Please join the Prince George’s County Historical Society’s April 22, 2024, History Chat with Stephanie Fleming and Donna Schneider as we chat about the history of Behnke’s Nurseries on Zoom at 7 PM.
Registration details follow.
Stephanie Fleming was raised at Behnke’s Nurseries in Beltsville. Her mom, Sonja, was one of Albert & Rose Behnke’s four children. She was weeding from the moment she could walk and hiding as soon as she was old enough to run—so many weeds, so little time. Although she quickly learned how to pull out a perennial and was excused from weed pulling duty.
When Sonja and her family moved away from Beltsville, Stephanie again found herself working for Walnut Springs Nursery, a wholesale grower in Howard County, Maryland. It was here that she met her husband, Jon. Together they opened their own wholesale nursery, The Hillside Nursery. They were well known for supplying many garden centers and landscapers around the area with their annuals, pansies, mums, and poinsettias. They operated for 27 years while raising their two children.
In 2007, Stephanie came to Behnke’s to work full-time. Jon and Stephanie realized that the 80-hour-a-week lifestyle of greenhouse growers was more romantic in your twenties and thirties than in your fifties. Stephanie served as Vice President of Behnke Nurseries until the nursery closed in 2019. During this time, she was the buyer for the Christmas Shop and was a marketing/advertising team member.
Faced with the bittersweet decision to close the iconic 89-year-old garden center, Stephanie decided to rebrand Behnke’s. Thus, Beyond Behnke’s was born, a new chapter where she can share her passion for Independent Garden Centers while keeping the gardening content from Behnke’s website through her weekly blog and email, offering unique online gifts, and attending many local craft shows and events.
You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Apr 22, 2024 7:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUodu6grTorEtNk6r7NUiz7K-LCKE6utFYp
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.