Editor’s note: After the Reporter went to print for its April 15 issue, Hopkins Nursery’s closure date was extended until the end of May. Developers decided to wait one month before starting their work.

Before Monday afternoon, the last time I visited Phyllis Hopkins at her nursery on 100th Avenue Northeast in Bothell was to interview her for a June 2005 story.

“We love being surrounded by this … it’s an extension of our lives. I don’t know what our lives would be like without this,” she told me then.

At the end of May, the nursery’s 86 years in Bothell will come to an end because developers who bought the land from the family have decided to start building houses on the 10-acre site.

As several customers walked through the nursery on Monday, business owner Phyllis appeared upbeat even though she won’t be visiting her home away from home at May’s end. But, as she looked around and moved some pots, she took it all in stride.

“It’s gonna be a nice piece, it’s gonna be big houses. I’ve seen the permits. It’s already been approved by the city of Bothell years ago,” Phyllis said. “We knew it was gonna happen for five years. But the housing market has been so down that they haven’t wanted to (build) — and all of a sudden, the first of April, we knew that we were gone.

“It’s kind of a surprise — I’m not terribly happy about it.”

Her husband’s grandfather, T.R. Hopkins, started the nursery in Seattle in 1895 and opened the business here in 1924. Five generations of Hopkins have worked at the nursery and done landscaping and yard maintenance. They earned a 1958 Plant America Award.

“I think our mission — and what we enjoy — is helping others create a beautiful landscape,” Phyllis said in 2005.

Back in the present, Phyllis noted that she’s “going to miss the customers terribly.” Hopkins landscaping and yard maintenance will continue with her “good crew,” but she won’t be involved with that.

She graduated from the Edmonds Community College horticulture program in 1979 and is looking forward to doing something else, adding that she might entertain an offer she’s received to work with the Snohomish County Master Gardener’s Program.

“If it’s not all year long. I’m not going to do 70 hours a week anymore,” she said.

After finishing her sentence, Phyllis glanced up at a sweetgum tree and a katsura tree, noting they were planted in the 1960s. They are now 50 feet tall and 30 feet tall, respectively, she said in amazement.

How long has she planted herself at Hopkins Nursery?

“Me, over 40 years … I hate to say that, see that’s one of those year things I have to tell,” she said with a hearty laugh.

Hopkins Nursery is located at 15028 100th Ave. N.E. They’re open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

Stop by and say hello to Phyllis and share a gardening story with her before they close up shop.