The
Published Monthly
Morrisville & Preston
ress
Morrisville, N.C.
September 27,199a
Greenhouse eyes expansion
for orchid ‘recycling’ service
READY TO GO HOME — Nat Carson and his
daughter, Carolyn Schuldt, study a customer's
flowering dendrobium orchid. Patrons of their
business, Bloomin’ Orchids, may bring their
plants back when they stop flowering and the
staff will care for them until they flower again.
ByBethLandi
"Fifteen years ago the only way
to buy orchids in the Triangle area
was through mail order," Nathan
Carson said from the porch of his
office at 402 Church St.
The owner of Bloomin’ Orchids,
known tt) most as Nat, ux* a mo
ment during a recent rainy morning
to reflea on the growth of the fam
ily business begun 13 years ago.
"Orchids are nature’s largest and
most extravagant family of plants,"
he remarked. "And I thought it was
ridiculous that many people in this
area didn’t know much about the
plants."
Carson, who lives in Cary with
his wife Marian, had been growing
orchids in his home for nearly 20
years when he deaded it was time
to introduce the plants to others in
the area. And i^q)arently they were
ready for the introduction.
Bloomin’ Orchids has steadily
grown smce it was started in a
backyard greenhouse in 1982. And
now Carson wants to purchase the
adjacent property at 410 Church Sl
to expand the business for the
fourth time.
The Morrisville Board of Com
missioners has set a public hearing
for OcL 9 m coisider rezoning that
property from Low Density
Residential to Village C(xe. Carson
plans to retain the two-story bouse
on the property and add four to five
greenhouses behind it
"We’ll start with one or two
greenhouses," Carson said. "But [if
the rezoning goes through] we’re
looking at Ime winter or early
spring before anything significait
can hai^n there."
Carson said he doesn’t anticipate
any problem with the rezoning.
There were no objections to a
similar request when he moved the
business to Morrisville in 1989.
The current operation includes a
one-story house used as an office
and four 30-by-96-foot green
houses.
"Morrisville has been a good ex
perience for us," he said. "And I
think we’ve been good for the
town. I’ve g(M 6,000 custaners and
they come in several times a year.
They’d be much less likely to pay
[Morrisville] a visit if we weren’t
here, if they didn’t have plants
here."
"Having plants there" is one rea
son the business has been so suc
cessful. Customers who buy or
chids from Bloomin’ Orchids not
only take home colcnful adftitions
to their homes, they also know they
can take advantage of a unique ser-
Nice. For a minimal fee, customers
may retuni their orchids to the
company once the flowos have
faded and the staff at Bloomin’ Or-
Soe GREENHOUSE, page 2
Old houses
make good
neighbors
By Roxanne Powers
In ITeston Crossing, residents of
the upscale neighborhood keep one
foot in the past simply by waking
up every moming...to the sound of
roosters crowing, that is, and
peacocks, turkeys, guinea bens,
chickens...well, you get the picture.
If residents of Preston Crossing
want to add to their nostalgic feel
ings about the land behind their
homes, they can ask neighbor
Koren Brickley. "Ifsjust like being
at home," she says. "That’s one rea
son we picked this lot"
Nei^bOT Bill Kraus agrees. "I
think it’s wonderful back thCTe...the
old and the new. It’s nice, and
hopefully it’s not going away."
Kraus likely will get bis wish.
According to Mrs. Annie Barbee,
who owns the land and fowl behind
him, she and her heirs have no in
tention of abandoning this parcel of
land.
In addition to hearing sounds of
the farm in 1995, one can imagine
what it was like in the early part of
the century. Back then, snatches of
conversations flew fnnn behind
fluttering hand-held hand fans
fristor than the small breezes they
were intended to generate.
"Well I nevCT! You’d think it’d
be enough to copy each other’s bats
and furniture! That Lilia and
Myrtie will stop at nothin’!"
The castigating sounds of ladies’
voices seem to echo and rever
berate as they ride decades-old air
waves to hover over the approxi
mately 120 acres of what was
originally a tobacco farm occupied
by several genaations of the Ed
wards family
Edwards family lore has it that
See OLD, page 2
Mansion-like
offices posed
for Preston
iii
fi:
* ’
■*' •
HOW IT IS TODAY—Blanche Buffaloe Edwards,
a retired school teacher and the widow of Willie
Lee Edwards, lives in the two-story house on
Davis Drive that was once part of a sprawling
260 acre tobacco farm. A smaller farm continues
to operate around the house.
