One of the early handmade products was our apple wreath. Julian, being the apple capital of San Diego County, was a great location for the sale of this item. Sherry Horton, the proprietor, spent a lot of time perfecting the slicing, construction and scenting of the wreath. The wreaths were for sale in the store and soon others were asking if they could carry the wreaths. This planted the seed (apple?) to start a wholesale side of the business.
In addition to the apple wreaths, orange wreaths and potpourri were products created at our home for the store. The store was generally open Friday through Sunday in the fall and selected weekends in the spring, mostly because Sherry still had another job. In 1997, Sherry started to make the American Gardener a full time endeavor. In addition to improving the shop, the wholesale side of the business was expanded. This expansion has included going to trade shows, setting up a web page and seeking out stores that are interested in our products. Additionally, new products have been added to our list. But one thing has remained - we only make products that we feel you our customer will enjoy, made of quality ingredients and also a pleasure to use. Be it an apple wreath, potpourri, our hand salves or creams or one of our clothing items, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
In September 2000, we opened our store on Main Street. We kept the tin shed for awhile, but the "new" American Gardener kept us so busy that we could hardly staff and stock the "Tin Shed." We had two weeks to fix up the "new" location, often working until 2:00 am painting, cleaning and setting up displays. We opened and were off and running. It would still be a month before we would get our signs approved and made, but that did not seem to hurt business one bit.
In 2002, two major events occurred in the growth of the company. The purchase of property for the wholesale office and warehouse also came with a second building ideal for another retail location in Julian. September saw "Oakwood Creek " open. About this same time, the evolution of American Gardener to E. Barrett & Company took place. As the American Gardener has grown, so have our product lines. The name was very fitting for our wreaths, potpourris and even our lotions. But as we have grown, our products have continued to diversify. For example, our best selling product is our soap. A french soap. We chose the french soap because we found it to be the best product we could find anywhere. And that is what we want for all of our products. Garden shops love our products, but so do antique stores, gift stores and even wineries. Thus, we looked for a new name that we felt represented the quality products we offer. E. Barrett is a name from Sherry's side of the family. We feel it sounds and represents an old fashion quality, for both product and service.