Virgin’s Nursery closing after 66 years
Virgin’s Nursery closing after 66 years Posted: Monday, January 30, 2012 6:38 pm
Business Editor A Union City institution is closing and that’s sad news for area gardeners. Virgin’s Nursery on Nailling Drive on the north side of Union City, is in the process of selling all its inventory and once that is complete the local nursery will shut down. Advertisements for a going-out-of-business sale began running in The Messenger last week. Virgin’s Nursery was started in 1946 by Marshall and Mary Virgin. The couple lived in a house at the south end of the property and had their small novelty and souvenir store located next door. A small bell would ring at the house when a customer came the store. Marshall Virgin actually started in business selling peaches door-to-door before going into the landscaping and nursery business. The Virgin family still has a framed collage of black-and-white photographs of the early days at Virgin’s Nursery. The front porch of their store was covered with pottery and concrete garden planters. Over the years, Marshall and Mary Virgin’s business grew and in 1966 their son, Gene Virgin, returned home to work at the nursery. He left a brief career as an electrical engineer with NASA in Huntsville, Ala., to go to work at his family’s nursery. Gene Virgin worked tirelessly at the family nursery he dearly loved until his death in 2004. Eva Virgin and her then husband worked long hours under the canopy, in the greenhouses and in the dirt at Virgin’s Nursery. “I’ll tell you, those first few years we were really scraping by,” Mrs. Virgin said. She said she never had to hire a babysitter since their three children grew up around the plants and flowers at the nursery. Now, the nursery is in the hands of the third generation of the family. Chris Virgin left a lucrative career at a landscaping architecture firm in Dallas, Texas, to return to his family’s business in 2001. He literally followed in his father’s footsteps. Chris Virgin has managed his family’s nursery business for the past 11 years and now is having to roll up the garden hoses and put away all the gardening supplies for one last time. It is an obviously emotional time for the Virgin family, which includes Eva Virgin. She returned to work at the nursery in 2006. Now the Virgin family is getting ready to bid farewell to a lifetime of memories as they sell off their winter stock of pottery, garden ornaments and various outdoor merchandise. The nursery is laid bare with only a handful of lawn ornaments scattered around and windchimes that produce a mournful melody as the breeze winds its way through the empty outdoor “showroom.” Indoors at the nursery, shoppers will discover tremendous bargains as prices on the nursery’s remaining stock are drastically reduced. The 10 greenhouses that are scattered throughout the nursery complex now sit empty. The greenhouses were built in phases from the early 1970s into the late 1990s. The front-end loader is still parked near the mound of mulch at the nursery. There are still plenty of candles and garden plaques and lawn ornaments indoors at Virgin’s Nursery, but not for long. The family hopes to be able to liquidate all the merchandise at the nursery within the next few weeks. After that, Virgin’s Nursery will be closed for good. Chris Virgin said he is planning to remain in Union City and hopes to put his landscaping skills to work here.
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