How to Plant and Grow a Business in Puyallup, WA
With their colorful blooms and rows of healthy green seedlings, the nurseries in Puyallup, WA, add a lot of positive energy to a town. Farming has been part of Puyallup’s history from the start, and today, Watson’s Greenhouse and Knutson Farms carry on the area’s agricultural tradition in inviting settings. To get the nitty-gritty on these nurseries in Puyallup, Livability talked to their top tillers, starting with Watson’s Greenhouse.
A Successful Business in Puyallup: Watson’s Greenhouse
Maidee Watson helped her parents launch the family business more than 40 years ago. Today, Watson’s Greenhouse has three locations around Puget Sound, selling everything from roses and rhododendrons to fruit trees, birdhouses and garden-themed gifts.
The flagship location in Puyallup even has the Terrace Café, with sandwiches, soups and N.Y. steak. Watson is now the CEO, running her company with the help of some 130 employees, including a few family members. Her son, Addison Gregory, is chief operating officer.
Your parents moved to this area in the late 1950s, and your father was a teacher. How did Watson’s Greenhouse evolve into one of the nurseries in Puyallup?
During the summers, my parents operated a U-pick bean and cucumber farm where our Puyallup store is located today. My father also maintained a few hobby greenhouses where he grew fuchsia hanging baskets. We began selling those alongside our vegetables, and over time his passion for horticulture and entrepreneurial spirit led to the founding of Watson’s Greenhouse in 1984. We often joke that Watson’s is simply the result of my dad’s hobby getting a little out of control!
Your greenhouses have become destinations, attracting visitors from around Puget Sound. How do you keep customers coming back?
We serve a broad range, from first-time gardeners and young families to seasoned plant enthusiasts, landscape professionals and home decor shoppers. Our customers are looking for ideas, education and a welcoming experience. We really look at our mixture of merchandise holistically: How do all these items fit a particular theme and work together to create something inspirational? We’re also open year-round, so we’re able to support our customers through every season. Terrace Café has allowed us to expand our events and services, like our Food & Wine Festival in July.
How has the community played a role in your family’s entrepreneurial journey?
Along with vision, hard work and perseverance, I believe success comes from building strong relationships. Over the years, we have developed trusted partnerships with our employees, customers, financial institutions and the broader community.
What tips do you have for someone thinking about opening a business in Puyallup?
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need a clear vision of where you want to go, along with a healthy dose of resilience and determination. Surround yourself with people whose strengths complement your own and give them the tools and trust they need to succeed. No business is built alone, and a strong team can make all the difference when challenges arise.
Another Top Business in Puyallup: Knutson Farms
Knutson Farms has been around for nearly a century. For most of that time, it’s been a wholesale operation, known for tulips, daffodils and rhubarb. Roger Knutson was raised on the farm his parents founded and ran it for years. In 2018, he began turning the reins over to the next generation and today, his son-in-law, Brian Anderson, manages the operation.
Brian, you married into the Knutson family in 2009. How did your background prepare you for this job?
Before I started working here in 2018, I was a health and fitness teacher, and I coached football, basketball and track. I didn’t know much, but agriculture intrigued me. I’m not a business guy or a farmer. I’m self-taught. With farming, you only get one shot a year. So, I take a lot of notes. My father-in-law, Roger, has been a huge advocate, and we have great people who have been doing this a long time. As a teacher and coach, a strength I have is empowering people to do what they’re good at doing.
What changes have you made as you’ve grown into your leadership role?
Wholesale farming is getting harder and harder. So, we looked into agritourism. I toured farms throughout Washington to see what other places were doing, and we started with a pumpkin patch in 2020. We kept the momentum going every season after that with tulips, sunflowers, the pumpkin patch and Christmas. We also added a flower shop with fresh products and local gifts. We needed to figure out different ways to generate revenue, and had we not made this shift, we would have been out of business a few years ago.
Who are your “new” customers?
Our biggest clientele is young families. It’s just a natural fit for kids. Older customers enjoy the blooming tulip fields, and we get a lot of people who like to take pictures. We decided to target a new demo – gardeners – so we started a full-on nursery this year. We want Knutson Farms to be a place the entire community wants to visit.
What sets this area apart when it comes to business opportunities?
It’s a growing community and ideal for an experience-based business. When kids are raised in communities where their houses are 10 to 15 feet from their neighbors, it’s not easy to experience crops and farm animals. So many people come through with “I remember when” stories. We just love that.
What would Grandpa Knutson say if he were here today?
The farm is so different now than when Roger and his daughters were growing up. With wholesale, there wasn’t much of a connection to the community. We’ve really embraced the community. We want to have a big presence. It’s a whole different business model. When I ask Roger, “What would your dad think?” he says, “Dad would just love people being able to enjoy this.”
