Anyone who’s tried to grow a garden in Central Oregon has probably come across Linda and Sonny Stephenson and their L & S Gardens in La Pine at least once.

Hardy plants and a frank discussion about expectations are what you get when you go to Stephenson’s 2.5-acre nursery on Huntington Road. But after 29 years, on March 3, the nursery will be no more, Linda Stephenson said.

“It was the biggest decision I’ve ever made,” said the 71-year-old Linda Stephenson. “One of the big reasons we’re closing is that I couldn’t get good help.”

Another is that her knees are just not as good as they used to be, and running a nursery is a physical business, she said. Come Friday and March 3, everything in her store — including chairs, tables, wheelbarrows, nursery pots and tools — will be auctioned.

“We’re auctioning several of the buildings, lots of old signs and all of the antiques that were attached to the nursery buildings and on the ground in front of the buildings,” Stephenson wrote in an email. “Food will be available both days, including hot coffee and pie.”

Linda was born and raised in Central Oregon, where she learned to appreciate dirt under her fingernails. Much of what she knows came from her father, Buck Matson, a farmer.

The couple began the nursery business in 1990 after they purchased the land next to their home. They built a hobby-sized greenhouse so she could start plants for their yard. Stephenson said she found she liked gardening. When she started the business, it was with a small sales office and a calculator.

When she walks away next weekend, she’ll be leaving behind six greenhouses from where she sells about 15,000 pansy plants each season.

“I found it was fun,” she said. “People just don’t know what to grow here in this climate. I’ve honed in on the plants that will take the erratic fluctuation of temperatures.”

Customers could always count on Stephenson to know what plants will thrive in Deschutes County’s climate. She sold late-blooming lilacs, a special variety of fruit trees and hardy annuals, but never marigolds because they just don’t take the big temperature swings.

If Stephenson wasn’t around, hearty gardeners could find her advice in her book “Cold Climate Gardening.”

Stephenson is not only known in the community for her nursery but for her work organizing the Rhubarb Festival, held every June in La Pine. She’s working to transfer the festival responsibilities to the senior center, she said.

The store’s closure will be a loss for the community, socially and economically, said Ann Gawith, La Pine Chamber of Commerce executive director.

“It will create a huge gap in our community,” Gawith said. “There’s no doubt about it. It happens sometime that business owners get older. She carried high-quality plants that would grow in our unique area.”

Sandy Jenson, who lives in La Pine, is one of those regular customers who will miss Stephenson’s ability to diagnose plant troubles. There have been times when a plant wasn’t doing well, and she’d bring in a plastic bag with leaves from the plant for Stephenson to diagnose.

“She’s always been a great help,” Jenson said. “She gives you great information. It’s never an inconvenience.”

— Reporter; 541-633-2117, sroig@bendbulletin.com