Hester and Zipperer, a Century of Savannah Gardening

Some businesses last a generation. A few last two. Hester and Zipperer is on its fifth.

The family started out farming. The feed and seed opened at City Market in 1922, back when that was a working market and not a place you take visitors. They are still here, still family owned, still selling people the things that will live in this climate.

Why this one matters to me

Who does not love plants? While I may not be the best at keeping them alive, that title goes to my husband, I do love smelling the flowers, creating the scapes and imagining.

What I love most about Hester and Zipperer is that this place spans generations, and with consistent hard work and stewardship it has not only spanned generations, it has anchored our community with a business.

Five generations, one family

Chris Zipperer is the fourth generation. He runs it now with his wife and their three sons, which makes five.

Think about what a century contains. The Depression. Two wars. Hurricanes. The slow collapse of the small independent retailer as a category. Every one of those took out businesses that looked sturdier. This one stayed, and it grew.

There is no corporate parent behind it. No rebrand. No investor group that bought the name. Just a family, their land, and more than a hundred years of opening the doors.

What you will find

These days it is a full garden center on Skidaway Road. Seeds, herbs, vegetables, pottery, outdoor furniture, and a range of plants that goes well past what you will see at a big box store.

The range is not the point though. The knowledge is.

Coastal Georgia is its own problem. Salt in the air, sand in the soil, humidity that will rot a plant that would be fine two hours inland, and a hurricane season that can undo a spring of work in an afternoon. A plant tag reading “full sun, zone 8” does not tell you whether the thing will make it through August here.

They know. Ask what does well on the east side of a house in Ardsley Park versus a marsh front lot on the Islands, and you will get a real answer with a reason attached. We have leaned on them for our own yard more than once.

Why a hundred year old garden center matters to a house hunt

I write about neighborhoods a lot. Square footage, school zones, what the drive across town looks like at seven in the morning. That is the practical layer, and it matters.

But when people describe what they love about where they live, they almost never lead with the house. They lead with the places around it. The nursery where somebody remembers what you planted last spring. A counter you can stand at and ask a question.

Those are hard to build and easy to lose. When you are deciding where to land, it is worth noticing which parts of town still have them.

If you go

Hester and Zipperer Lawn and Garden
6719 Skidaway Road, Savannah, GA 31406
Monday through Friday 8am to 5:30pm, Saturday 8am to 5pm, closed Sunday
(912) 355-1950

Hours as published. Small shops shift them, so call ahead if you are making a trip of it.

Go with a question. That is the way to use a place like this.

The quiet version of success

There is something steady about a business that has outlasted nearly all of what grew up around it. It did not get there by being loud. It got there by being useful for a very long time, to a lot of people, one bag of seed at a time.

Savannah has more of these than most cities its size. That is not an accident, and it is a large part of why people who move here tend to stay.

I’m Nikki Gergacs, a Realtor here in Savannah, and I have been looking closely at houses in Chatham County since 2005. If you are weighing a move to this area, I would rather talk through what your week would look like than send you a list of houses. That is usually the more useful conversation.

This is part of Anchors & Awnings, an ongoing series about the small businesses that hold a place together.

— Nik · 912-378-3427

Your Next Pearl Awaits.

Next Move Real Estate · Licensed in Georgia