Onetime 2-Person Sod Supplier Grows From the Ground Up

Nestled idyllically on a hillside dappled with 100-year-old oak trees, Sperling Nursery is proof that some customers still don’t mind paying a premium for what they consider superior service, expertise and selection.

Founded in 1971 by Joe Sperling, the privately held nursery has grown from a two-acre, two-employee sod operation to a diversified nursery and landscaping concern with about 50 employees.

“This is a wonderful nursery. We have things that you don’t find anywhere,” said Lillian Greenup, who is an original employee. “If you want cheap, you can go to Home Depot.”

Indeed, a bougainvillea in a five-gallon container costs less than five dollars at Home Depot, and nearly $25 at Sperling, and a six-pack of columbine seedlings is about $3 at Sperling--$1 more than at the big-box home improvement store.

Sperling says he carries plants, flowers and trees not available at Home Depot--or just about anywhere else in the Valley--and that they are of higher quality and are grown under optimal conditions.

For these and other reasons, he says, the nursery sells itself.

“We don’t advertise,” he said. “Everything here is word of mouth.”

Shelley Horner, a Woodland Hills family therapist, said she chose Sperling when she went shopping for a bougainvillea despite the higher price.

“I love wandering around, talking to the ladies,” she said.

Sperling credits his employees for much of the nursery’s success.

“We have specialists,” he said proudly, noting that Suzzanne Katz, who tends the greenhouse, is president of a local orchid society. “I stay out of their way.”

Although Sperling declines to disclose revenue, the robust economy of recent years has been good to the operation.

“Business is booming,” manager Liz Kimmel said. “We’re breaking records all the time.”

Kimmel said nowadays customers are buying more mature--and expensive--trees and shrubs because they don’t want to wait for things to grow. “They want it right now,” she said.

The nursery prospered even during the recession of the early ‘90s, she said, because people always want a beautiful garden. The nursery’s location in an affluent area helped too.

“People didn’t go to Europe but spent more time at home and they still wanted a beautiful garden,” she said.

Good times or bad, Sperling sells a lot of sod.

Jurgen Gramckow, president of Southland sod farm in Oxnard, said Sperling sells more of his company’s product than any independent nursery. “He’s been in the business since the industry started,” Gramckow added.

But an embarrassment of riches can have its downside when trying to fill seasonal positions.

“We are lucky to be in an affluent area,” Kimmel said, but in a community populated with movie stars and lawyers “it can be a problem finding young people who are interested in horticulture.”

The company expects employees “to work eight days a week in the spring and three or four in the winter,” Kimmel said.

The company offers health insurance and often a spring bonus to keep employees happy. “Mutual respect holds this place together,” she said.

Despite the idyllic appearance of the place, she says, it can create anxiety.