“It was like nothing I had ever seen before,” Paige Emerson said, “so many people were seeking human connection and just needed someone to talk to.”
Paige Emerson, a longtime Silver Spring resident, started working at Johnson’s Florist and Garden Centers in October 2020. Before Johnson’s, Emerson worked in Human Resources for 15 years. At the start of the pandemic, she worked remotely and had to make layoffs, a task that weighed on her.
“I hated Zooming, I missed being in person with my team,” Emerson said, “I joked that maybe it was time for me to early retire and work at a garden center.”
Emerson was reminded of Johnson’s by her oldest daughter Annie, a 2022 graduate from Albert Einstein High School. Her daughter told her that one of her friends worked there and they were hiring. Johnson’s was in search of more adult employees after so many had left as the pandemic worsened.
Emerson resigned from her job on a Wednesday, interviewed with Johnson’s owner Jimmy Johnson on a Thursday, and was immediately hired. She started working a week and a half later.
Johnson’s was a rock for Kensington and neighboring communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that standing remains. However, Johnson’s wasn’t always a gardening store.
According to an interview with the Director of Store Operations, Tom Johnson, his grandfather Raymond T. Johnson Sr. opened a small grocery store at Wisconsin and Van Ness Streets in Washington, D.C., in 1932. One year later, a resident who lived on Van Ness Street and grew geraniums offered some of the plants to sell on consignment.
Johnson Sr. agreed, and the business blossomed.
In the 1980s, Johnson’s Florist and Garden Centers moved to its current address at 10313 Kensington Pkwy. Right off Kensington Antique Row, Johnson’s was surrounded by many other local businesses.
Many small businesses had to close their doors during the pandemic. For the Silver Spring community, that business was Mrs. K’s Toll House Restaurant, which closed its doors in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions after 90 years of business. Mrs. K’s was a landmark in the neighborhood and residents were sad to see it go.
There were 14,507 small business closings in Maryland between March 2020 and March 2021 according to the Small Business Administration. However, Johnson’s was not one of them.
“Garden centers were allowed to be open,” Emerson said, “it was an essential business exemption.”
Johnson’s reopened in June 2020 and proved it was essential, providing an outlet for local communities.
“We had a regular customer come in and talk about her mom passing,” Emerson said, “she was really sad they couldn’t have a funeral for her.”
In light of the circumstances, this customer and her family decided to have a memorial service in her front yard. She came to Johnson’s and bought around $900 worth of bedding and outdoor plants according to Emerson.
“Johnson’s staff drove it up and planted all the stuff so she could honor her mom who was an avid gardener,” Emerson said.
Local residents weren’t the only ones who felt a bond to the business, its employees also cherished it.
“Once you work at Johnson’s, you’re always a part of the Johnson’s family,” Daisha Bouknight said.
Bouknight is another Silver Spring resident who joined the Garden Centers’ team. She is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and minoring in Sustainability Studies. She started working at Johnson’s in June 2020.
“They just have a lot of genuine people that are very loving and caring,” Bouknight said, “I’ve made a lot of strong connections with the people I’ve worked with.”
During her four years at Johnson’s, Bouknight graduated high school and went off to college, but she always came back. Whether it was during the summer or breaks, the store manager Nataly Musch always welcomed her back with open arms. Bouknight is not the only one that continued to return.
“Customers come in from the community, and they always talk about how either they used to work at Johnson’s when they were a teenager or remember how it used to be,” Bouknight said.
It’s the little things that connect people to a small business, like the blue and green parakeets that one customer remembered from their childhoods in the ‘80s according to Emerson.
“I think being a small business in general,” Bouknight added, “it’s very close-knit.”
Photo Courtesy of Devin Velez