Glass Gardens NW's Blog

Hello my blog post followers. It’s Barbara Sanderson writing this to you today.

I spent a few days last week at the Northwest Flower & Garden show helping friends to create their show garden and to represent a common pollinator in their Bug’s Life themed garden (picture above). It was so nice to be able to finally attend the show and have time to take pictures, shop and attend seminars for the first time in 15 years. While I loved having a booth at the show it was always frustrating to not be able to have time outside the booth to fully enjoy the show’s offerings.

It was also nice to run into several of you during my time at the show and answer your many questions about the status of Glass Gardens NW.  I realized that I should probably update everyone I can through this blog and email on happenings since the sale was finalized at the end June last year.

In deciding to sell Glass Gardens NW I wanted to make sure that the business and all of my designs would continue to be available to anyone interested in adding to their collections. I also had many wholesale customers who wanted assurances that items would continue to be available to them to sell in their stores and nurseries across North America.

As many of you are already aware, that is no longer the case. Due to impending legal proceedings I cannot go into much detail about what happened but rest assured I did everything in my power to provide help and assistance to the new owners to ease the transition phase. Despite my frequent offers of help, after the first couple of weeks of July they no longer wanted my help, refused to listen to my advice and stopped communicating with me. Apparently they have stopped communicating with many of you as well.

To say the last 6 months have been emotionally difficult for me is a gross understatement. I have witnessed the death of my “baby” despite taking great pains to structure the sale to ensure a successful transition. These efforts included an agreement to finance the sale and laid out the terms of my availability to help with production of existing designs and product.

In the past few months, it appears that the company website and online store was taken down and the business phone number disconnected. Washington State Department of Revenue recently reached out to me looking for the new owner’s contact information since they have apparently failed to pay their quarterly sales tax and are now in arrears with the state.

The buyers stopped making their contractual payments to me two months after taking possession of the business. Since the loan to buy the business was guaranteed by a family member in Mississippi, legal action is being pursued there. Hopefully there will be a resolution before summer.

Despite all of that bad news, I have been blessed for the first time in many years to have the luxury of time for myself. I have gotten used to having no strict daily routine and I thoroughly enjoyed last fall in my garden with Ginger. This is the first spring that I will have all the time I want to spend in my garden and gosh knows it’s needed out there!

When I sold the business my plan was to take a couple of months off, take a celebratory road trip and then start researching and planning my next business ideas. I am living on a meager budget at this time since I have no income or ability to create income yet. But I am working on new business ideas and spending my time taking courses in web and graphic design which has always been of interest to me. The celebration and road trip will have to wait until the lawsuit is finished but I am looking forward to that time.

new beginnings

In the meantime I have been asked by a couple of my friends to be a sales representative for their garden products. I am eager to use my existing contacts from Glass Gardens days to help promote these small independent women owned businesses and help expand their customer bases. One is Eco-Lawn, an extremely drought tolerant grass seed mix. It is easy to grow in any soil or light condition, requires no fertilizer and very little water once established. It is also very slow growing so mowing is rarely needed if at all (unmowed Eco-Lawn looks great in yards).

 

The other product is created by my friend Annie Haven. She is a female rancher in California who creates Authentic Haven Brand Moo Poo tea fertilizer. I have used her products for years with great success in my flower, bulb and vegetable gardens.

If you have a favorite nursery in the greater northwest region and would like to see either of these products at your local nursery please send me a note and I will contact them.

I hope to see you at future garden openings and plant sales this spring and summer since I miss you all. Thanks once more for all of your support over the years. I am sorry that things did not continue as planned, hoped and expected but I look forward to one day visiting a hotshop somewhere and play with glass for fun. In the meantime my personal glass website remains: Barbara Sanderson Glass . You can also reach me through my new personal email (barbthecanuck@gmail.com) or by phone at (425)375-1423.

Take care everyone and happy spring to you!