Hallmark Visitors Center
2450 Rand Blvd
Kansas City, MO 64108

Hallmark Cards, Inc. believes that when you care enough… you can change the world. That’s why they are dedicated to creating a more emotionally connected world and making a difference in the lives of others.
 

Founded in 1910 by J.C. Hall, and remaining a private company with family members on the board of directors today, Hallmark’s businesses employ approximately 27,000 worldwide and generate revenues of approximately $3.5 billion.

While Hallmark may be a much more established and larger company than your business, there are interesting similarities and philosophies. Perhaps we can gain some insight and inspiration from their vision.

The Hallmark Visitors Center is located in the Crown Center complex, in downtown Kansas City, MO – just a short ride from the hotel. It offers something for everyone. If you love history and are as fascinated by the Hallmark story as we think you will be, you'll be hard-pressed to explore it all in this quick stop.

Discover how a teenager from Nebraska tucked two shoeboxes of postcards under his arms and set out to create an iconic company in Kansas City.  More than 100 years later, this billion-dollar brand contains a diverse portfolio of businesses (Hallmark, Crayola, Crown Media Family Networks, and Crown Center) and is still privately owned and family-directed. Hallmark businesses employ approximately 27,000 worldwide. Combined with one of the world’s largest creative communities, Hallmark helps to foster a more emotionally connected world. 

Interactive displays and fascinating exhibits will give you a glimpse into the rich history and creative spirit of Hallmark. And don't miss the theatre to watch a film that showcases Hallmark’s 100+ year history.

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Family Tree Nursery - Shawnee
7036 Nieman Rd
Shawnee, KS 66203

Ron Nelson opened the Family Tree Nursery in Overland Park more than 50 years ago, and, through the years, the family business has grown, adding a production facility, a store in Liberty, and eventually the location in Shawnee in 1981. Ron’s son Eric is the current owner, and his grandsons, Jonah and Jesse, manage the three locations. Grandson Bo Nelson runs the coffee side of the business with Cafe Equinox.

Family Tree Nursery owns and operates three retail locations and one growing facility which produces annuals, hanging baskets, poinsettias, mums and perennial crops. This Nieman Road location features 5 acres with 9,000 SF garden center, a 30,000 SF greenhouse, and a 40,000 SF nursery. 

GARDENCENTER MAGAZINE ARTICLE (April 2013)

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Family Tree Nursery - Farley
8424 Farley St
Overland Park, KS 66212

Although the family is in the horticulture industry, Nelson emphasizes that they’re truly in the hospitality business. Every customer is seen as a guest, and staff members work to determine how they can best make the customer’s experience exceptional.

Ron Nelson opened the Family Tree Nursery in Overland Park more than 50 years ago. This is the original, and still largest, retail location, covering 5 acres. While this is the original, it is also still the largest retail location, covering 5 acres. Can you imagine owning a second store less than 4 miles away? 

With two production facilities in Kansas City, Kansas, Family Tree grows all of its annuals, perennials, hanging baskets, tubs, and arrangements, providing a unique product selection for customers. 

The third Family Tree Nursery location is northeast of Kansas City in a community called Liberty.

Every year the Overland Park store hosts several events, including the Annual Spring Open House – with live music, appetizers, amazing display gardens, in-store specials, and more.

SHAWNEE MAGAZINE ARTICLE (Spring/Summer 2022)

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Suburban Lawn & Garden
4 West 135^th St
Kansas City, MO 64145

Located in historic Martin City of south Kansas City, this 40-acre nursery has been a destination for gardeners and professional landscapers since 1990. Centered on a state-of-the-art 45,000 square foot greenhouse, this location features a vast selection of Suburban’s own locally grown trees, shrubs and flowers.

KCMulch.com is a valuable addition to the Suburban Lawn & Garden family. Now customers can easily reserve mulch, decorative gravels, or soils. The Lawn Care Department operates out of a facility adjacent to the Yard Waste Recycling Center and provides full-service grounds maintenance to many customers both commercial and residential. Services include mowing, turf and tree fertilization, shrub pruning and lawn renovation.

Suburban has a truck shop that maintains a fleet of 150 vehicles used for delivering our many products and transporting our lawn care crews. Also at this facility, Suburban bags the soils and mulches sold at our nurseries under the Summer Field Farms label. A three-person crew can assemble 6000 bags of mulch or soil products each day.

At the height of the Spring season, they have 420 employees ranging from cashiers to construction workers. Each Suburban employee is charged with the responsibility of performing to high standards, ensuring customer satisfaction, and providing all of our services in a friendly, helpful manner.

Since 1989, Suburban has been processing and recycling Kansas City’s organic plant waste, keeping millions of tons of waste out of landfills, and turning it into compost and mulch instead.  Regulated by the USDA, EPA and Missouri Department of Natural Resources; Suburban strives to offer the cleanest, friendliest, and most convenient Yardwaste site in the country.  This facility is open to both residential and commercial customers 7 days a week in the spring, summer and fall, and 5 days a week in the winter.

Golf carts are available to customers to make shopping the huge variety of over 25,000 different items easy.

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Suburban Lawn & Garden
10501 Roe Ave
Overland Park, KS 66207

This Overland Park location is the original location of Suburban Lawn & Garden. Open since 1965, this original “flagship” garden center doubled as the headquarters for Bill and Bo Stueck’s growing lawn and landscaping business and has been a Johnson County landmark.  As the city has grown around it, so too has the garden center.  

Colonial Gardens
27610 E Wyatt Rd
Blue Springs, MO 64014

Colonial Gardens sells flowers, trees and food. We plant, teach and celebrate all things outdoors, but most importantly, we create experiences. Here, people find solutions, inspiration and connections. We want to help people reconnect with nature. By strengthening our relationship with the earth, we can build a better future for ourselves and the planet.

Formerly Colonial Nursery, owner Tory Schwope purchased the property in February of 2016 with a vision “To reinvent the retail nursery business by introducing events, entertainment, food, and local agricultural to the traditional Garden Center business model." Colonial Gardens is a part of DCA Outdoor, a family of brands that connect the agricultural, nursery stock production, landscape distribution, retail, agritourism and transportation industries.

After a two-year renovation of the original property, the redesigned "Modern Prairie" style garden center blends the original architecture of the site into a newly created open-air courtyard, showcasing cutting-edge landscaping design techniques with a naturalized boulder wall, stone fireplace, contemporary covered stage, and luminous event space. Renovations include five remodeled greenhouses, an 11,000 square foot outdoor showroom, enlarged pond, offices, and an eco-friendly bio-swale and bio basin. A new classroom and workshop space offers educational opportunities for everyone from beginning gardeners to experts. 

There is no other place in Kansas City where you can take a class on gardening, grab a cup of coffee, listen to live music while you are eating lunch, pick out flowers and landscaping materials and even complete your grocery shopping for the week.

Colonial Gardens is comprised of 80 acres, which includes space that will be future “You Pick” fruit fields, an amphitheater, and “You Cut” flower fields. Divisions include annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs; Local market with produce, meat, cheese and dairy; The Bean Counter Café; greenhouses for fresh produce production to supply both market and café; satellite site for KAT, and Schwope’s landscape distribution company. During peak season they employ 40 people. 

GARDENCENTER MAGAZINE ARTICLE (April 2018)

GARDENCENTER MAGAZINE ARTICLE (June 2018)

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