By Ron Page
Seven more buildings, each
designed with stylishly Southern
extaiors, are planned for a 12-acre
tract in Preston off Summer T
Drive and High House Road. The
site Is to the rear of First Citizens
Bank and Jaspers Restaurant
The area is a part of a 44-acTe
parcel of land that encompasses
Preston Comers—where High
House Road intersects with Cary
Parkway—and which already in
cludes the new Preston Village
Shopping Center, banks and other
business enterprises.
The location for the prqxjsed
buildings abuts The Highlands golf
course of Prestonwood Country
Club but is buffered from the
course by a 50- to 70-foot-wide
swath of dense woodlands. Other
access roads to the building sites
will be available off Cary Parkway,
north of High House and opposite
the Deerwood at Preston ^jartment
complex.
"The buildings have been
designed as Southern mansions,"
says Woody Byrd, bn*er with The
Prop^es Group, Inc., which is
negotiating leases for several of the
two-story buildings. A series of
connecting parking lots will tie the
ovaall office complex together, he
e]q)lains.
Site plans for two of the build
ings, prepared by Withers &
Raveoel l^gineering and Survey
ing, Inc. of Cary, were submitted
recently to the Town of Cary. They
show one building with 15,572
square feet and the other with
15,400 square feet of space.
Cary Administrative Planner Bob
Benfield explains that since the
projea covers less than 10 acres
(L7 acres comprise the site for the
two buildings), the site plans can
ronain with the staff and can be ap
proved without going to the Plan
ning Board if all conditions are ad
dressed.
To be known as Preston Execu
tive Center, the two buildings
would be owned by Preston
Comers Liability Inc., and would
be located at a site zoned
Residential-30 PUD (planned unit
develq)ment).
Five to seven tenants are ex
pected to be served by each strac-
ture. The architect is Robert
Wakeham of Raleigh.
"Special care has been given to
the exteriors to give the ^)pearance
of large residential mansions.
Stucco and brick will be used,"
says B^. "While the Iniffer of
woods is dense, the architectural
(XHnmittee which governs all of the
development at Preston wanted to
be certain that the buildings would
blend in with the neighborbcxxl,
that they would project an ap
pearance of elegance when viewed
frran the golf course and hones
along the course."
One building plan shows two
sweeping exterior stairways for ac
cess to the second floor from the
golf course side.
Byrd said six of the seven
planned stractures will abut the
buffer area to die golf course. The
one farthest north is to be a medical
facili^, and will be operated as a
S«e MANSION, page 2
Kissing couple clinches national competition
AND THE WINNERS ARE — Scott Johnson and Laura Ferguson,
currently the nxist romantic kissers in the country, pose from the
back of the pickup truck they \won in a national kissing contest.
ByBethLandi
Morrisville may be known for
many things, but romance is not
usually among them.
Yet, residing in the Treybrooke
apartment community off Church
Street is half of the couple named
this year’s most romantic kissers in
the country.
"All the publicity said we were
from Raleigh,” says Laura
Ferguson who, with her boyfriend
Stott Johnson, won the title in
April. "But I live in Morrisville."
The [Niblicity began when the two
won a kissing contest at The Long-
branch nightclub in Raleigh,
sponsored by the Kix 96.1 radio
station.
"I really didn’t want to go ... to
be in some old kissing contest,"
recalls Johnson, a construction con-
traaor who lives in Raleigh.
"But when we got iqi there and
kissed and hugged, it just seemed
natural. It was Valentine’s night
and love was in the air."
The two competed against three
other couples; each had to kiss for
one minute. And when it was all
over, Feiguson and Johnson had
won the chance to represent the
Raleigh area in a national contest
From thoe it was on to Branson,
Mo. Sponsored TV’s A Current
Affair, the national competition
pitted 19 couples fran across the
country against each other in a na
tionally televised contest. Judges
included members of the Branson
Chamber of Commerce.
"I knew we woe going to win
th^ contest" Ferguson says. She
recounts the signs that reinforced
her conviction: they were the 13th
couple in the contest; their hotel
room was No. 213. And when
Ferguson picked up a small bo(* in
a gift shop, she casually flipped to a-
^e with this verse; If an angel
woe to tell us anydiing of his phi
losophy, I believe many proposi
tions would samd like two times
two equals 13."
"I knew these bad to be good
omens," she recalls.
The good omens may have
helped them win the contest but
the fact (bat Johnson proposed dur
ing their time on stage might have
been the deciding factO’ for the
judges.
"I wasn’t expecting that at all,"
See KISSING, page 2
Delivered expressly
to the residents of
Morrisville and Preston