Garden Store Near Wayne To Close After Nearly 50 Years

LINCOLN PARK, NJ — The Gro-Rite Garden Center will soon close its Lincoln Park facility. The business, which has been around nearly half a century, will keep its Retail Garden Center open through Jan. 15.

The business will focus on its Wholesale Agricultural Division, no longer remaining open for the public.

"We THANK all our customers for all your LOYAL business over the years," the Gro-Rite Garden Center's Facebook page said.

Gro-Rite's history goes back to 1973, when Dave and Gerda Vande Vrede opened a small garden center on their New Jersey farm. The business grew to 22 acres with 160,000 square feet of greenhouse space.

By the 1990s, the company outgrew its first location and purchased a 110-acre farm in Belvidere, adding 180,000 square feet of covered greenhouse space and a large, outdoor growing area. Over time, the second generation of the family expanded and refined the business.

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