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A business natural

To Valerie Bailey, an eclectic gift shop next to her family's nursery was a natural progression.

By ELIZABETH MILLER
Published May 13, 2005

NORTH TAMPA - In a place where work crews haul hedges by the truckload, Pat Pea was shopping for a Mother's Day gift.

"I love this place," said Pea, who stumbled upon Nature's Corner while shopping at the Tree Mart for plants for her yard. "I've been here three times in the past two days."

It's a little piece of Hyde Park in the middle of industrial Nebraska Avenue, a quaint gift shop in, of all places, a commercial nursery. Nature's Corner specializes in, as the slogan says, "gifts inspired by nature."

Midway between Fowler and Fletcher avenues, Nature's Corner is very much off the beaten path.

But, owner Valerie Bailey said, "I have a lot of repeat customers who come back every so often just to see what's new."

Purses with dragonflies, suncatchers, delicate perfume bottles with silver bird tops. Soft touches of nature, accompanied by the sound of trickling water from the fountain sanctuary in the corner, make for a relaxing timeout from the harried every day.

Bailey and her husband, Scott, opened Nature's Corner in February 2004, alongside Tree Mart, a commercial landscaping nursery Scott has operated for the past 17 years.

Valerie took over the office end of Tree Mart after the two were married, while Scott tended to the plants and deliveries and customers. Along the way they settled down in North Lakes and had a daughter and a son who are now 11 and 10.

The business grew from six employees with an onsite trailer to two trailers, then three until it started to look like a mobile home park. With nearly 30 employees, it was definitely time for a real office.

And Valerie was ready to do something different.

Nature's Corner is a natural extension of the nursery. In addition to fountains and bird feeders, the shop offers quirky items such as wind chimes and decorative "danglers" for the yard or porch. Customers can browse the shop while waiting for the nursery staff to load their plants.

"Everyone who works here becomes part of the family," Valerie said. "We all sit down and eat lunch together."

Still, the place is big enough for husband and wife to go their separate ways for a good bit of the day. "He does his thing and I do mine," Valerie said. "We work well together."

Valerie took pains to make sure Nature's Corner lived up to the cozy, family-oriented vision she had in mind.

"I didn't want plastic shelves," she said. "I searched thrift shops and even the Salvation Army to get it the way it looks."

That look is not quite country, not quite traditional. The mantel, which Valerie found at the lumber yard up the road on Nebraska and painted, is formal. The painted doors that serve as a room divider, salvaged from a house being torn down, then painted, are more country.

She describes the effect as "kind of an eclectic mix. . . . I try to get things that other people don't have."

Although she offers some well-known products, such as Northern Lights candles, she also sells totem wood carvings by her brother, Martin Reinhart.

Then there's the sliced soap that shoppers can cut, choosing from an array of scents such as jasmine or oatmeal.

"Even the guys like this," Valerie said. "But they'll say it's for their wives."

[Last modified May 12, 2005, 00:28:09]