As many supporters of Perry Wellness Center and Rudy’s Happy Patch Market know, the roots of the thriving gardens and market produce trace back to the backyard gardens and greenhouses of founder and CEO Stuart Perry’s childhood home. For many years, the late Tom Perry and his wife, Mary, sold plants they raised there at the family service station and store in downtown Buena Vista. Young Stuart watered and monitored the plants and began his lifelong love of gardening. 

“It is great to have that gene about plants,” Stuart says today. “I guess Mother and Dad realized the joy and business potential of fresh and colorful plants. Tom’s Standard Station (now the Gas and Go at the traffic light in Buena Vista) was a real learning experience for me.”

At the first spring visit of Rudy’s Happy Patch Market’s mobile market to Buena Vista recently, Mary Perry attended the event and dispensed plant care advice to the many customers who stopped by. 

“Geraniums love snuff and diluted Epson salt with their water,” she told one customer. “Don’t overdo it, but give them some of this along during the growing season. They will have more blooms.”

Accompanied by “Aunt Betty,” the Perry family matriarch visited with family and friends and enjoyed the collection of plants displayed for the 2019 opening of the mobile market. But she kept true to a more important mission, saying with a smile, “I used this time to remind the guys of the proper nourishment for these plants.”

Thank you, Mary Perry, for spreading the family legacy of plant care.

In the photo above, Mary Perry, seated, and Stuart, at left, chat with Aunt Betty, visiting from Albany.