Celebrating 20 Years of Perennial Joys

Joy Andrews’ front yard garden center isn’t technically open for retail business today. Wednesdays are reserved for wholesale accounts and catching up on maintenance. But like the butterflies and bumblebees, people can’t resist stopping by to take in the riot of blooms. And Joy can’t resist breaking from her work and schedule to let them.

She chats about this plant and that, about the weather — and ends up making a few sales. It’s hard to turn anyone away once they’re there, under the seduction of so much color and delight.Offering beauty and happiness one plant at a time is her business model and her mission.

Joy started her namesake Fort Collins, Colorado nursery, Perennial Joys, twenty years ago this summer. What began as a hobby — replacing a little of her front yard’s grass with flowering plants, little by little each season — has grown into one of the town’s most unique and treasured sources for quality, regionally adapted garden plants.

Despite being well established as a local legend, it hasn’t always been a rosy path for Joy. Over two decades of growing and selling more than 700 varieties of plants from her home, she’s navigated city zoning battles, brutal winters, loss, injury, and the relentless physical demands of a one-woman operation. Urban agriculture enterprises like Joy’s are increasingly rare. According to the latest USDA data, the U.S. lost nearly 15,000 farms in 2024, with the sharpest declines among smaller operations — squeezed by zoning complexity, rising water costs, and the physical toll of going it almost entirely alone.

But Joy has persevered, and at nearly eighty years old, she plans to continue for a few more seasons. Plants make her happy. They made her mother — who helped her at the nursery until she was over 100 — happy. They make her neighbors and customers happy. A woman browsing on this Wednesday mentions she didn’t feel well, so she decided to come by. Joy understands. She knows firsthand what science is now confirming — that horticultural therapy has a measurably positive effect on mental health, with studies linking time among plants to reduced stress, improved mood, and a stronger sense of well-being.

Joy works seven days a week, handling every aspect of her business on her own. When asked what her favorite flower is, she says anything that’s blooming. You can visit Joy and all that’s blooming at Perennial Joys — Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 9am to 4pm.