After failing to find a buyer for Smith&Hawken,
parent company Scotts Miracle-Gro is shuttering all 56 stores of the
30-year-old upscale home and garden chain by the end of the year.  The
Web site is no longer taking orders.

In 2004, the Marysville, Ohio-based lawn and garden giant bought Smith & Hawken. Scotts'
decision to close the business comes after sales dropped 22 percent in
the first two quarters of the fiscal year. The closure leaves 700
employees out of work, the home and garden industry minus one
competitor and at least two entrepreneurs fairly pleased.

The San Jose Mercury News
reported that founders Dave Smith and Paul Hawken were relieved by the
announcement. "Scotts couldn't have been a worse corporate owner,”
Hawken said. "Smith & Hawken had become just a ghost of itself."

The news comes as little surprise to some in the floral
industry, especially as Smith & Hawken got further away from
selling seeds and plants.

“I’ve always believed the decorative accessory part of the product
model mix is the most volatile part of the business,” said Bill
Gouldin, president of Strange’s Florist, Greenhouses and Garden Center
in Richmond, Va. “Annuals, perennials, vegetables, flowering and
tropical plants are more stable than decorative accessories and large
ticket items, like nursery stock, that are more closely tied to the
economy and housing.”

As the movement
to spend locally — at businesses that put a premium on service — and
keep tax dollars in the community grows, mid-level chains without the
buying power of The Home Depot are finding themselves in a tough spot.

“People are considering local merchants as companies that they know and
trust,” Gouldin said, “and may be a little less enamored with the big
national corporations."