1950
Dick and Shirley Ammon establish Ammon Landscape, Inc.
...and they lived here!
The Ammon success story began with meager beginnings. Dick and Shirley graduated together in 1948 from Erlanger Lloyd High School, where they had been sweethearts their last two years. A year later they were married and Mr. Ammon began working for Crume’s Nursery.
Dick Ammon once had a chance to get into his father’s dry cleaning business, “but I didn’t like that business very much.”
Dick Ammon once had a chance to get into his father’s dry cleaning business, “but I didn’t like that business very much.”
Shortly thereafter he attended the University of Kentucky to study floriculture. He didn’t stay long. Mr Crume told me he could teach me more at the nursery than I could pick up in school,” says Mr. Ammon. So he stayed and went to school at the University of Cincinnati part-time to study landscape design.
It didn’t take long for the Ammon family to strike out on their own. Late in 1950 he bought a truck and began peddling his landscape services door to door in the Florence area. Soon it was time to find a location for a nursery, and the Ammons decided to settle on property owned by Mr. Ammon’s father in the area of Mall Road. Of course, Mall Road wasn’t there in 1951. Neither was the interstate highway. It was farmland; far away from the little village of Florence. “We had no idea then it was going to get into that much growth,” remembers Shirley Ammon.
It turned out to be a good move in later years, but those first few years contained little indication of future fortune. The Ammons started a small family in a house trailer lcoated where part of the mall parking lot is today. “I can still picture it when it was all just horse pasture,” recalls Mr. Ammon.
1965
Dick Ammon is featured in a 1965 Christmas series published by The Kentucky Post. In the article, he provides expert advice on the care of live Christmas trees.
The business continued to grow, and the Ammons bought more and more property in the Mall Road area. “Our first big break came when Gulf bought a corner lot on (Kentucky) 18 and the road (Interstate 75/71) went through,” says Mrs. Ammon. That was back in 1965.
And all the while, Dick Ammon was learning. “I learned an awful lot over the years through experience,” he says. He learned to not only go along with the current styles in landscaping; he began to be the area’s trend-setter. “Designs in landscaping change just like clothes.” He remembers doing 30 houses in one day; hiding foundations with straight lines of shrubbery, putting in hedges to separate property lines. But his ideas of landscaping began to change.
1968
The Ammons purchase 100 acres from Vernon Pope.
The former dairy farm, near the intersection of Camp Ernst Road and Kentucky 18, now houses Ammon Nursery.
Move to Burlington, Kentucky...The Ammons live on the 100 acres they bought in 1968 from Vernon Pope. The former dairy farm, near the intersection of Camp Ernst Rd and Kentucky 18, now houses Ammon Landscape Inc., owned by Dick and Shirley; Ammon Landscape Supply, partly owned and managed by son-in-law Rick Frederick; and Ammon Wholesale Nursery, owned by son Greg Ammon. The younger Ammons and Fredericks also live on the property.
In 32 years of business, the Ammons have landscaped hundreds of Boone County homes. It’s difficult for them to drive anyplace without encountering a home they’ve done. “I’m really proud when I see a home where we’ve done our job and they’ve done theirs in taking care of the plants,” says Mr. Ammon.
1970's
Dick Ammon (far right) talks with Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, now known as KFC.
1982
The story of Dick and Shirley Ammon appears in the
Boone County Recorder.
1983
Original location of Ammon Nursery on Mall Road sells.
2013
Greg and family at a 2013 awards ceremony.
2013
Dick and Shirley at an award ceremony.
2013
Dick Ammon
In 1950, my dad started this company now called Ammon Nursery inspired by his love for nature and a desire to provide landscapers with a wider variety of quality plants. Over the years we’ve become more than just a family business – we’ve become family to our employees, friends to our customers, and rooted in our community.
Today, we continue the mission started those many years ago. We have opened our doors to retail as well as wholesale customers and are finding new ways to serve our customers better.
We’d like to invite everyone to shop at Ammon Nursery. You’ll be treated like part of the family and leave with beautiful plants!
Greg and Helen Ammon
