By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com
No cellphone service. No cash machine. No bar-coded price stickers. No asphalt parking lot.
At first glance, it might seem that the Yaquina Nursery is notable for its lack of modern retail features. But by the time you cruise the 10-mile drive up Yachats River Road from U.S, Highway 101, you’re primed for the green serenity of the 31-acre operation.
You might be greeted by a chicken or two. You might hear a parrot through an open window in the owners’ triple-wide manufactured home call out, “Buy some cactus. Ouch — stickers!” You might hear their Chihuahua mix dog bark in response.
Or you might just stand and listen to … nothing.
Not a sound until you edge closer to the greenhouses and hear the faint drone of electric fans, circulating air around the legion of colorful cacti and succulent plants inside.
On any day of the week, chances are you’ll be met by either Gerry (Geraldine) or Roy Foss, the owners of Yaquina Nursery. Married for almost 40 years (she’s 83, he’s 85), they run a thriving business with both wholesale and retail customers, thanks to killer work ethics (they both work the nursery every day; it’s open every single day), a passion for plants, and an obvious love for each other.
“We sell 100 flats a week; we can’t grow enough” to meet the demand, says Gerry Foss, referring to the square plastic trays that hold their potted cacti and succulents. Every week, they make deliveries to the Portland Flower Market, New Seasons Market in Portland and other wholesale customers. Other customers come from Salem and Eugene to make their purchases.
Running the business is “a lot of hard work,” Roy Foss says, but “it’s a good business.”
“We don’t owe anything to anybody, we have everything paid for. Things are good now.”
Getting started along Yaquina Bay
Things weren’t always good, especially in the early years on Yaquina Bay in Newport. That’s where Roy Foss and his first wife began their adventure in plants with $600 in seeds on a site along Oregon Highway 20.
They started with a 20- by 24-foot greenhouse, and thought, “We’ll never be able to fill that up.” Not long after, they wondered, “Where are we gonna put all these plants?”
Foss remembers those days as a time when “you went to a nursery to get plants. Grocery stores didn’t carry plants; neither did lumber stores. You come to a nursery like ours and get information about the plants instead of hearing a price tag go ‘beep’ over the conveyor belt at the check-out.”
After his first wife’s death, Roy was visiting an aunt in Harlem, Mont. — Gerry’s hometown — where their romance blossomed.
“We were all friends growing up in Harlem on a farm,” recalls Gerry Foss, speaking of Roy’s summer visits to his aunt. “I didn’t see him for 27 years, and then one day his aunt told me that Roy was in town and his wife had passed.”
Although Yaquina Nursery now has space for an army of check-out conveyor belts, there’s still no beeping going on. Hand-lettered pieces of paper give a guide to prices — from $2.55 for a two-inch pot of cactus or succulent, up to a top end of about $50 (but rare or unusual specimens are priced on request). There are three greenhouses — 200 feet, 100 feet and 50 feet long — and an additional 100-footer waiting to be put up.
The Fosses have come a long way from Yaquina Bay, literally and figuratively. She has journeyed farther, from Montana; he is a born-and-raised Oregonian. At first, the nursery offered bedding plants like petunias and marigolds; gradually, it began to meet the emerging demand for succulents and cacti.
“You forget to water petunias and marigolds, they die,” said Roy Foss. “If cacti and succulents don’t get water for two-three days, they ain’t dead.”
The move to Yachats River valley
After decades doing business in Newport, they learned of the big parcel for sale in the Yachats River valley, and went for it.
“Up here, it’s nice and quiet, the water’s wonderful and it’s warmer,” said Gerry Foss. “We love the plants, making cuttings, watching ‘em grow. It’s relaxing.”
That relaxed state sometimes extends to getting paid on the spot for their hard work.
“When brand new people come here, some of them say, ‘I don’t have cash or checks’,” says Gerry Foss, the only forms of payment Yaquina Nursery accepts. “I say ‘Send me a check’ — and they do.”
Roy Foss chimes in “… and right away. Lots of times, they send a thank-you note, too.”
“I haven’t seen much bad side of people who come and buy plants — they’re better people, I think,” Roy Foss says.
There was a customer from The Dalles who selected about $400 worth of plants, and assumed he could pay with a credit card. “I didn’t even know him—and by God, he sent me a check.”
Still, it’s advisable to have checks or cash on hand when visiting Yaquina Nursery. “If somebody comes in and it’s almost dark and they’ve got money, I’m happy to sell to them,” says Gerry Foss. “A guy from Eugene came in one afternoon, and he was still here at 11 at night. He said he’d leave if we wanted, and I said ‘No, honey, you can look as long as you want to.’ ”
For the most part, though, the nursery opens around 9 a.m., and tends to close around 6 p.m. — “Right, sweetie?” Gerry Foss confirms with her husband.
That gives the couple a few hours of down time, and then to bed — “After ‘The Price Is Right.’ ”
When asked to pose in front of their big sign out front, the couple needed no cues for what to do: Roy put his arm around Gerry, and she rested her head on his shoulder.
To experience the charm and plant diversity of Yaquina Nursery is in person, 10 scenic, curvy miles to 9724 Yachats River Road. Don’t look for a website; there isn’t one.
“We’re the wrong generation for that,” says Roy Foss. “If you do business on the Internet, you’ve gotta be inside looking at the computer all the time. We’d rather be outside working with the plants.”
- Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com
