Where Christmas Is a Growth Business

When you call yourself “America’s Most Beautiful Home and Garden Center,” you’d best not kid around, especially during the holiday season.

Nestled deep within the conspicuously consumptive heart of Orange County, just a credit card’s throw from Fashion Island, is Roger’s Gardens. Considered by many the nation’s premier nursery, the seven-acre center caters to the Gold Coast’s wealthiest and most discriminating consumers, a cost-be-damned lot who regard the Corona del Mar establishment as the ultimate arbiter of home and garden decor.

Unlike chain nurseries that display merchandise on racks in militarily precise rows, Roger’s Gardens looks like a museum or finely landscaped public garden, where pathways wind among gurgling fountains, rare plantings and hanging moss baskets. Hidden speakers pump out classical music, and a barrista serves up espresso and cappuccino. Think Disneyland, not garden center, says nursery manager Roy Vanderhoff.

The center’s preoccupation with raising the bar on home aesthetics and entertainment is never more apparent than now, when Roger’s Gardens showcases its 5,000-square-foot gallery of holiday decorations -- a color-clotted swirl of 30 themed Christmas trees, glittery glass-blown ornaments, lights, life-size stuffed animals and an army of hand-painted nutcrackers.

The merchandise, which operators say is displayed in unique and creative ways that will “pull at the heartstrings,” also tug at the purse strings. Among this season’s hot sellers is a sumptuous, oversized Christmas wreath studded with silk roses and highly collectible Christopher Radko tree ornaments. The wreath sells for about $1,000.

“It’s like we can’t make them fast enough,” said Lisa Featherstone, director of marketing and advertising. “They’re gorgeous.”

Many of the ornaments are exclusive releases by designers including Radko and Larry Fraga and inspire an almost fanatical devotion among collectors.

Arranged by themes -- such as sports, babies, Santa Claus, wildlife, religious symbols and colors -- the ornaments can fetch up to $100 each.

Customers pile ornaments into wire shopping containers. Parents of young children, meanwhile, eye their charges nervously. Even a single well-placed swat by a rambunctious youngster could send several hundred dollars’ worth of glitter-painted ornaments crashing to the ground.

“We do get some breakage,” Featherstone conceded.

Among other seasonal attractions, workers string more than 100,000 lights throughout the nursery, an impressive sight in the evening.

“This is over the top,” said a goggle-eyed Jack Brenton as he wandered through a forest of Christmas tree hangings, wreaths and dolls.

A recent transplant from Hanover, Mass., Brenton was visiting the garden center for the first time last week. “I’m lost in this place,” he said.

To be sure, any of the half-million customers who will visit Roger’s Gardens between Halloween and Christmas this year can find decorations priced at well below $1,000. But the center’s reputation for expensive gifts endures.

“People see us as a high-end retailer, but we’re not necessarily just that,” Featherstone said. “We have $3.99 ornaments that look like they’re $10.99. We’re very competitive.”

A special tent offers a selection of remarkably lifelike artificial trees -- the only kind of holiday trees the nursery sells. The trees, which open and close like umbrellas, come with Christmas lights installed or without. Prices range from $95 for a 5-foot unlighted tree to $1,175 for a 12-foot, pre-lit Tahoe-style tree.

Garden operators don’t find any contradiction in the fact that one of the most well-regarded nurseries offers only artificial Christmas trees.

“For one, we really don’t have the facilities for cut trees,” said Vanderhoff, the nursery manager. “But also, a cut tree is a cut tree. There aren’t a lot of high-quality cut trees, but when it comes to artificial trees there are. We like to deal in those high-end artificial trees.”

Among customers weighing whether to buy her first artificial tree was Joan Wilcox of Newport Beach. “I’ve always had cut trees, but I live alone now and I don’t want my children to have to come down here and drag one in for me.”

Wilcox was eyeing a $225 tree but couldn’t make up her mind. “The cost is the issue. That, and I’ve always liked the smell of the real trees.”

Roger’s Gardens began offering Christmas decorations more than 20 years ago, as a means of rounding out its sales season. The nursery business is traditionally very slow between July and December, so center managers set out to make the nursery a holiday destination.

Judging by customers’ reactions, they succeeded.

“I buy quite a bit here on the holidays,” said Linda Cox as she examined a bright silk imitation poinsettia. The Huntington Beach psychotherapist said she enjoys visiting Roger’s Gardens on the holidays because it’s different from other commercial draws.

“A lot of people try to fill themselves up with things when they feel empty, and a lot of that occurs during the holidays when people are shopping,” Cox said. “For me, Roger’s Gardens is a place of serenity. It’s got beautiful gardens and lovely plants. It’s peace and tranquillity.”