If the daylilies are left uncut they will provide the backdrop of color, enabling you to cut the annuals regularly. And if they're successful with what they've bought, they'll tell someone else. Nowadays, mail-order sales account for about 20 percent of Olallie's business. No one knows how many visits the catalogue generates. Roughly half of Olallie's customers come from within an hour's drive.
Many visitors return year after year.
And because our catalogue presents us as a family growing plants, many people feel that they know us already when they come. And I think the people who visit us get to take a little bit of that home with them, too. On busy days, Dan Darrow will fill in at the cash register. Ellen will wander through the fields talking with the customers, or entertain the children with projects and make-believe. Though Amelia and Chris are involved in every aspect of the nursery, Amelia technically runs the business end, managing staff, planning events, overseeing the mailing list.