, located just off Alsea Highway.

In the spring when their tall, permanently rooted rhododendrons are in full bloom, a Candyland-like array of color showers down from every angle. It’s another world as soon as you drive up the hill.

Michele’s grandparents bought the land in the 1950s and licensed the nursery in 1968 as a rhododendron wholesaler, eventually shipping out as many as 15,000 rhododendrons a year. They gradually opened their doors to the public and expanded their selection, especially once they became the only nursery in town after the Oregon Coast Garden Center went bankrupt in 2011 in the aftermath of a three-year recession.

Although her mother, 75, and father, 76, still help with maintenance and plant propagation, Michele took over the family business in 2008. She transitioned the nursery primarily into a retail garden center, cutting back on the wholesale side after her ex-husband went part-time to go back to school, and then left. The constant grueling physical labor of shipping large plants is too much for one person, and finding reliable help for heavy labor is a challenge.

Today Thompson’s is a celebrated community destination for anyone looking for plants that can survive the wind and salt of the ocean climate. It’s also a place where neighbors from up and down the coast can connect with each other, chat with the nursery’s volunteers, and ogle plants they may not even plan to take home.

Michele talked with YachatsNews about life, family, and plants in the nursery office on a quiet winter Saturday afternoon.

Question 1: You moved here when you were three years old. What early childhood memories do you have of living on the property?

Michele: I have the memory of moving here. That’s my youngest memory. We had a manufactured home, and it was split in half and wrapped for the move from Hillsboro. I remember not being able to get to my toys and wondering ‘Why is my house split in half, that’s not normal.’ [Laughs.] I also remember rolling skating when my dad had poured the slab of concrete for the shop. My grandfather spent a lot of time with me, too. I used to ride on the Caterpillar with him when he was making the roads. You wouldn’t be allowed to do that today. But he used to take me for rides and try to scare me going downhill.

Question 2: You have a degree in English Literature from OSU and for a time you were managing editor at a small press. Did you consider continuing to pursue that career instead of coming back to the family business?

Michele: That was fun at the time, and I learned a lot. It was hard making a living. I lived in a house with six or seven other people. You know, you’re young and much more flexible, and you can live with less. But once my ex-husband and I got married, we wanted to start a family and have a house. Hence, that’s why we switched to doing this. I always thought I could keep reading and keep writing. I wrote poetry, that was my area.

Question 3: What are three of your favorite plants?

Michele: Rhododendron Loderi, because it’s fragrant. If you’ve never smelled one, it’s a beautiful fragrance. You can’t copy it or get it in a perfume. It’s probably my favorite rhododendron altogether, and of course I have to choose at least one rhodie. Mahonia Charity, which blooms in the winter, is very important for bees and hummingbirds. It gets the most activity of any plant in the early winter. You go by it and just hear it buzzing full of bees. It’s important for pollinators and I think everyone should have one because it does a lot. Okay, that’s two. My third pick is strictly an aesthetic choice – the Himalayan blue poppy. Blue is not a color that’s available in many plants. You cannot get a true blue color in a rhododendron. You can get it in plants like sages and delphiniums – and poppies. Poppies are tissue-thin and translucent. It’s one of the prettiest flowers there is.

Question 4: What do plants understand about the world that most people don’t?

Michele: They know resilience. It’s grow or die. A lot of people will come in asking for a small plant, and they never want it to get bigger, but plants have to grow. They try to survive, as much as they can, despite everything.

Question 5: What do you do for fun?

Michele: Work. [Laughs. Pauses, thinks.] I have a road bike, and when I was younger I did a lot of road cycling. I don’t do it so much anymore. My hip’s bad. [Michele’s mother, Evelyn Thompson, enters the office.] What do I do for fun, Mom?

Evelyn: What do you do for fun? Work. [Everyone laughs.] When you’re self-employed, that’s what you do.

YachatsNews: Tell us a secret.

 Michele: One of my favorite things to do after all the customers leave is go back into my greenhouse with my dog and take care of my plants and flowers. I arrange them and make everything pretty again. At the end of the day, I find it comforting, especially if it’s been a hard day. It’s my happy place. My boyfriend might be waiting for me, but I tell him I gotta go to my happy place first.

• Jordan Essoe is a Waldport-based freelance writer who can be reached at alseajournal@gmail.com

 

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