ROCKPORT — Anna Remsen, owner of Seasons Downeast Designs on Meadow Street in Rockport, readily admits her garden center is off the beaten path, but because she carries unusual and beautiful things, it brings patrons to her.

“I would say it is all encompassing beautiful things,” she said. “Whether it’s flowers, or gardening, or plants, it’s all things that make you happy.”

Seasons Downeast is home to plants, cut flowers, mulch, compost and loam, and a gift shop that has an array of items, from garden tools to lotions to jewelry.

With Mother’s Day on the approach, Remsen is looking forward to the arrival of perennials, roses and shrubs.

“A lot of people walk in and say I can’t believe you have all of this stuff,” said Remsen. “They had no idea because we are off the beaten path. Our fresh flower business is thriving. We do a lot of weddings, parties, events, funeral and births.”

Seasons Downeast Designs is open year-round, which Remsen feels is a reason the business does well.

“I employ from three people in the winter to 18 in the summer,” said Remsen. “We have a landscaping business that includes properties for Northport down to Bremen. We take care of gardens in the spring, summer and fall.”

Services includes mowing and lawn care services, as well as gardening.

“With some properties, all we do is get them up and going in the spring,” she said. “We see them seasonally; hence the name. But a lot of properties we maintain weekly. We do weddings pretty much all over the Midcoast. Where ever you have an event, we can take care of the highlighting.”

The views are elemental to those weddings.

“Whether you’re on top of Mt.Battie or in the Camden Amphitheatre, Children’s Chapel, or the lake, we are blessed with an incredible view,” she said. “You have woodland environments and ocean environments. We’ve done a lot of weddings out on the bay. It’s just a really unique place that I like to call the Gold Coast. People just love it when the mountains meet the sea.”

And then, there are the anniversary events, birthdays and family reunions.

“I’ve always been very fortunate to have a big local clientele,” she said.

Remsen started the business in 1990 with her now ex-husband. She has been running it solo for approximately 10 years.

“The business has taken a different avenue,” she said. “I don’t do a lot of the big construction things, anymore. I’d rather do five things really well as opposed to many things not so well.”

Growing up in Camden, Remsen spent many hours in the garden with her father’s mother, Anna, who is her namesake.

“I always gardened with her, but never imagined that you could ever make a living at it,” she said. “So I went to school to be a teacher and while I was in college studying to be a teacher, I said what am I going to do? And she said,’ well you love to garden.’”

Remsen said her mother was what she would refer to as a dirt gardener. 

“She planted gladiolas, vegetables and lots of flowers,” she said. “We just did it because we loved it.”

Remsen switched majors and went to the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Later, she worked at Weston Nurseries in Hopkington, Mass., which has hundreds of acres, getting hands-on experience. She also took a landscape architecture class at Harvard.

Remsen then moved back to Maine.

“I found this piece of land and my parents thought I was crazy for moving so far out of town,” she said. “And now I’m in the hub. It’s so far off the beaten path that I think people stumble onto us. You find out about us through word of mouth, mostly. They had no idea we have these great plants and unusual annuals, the heirloom veggies and gifts.”

Remsen has two children and she lives nearby.

“My two kids are running away from gardening,” she said. “One is a nurse and one is a lobsterman. I always wondered if I wanted to live in my hometown; but, it’s wonderful and as you know, it’s a great place to raise a family. I love it here. It’s just quality of life and doing this work you really have to love it.”

Then, of course, there is the weather.

The early arrival of winter last year meant some fall projects didn’t get completed. Now, there is the rain.

“You make commitments,” said Remsen. “And then the weather gets in the way. It can get very frustrating at times. Staff is key, and I’m lucky to have a huge amount of staff who returned this year.”

Remsen employs two men and 15 women. She said it makes her happy to provide a good living for the people who work there.

Alyssa Bregman is the general manager for Seasons Downeast Designs.

“Alyssa is a fabulous person and has a lovely family,” she said. “She came in to talk about wedding flowers and she had just moved to the area from Connecticut. She said she was looking for companies to landscape for and I asked her why she wasn’t applying here. I hired her and quickly figured out a way to keep her.”

Bregman will be marking 10 years with Seasons Downeast Designs.

“It’s been a real treat to have her as part of the team,” said Remsen. “She a real force here and very talented. She can do it all.”

A recurring theme throughout my talk with Anna were the references to “unusual and out of the ordinary” regarding annuals and perennials. I asked Anna to expand on that theme.

“We try to grow a few things, but I’ve had great luck with a couple of companies throughout New England,” she said. “Some of them might be referred to as tropical. Unusual banana plants, or particular grasses, things that really have some impact in the garden. Our season is so short. People are looking for immediate results. We love standard annuals. They fill in a void, and have great cutting-flower quality. We do a lot of container plants that you can set up on a property and get that wow factor with the annuals. Things that are fragrant and beautiful with beautiful leaves and color tones. Things that are not necessarily a cut flower, but give a real backbone in the garden, or the planter.” 

Remsen said the Midcoast is blessed to have so many nurseries.

“We all get along and if somebody wants a geranium I send them places, because my place is small,” she said. “I can’t grow everything, so someone would come here to find something different. Either in the gift area, or plants, or cut the cut flowers, I try to carry something a little more unusual.”

Remsen said her success was a direct result of the support she gets from the community and her employees.

“This is an amazing community,” she said. “The support I have here has been warm and has been amazing. From the Samoset Resort to Camden and Rockport homeowners, it’s a pretty wide range of the people we touch, whether delivering flowers or compost, or gardening for them. I feel fortunate to have a small business that’s so appreciated by the community.”