After 44 years, Pescadero nursery sells off last of its potted flowers By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review December 22, 2004 After 44 years of pruning, potting and paving, Duane Meyers is pulling up the roots at his Pescadero farm, D & M Nursery. The nursery closed its doors forever on Tuesday. Remaining workers made a series of trips to the local dump to get rid of the scraps from four decades of business activity. Cyclamen reds, whites, and pinks in many shades lay interspersed throughout the interior of the nursery's main greenhouse as Meyers and crew cleared the land - for one final push. "It's like I told my wife and my mother. Tomorrow's the last day," Meyers said on Monday. "It's almost like it's crazy. The reality still hasn't set in." After so many long hours at the nursery, Meyers said "it's going to be a little bit strange" to get used to sleeping in. In 1960 Meyers and his parents built the first 20-by-20 foot structure and single greenhouse with the aid of shovels and hand-mixed cement. They didn't know then that the work would lead to decades of expansion and a livelihood. But, looking back, he and his family are proud to have built the four-and-a-quarter acre farm from the ground up. Like so many other family farms in America, D&M has seen better days. "Small business is the backbone of America and I'm just wondering now what their definition of small business is," Meyers said. Large stores such as Orchard Supply Hardware, Wal-Mart and Home Depot have really put a squeeze on small potted plant and flower suppliers like D & M Nursery, Meyers said. "It's like we're too small," he said. "What they want now is the more they can get you tied into their stores, the more control they can have over you," he said. "They're in the driver's seat." Large corporate farms and nurseries are the only suppliers that can fill the vast retail shelves available at big-box retailers which have sprouted up across the nation's once-fertile landscape, Meyers said. "It's just all the time - squeeze, squeeze, squeeze," he said. "Only the big, big, big guy can supply them." Beyond the growth of superstores, other factors played a role in the demise of D & M Nursery. "The biggest one that seemed to climb in and really knock it was after 9/11," Meyers said. Last spring was the worst sales season ever for the nursery . Once Meyers realized that even the "staples" weren't selling, he says he could see the end in sight. Standing among the remaining cyclamens, Meyers said the nursery peaked at 100,000 potted cyclamens a year. Last year it cut that number by 25,000 and this year he presided over an even deeper cut. D & M Nursery supplied to about 12 to 15 sellers at its peak, Meyers said, adding that it takes a long time to build relationships with such customers. Meyers, however, remains proud of his plants. As he spoke, he held up a salmon-colored cyclamen in full bloom. "You're not going to see anything close to this at a Wal-Mart or Home Depot," he said. Home