Celebrating 50 Years: Ferguson’s Garden Center
This spring marks a major milestone for Ferguson’s as the family-owned business celebrates 50 years of serving the community. Started by Ken Ferguson in 1976, Ferguson’s Garden Center is now owned by his daughter Renee and her husband Chris. Follow their social media for more information on events, specials and memories of the past 50 years.
The love of making something beautiful and sustainable led Ken Ferguson down a path he never imagined. Growing up south of Terril, Ken helped his dad with landscaping around their home, planting trees and shrubs throughout the property. This led him to future employment opportunities and eventually the opening of Ferguson’s Landscaping. Landscaping. After originally opening in 1976, south of Terril, Ken moved it into Spirit Lake in 1980. The Garden Center was later built in 1985.
“When my dad bought the property along Highway 71, there was nothing in this area and he never guessed how the area would grow in the next 10-20 years,” said Renee Quance, Ken’s daughter and now owner of Ferguson’s Garden Center, along with her husband Chris. “We are so thankful he made that decision 50 years ago.”
Celebrating 50 years is a momentous occasion, worthy of an enormous party and exactly what Ferguson’s Garden Center is planning for 2026. “We are excited to celebrate this major milestone with our customers this year, especially this summer, when we have special events and deals,” Renee shared. “The big 50-year anniversary celebration will take place on Friday, June 26.”
The Love of the Greens
Several years ago, Ken found a picture of himself helping his dad. They were installing a windbreak at the farm and adding landscape around the house. He learned hard work but also the love of the land from his father. At age 15, Ken began working at Brooks Golf Course, mowing the greens. “We started at 7 a.m. and mowed until 3 p.m., seven days a week,” he remembered. “We also did different landscaping projects, making $1.35 an hour. We got a ten-cent raise every year.”
In 1963, he helped put in sod at the Holiday Inn, which is where the AmericInn is today.
After graduation, Ken went onto receive his horticulture degree from Iowa State University, working his summers landscaping and maintaining a sod farm in Forest City. He also met his wife Cherie in Ames, with their marriage taking place in 1972.
“I went back home and told my dad we needed to grow sod, and it didn’t take long for me to start selling sod and putting it in around the area,” Ken said.
They put the land into a diverted acres farm program, worked the soil and seeded it into sod. Ken spent many hours mowing the sod, and a year later, the grass was ready to be cut. At the time, he was also landscaping for Del’s Garden Center and then would come home in the evenings to harvest the sod. He said on Saturdays, people would show up to the farm to purchase the sod and he also did some landscaping on the side.
In spring 1976, he had so many jobs lined up in the Iowa Great Lakes that several clients convinced him to start on his own. Close friends Gary Fisk and Roger Ruble joined him in the business. His first job was Phyllis Currell, and every year since, the Currell’s have hired Ferguson’s for a project.
Over the 50 years, Ken said one of the best technological devices to enter his world was the cell phone, “You would start at a job and couldn’t make a phone call until evening. When you have multiple crews working, you’d go check up on them and then you couldn’t find them. It was hard to run a business without a cell phone. I was so thankful for the invention.”
Ferguson's Garden Center
In 1985, Ken and Cherie opened the garden center, under the leadership of Gary Fisk. Initially, Ken never imagined adding a greenhouse. But this changed as time passed. “Gary thought we should have greenhouses, plus our customers were telling us that we needed bedding plants and all of the gardening things,” he added. “I’m so thankful for Gary and Roger and so many employees we had over the years.”
Today, Ferguson’s Garden Center has 10 greenhouses and fills them every spring with a wide variety of annuals, perennials, houseplants and trees.
One of Ken’s favorite memories is when the large wooden tree sign went up in front of the store, a project that he designed and created with help from a few friends. “Obviously, with landscaping, we planted a lot of trees and I wanted a sign that would make a splash. When we were landscaping at Brooks Golf Course, they were tearing down a sign and I realized that I could reuse their metal for the framing of the tree,” he remembered. “It is one of my favorite memories when that sign went up in 1997.”
As Ken looks back over 50 years, he is most thankful for the many clients that later became good friends. He also is thankful for the time he had guiding current landscapers like Steve Hassel, Mark Kramer, and Troy Tolman, among others.
“They maybe didn’t appreciate me back then but they tell me now how thankful they are today,” Ken said.
More importantly, Ken loved being able to pass on different aspects of his business to his kids, as Ryan Ferguson oversees the landscaping side, while Chris and Renee purchased the retail portion of Ferguson’s Landscape in November 2007 and renamed it Ferguson’s Garden Center.
“I love seeing my kids being successful in the business and now Delaney (Quance) is the third generation actively involved in the business, just like Renee was when Cherie and I were wanting to be away a little more. It is so special,” he added.
Today, when Ken’s in the area, he spends time helping Ryan at a landscaping job or stopping in at the nursery to see Renee, but most of all, he’s most excited that his family is carrying on the family tradition.
Passing the Baton
Members of the family have grown up learning hard work and character from Ken and Cherie. Renee remembers days of deheading geraniums and Delaney has many memories of pulling weeds.
Ferguson’s Garden Center is a family-owned gardener’s haven managed by gardening experts.
Year-round, Ferguson’s Garden Center features houseplants, pottery and succulents. In the warmer months, the staff oversees a large nursery and numerous greenhouses filled with beautiful, colorful annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs.
“Barb Fuelberth (nursery manager) and Bonnie Boetel (greenhouse manager) are very passionate about researching on what plants to get, which ones to grow and how we can always improve,” Renee said. “Every year, we add new colors and varieties of annuals and perennials.”
Ferguson’s Garden Center continues to grow more annuals in-house, starting the cuttings’ process in January. Greenhouses begin to be fully stocked in April and May. Delaney said in 2026, there is an exciting new Dipladenia color and new varieties of allium. “Plus, the trends in Petunias are the combination of green and purple and yellow blending into pink,” she added.
Growing up, neither Renee or Delaney saw themselves being heavily involved with the garden center after graduation. Renee had plans to work within the fashion world and own her own clothing store. “My dad was very persuasive and said you should consider,” she said. “Then I fell in love with it and I’m so glad I made this decision.”
Delaney was similar, as she worked in the corporate world for a year after college and found she missed being at the nursery. “One weekend I came home and realized I missed being here. I never imagined working for my parents but I’m thankful they offered me a job,” she shared.
Renee appreciates Delaney’s fresh new ideas and desire to make Ferguson’s more relevant and the place to visit, whether it is organizing community events, starting garden clubs, or providing teaching opportunities. Delaney helped create Ferguson’s Season Swap Program that provides beautiful drop-in planters delivered for each season.
“We want to pass on our love of plants to the next generation, as a family, but also to our community,” she said. “We want to evolve to be what our customers want us to be.”
This is why you are invited to a huge celebration this summer! Ferguson’s is turning 50 years old!
Follow social media for more details, but don’t miss their Spring Open House on April 25 and the 50th Anniversary Celebration on June 26. Located on Highway 71, under the giant shade tree, find all your gardening needs this spring. Call 712-336-2085 for more details or visit fergusonsgardencenter.com