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VERONA-CEDAR GROVE
2-minute read
NorthJersey.com
The Cedar Grove Garden Center shuttered in March after serving its surrounding communities for 75 years as a family-owned business.
"The Garden Center was the product of five generations of the Cox family in the nursery business," stated Stacey Cox Slowinski, sister to the business' final owner Ted Cox Jr., who made the difficult decision to shutter upon his decision to retire.
"It's a lot of hours being a farmer," Ted Jr. said on Tuesday, noting plants require a lot of devotion and care.
After 50 years in the business, he looks forward to doing more with his life: "I want to spend time with my family."
The Coxes' nascent beginnings with farming and lawncare date back to 1869, when the family's patriarch, James Thomas Cox, emigrated from England and soon took up work as a gardener at Paterson's Ryle Estate, a job he held for 40 years.
James' son, Philip Cox, opened a nursery at 39 Alexander Ave in Montclair in 1929. All the while, his brother, Theodore Francis Cox, farmed the plot of land in Cedar Grove that his son Theodore Fredricks Cox opened as a retail Garden Center in 1950.
"There weren't many garden centers back then, it was a different time," Ted Jr. said.
Over the next 75 years, the center remained under ownership of the Cox family and provided gardening products and landscaping services to residents and professionals across Essex County.
Upon the death of Theodore Fredricks Cox in 2010, his son, Ted Jr., took ownership of the business. Ted Jr. was an easy choice after operating the garden center in partnership with his father since 1975. The March 1 closure marked the end of Ted Jr.'s five-decade run in the business.
"I can't drive down a street in Montclair and not see a tree that I planted," Ted Jr. said.
Members of surrounding communities left an outpouring of well wishes to the Cox family on the Garden Center's Facebook page and expressed sadness that the business had to shutter.
Among them was Verona Park Conservancy President Charles Heyer, who said ? over the past 15 years ? his organization has purchased approximately 100 trees and shrubs from the center to replace dying flora or provide newly planted shade along the park's walking paths.
"It’s a shame," Heyer said during an interview. Now, the conservancy must find a new vendor, he added, although the Cox's service won't be easily replicated: "It was local and easy."