Sep 9, 2008

Family trees … and plants, flowers, decorations, giftsBy Jennifer VollmertCommercialAppeal.com

The Wilbanks women are the epitome of Southern hospitality, with their welcoming smiles, sweet drawls and warm hugs.

This legacy started with matriarch Willie Pearl Carter, who was murdered during a bank robbery in Lakeland in September 2000.

“One of my mother’s main goals in life was to make sure all of her family was together and happy,” said Eleanor Wilbanks.

Carter would be proud to know that all of her family are together and in business at Country Gardens Nursery and Eden’s Gift Shop, which opened in March of 2003, but soon weathered a natural disaster. Located by Agricenter International and the Farmer’s Market, it offers a wholesale and retail nursery, as well as a unique gift shop.

Micah McDaniel, nursery manager at Country Gardens Nursery and Eden Gift Shop by the Agricenter, gives the hanging plants a drink.

“It’s a business that I was made to be in,” said Lori McDaniel, 47, Wilbanks’ daughter, who owns the business with husband John McDaniel, 48. “God knitted the nest for me, so my sister and mother could be with me.”

John McDaniel found the property, and his original plans for the place were for a wholesale nursery.

Once the women saw it, plans changed.

Drawn to the nostalgia and character of the house and old red barn on the property, they envisioned a gift shop.

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