-Farm News photo by Lori Berglund
Veteran-owned is an important part of the business at Polly’s Garden Center for Roger and Polly Hayes.

STANHOPE — Polly Hayes was happy to serve her country. She did her part for 10 years in the U.S. Navy, serving five years each in Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Long since honorably discharged, Hayes is still doing her part, making America beautiful, one plant at a time.

Polly and her husband, Roger Hayes, also a U.S. Navy veteran, opened Polly’s Garden Center on Iowa Highway 17 in Stanhope in 2020.

“Veteran Owned” is more than just a part of their shop’s welcome sign. As Polly talks about the importance of serving one’s country, it’s clear to see that it comes from the heart.

“It means everything to us,” Polly Hayes said.

Service to country runs through at least three generations in the Hayes family. Roger’s dad, the late Roger Hayes of Webster City, served eight years in the National Guard, and Roger’s and Polly’s sons, Ben and Roger III, are also Navy veterans.

“Our daughter decided to be a social worker,” Polly Hayes said. “Instead of being in the service, she paid back her community by being a social worker. We all wanted to do something for our country.”

Serving country and community

While the Navy brought Roger and Polly together while they were each stationed in Puerto Rico, Stanhope has been their home since the early 1990s. After the service, they quickly settled in and took an active part in community service. Roger is a former city council member in Stanhope, while Polly worked at the library, and they both have been active in Stanhope Lions, and many other community clubs.

Roger Hayes works full-time for Landus Co-op, while Polly Hayes operates the garden center full-time.

“We bought this building in 2019 and opened the garden center in 2020, during COVID, so it was a rocky start,” Polly Hayes recalled.

While many businesses were shut down, garden centers were exempt as agriculture is an essential service. Indeed, throughout the nation gardening took off during the pandemic as people sought a way to escape the isolation.

“I think gardening helped a lot of people during the pandemic,” Roger Hayes said. “It gave people a chance to get outside and keep moving, rather than doing nothing.”

Matching plants to people

For Polly Hayes, a Master Gardener, helping people to make their own corner of the world a little more beautiful is a passion that she believes still gives back to her community.

“My philosophy is that I try to match plants to what people are looking for,” she said. “I ask them about wind and shade. The majority of our plants are great for the wind. I try to have plants that match the person and where they are growing things.”

The small-town nature of the shop allows Polly Hayes to give her personal attention to customers.

“I enjoy visiting with people,” she said. “I’m a one-on-one person, and I have the time to do that here, to spend time with customers. It’s like a personal shopping experience. You don’t have a bunch of people or crowds.

The shop offers both perennials and annual flowers, and Hayes is happy to explain the needs of each particular plant, and how to help it bloom and thrive.

In the summer, they offer local produce in season. There are also gift items and large wood flags that are beautifully hand-made by Roger Hayes.

While spring is still here, and summer is coming fast, Polly Hayes is already looking forward to fall and the colors that season will bring to her shop.

“We are growing 1,000 fall mums this summer,” she said with anticipation. “Hopefully, we’ll also have some pumpkins and other fall items.

Polly’s Garden Center is a three-season shop, open spring, summer and fall. In the winter, Polly goes back to retirement — and being a grandmother.

“I work here full-time during the season, with a little help from Roger and grandkids,” she said. “When the season is done, I go visit grandchildren.”

Roger and Polly have seven grandchildren, ranging from 14 years old to just a few months, spread across the nation from Stanhope, to Oklahoma, and the state of Washington.

“The first six were boys, and then our daughter, Jaime, just gave us a granddaughter,” Polly Hayes said. “We are very blessed.”