Local Supplier Profile: Sommarstuga Gardens

By Kristie Snyder, GreenStar Staff

For Don and Darlene Schlather, the potted plants they produce at Sommarstuga Gardens represent a step toward a more viable local economy, where local suppliers’ goods can compete with products produced elsewhere. The Schlathers also hope to expand their business, now in its second year, into a destination for both drop-by visitors and overnight guests.

With careers already behind them (landscaping for Don, insurance for Darlene), the Schlathers had “wanted to sell locally for 30 years,” Don says. A visit to Darlene’s family in Sweden several years ago inspired the broader vision of a place where visitors can walk through ornamental gardens, sit by the pond, and recharge in a beautiful outdoor setting. Sommarstuga, in Swedish, refers to the colorful summer (sommar) cottages (stuga) beloved by Swedes, and more broadly to a lifestyle of warm-weather relaxation and enjoyment of local pleasures, and Don and Darlene plan to add several summer cottages to the grounds for guests who’d like to stay awhile.

For now, the nursery site in Interlaken is overflowing with the products of the greenhouse. Every available space is crammed with plants, most of them flowers, but there are some veggie starts as well. The plants are grown using organic methods and soil from Ithaca’s GreenTree Garden Supply — “good plants come from good soil,” Don says. You can find these plants for sale at GreenStar’s West End store as well as at the Trumansburg Farmers Market. Visitors to the nursery are welcome — and if you come by when Darlene is there, she’ll likely offer you a tall glass of iced tea.

It’s important to the Schlathers that the goods they produce be both sustainably produced and affordable. “We believe in organic, and use as many sustainable methods as we can incorporate,” Don says. Affordability can be challenging for small producers, but the Schlathers hope to compete with the out-of-state growers selling at big-box garden centers by finding more efficient growing methods and selling a high volume of plants at a lower profit margin. “We do this from love,” Don says. “We truly love plants. And we’re committed to providing a quality product that doesn’t just look good, but was grown well, at a price that’s affordable.”