D riven on Highway 9 south of Snohomish lately?
You probably know Clearview Nursery and Stone, even if the name isn’t familiar.
The roadside business is dotted with antique tractors, a human-size Rainier beer bottle, an oil rig, a former Union 76 ball turned into a world globe and the original 7-foot tall Ivar’s clam purchased on eBay for $1,626.
They like to keep it fun, manager Susan Torchia said.
They’d also like people to know there is more to the business than a collection of kitsch. Clearview Nursery and Stone will be displaying product samples as one of hundreds of vendors at the Everett Home and Garden Show this weekend.
The business is more about the permanent features of the landscape than the plants. Here, you can wander through stacks and stacks of flagstone, slate, quartzite and Pennsylvania bluestone. They’ve got rock columns, river rock, beach pebbles, sand and rock, as well as specialty items like polished hearth rocks. The natural stone comes from quarries as far away as China and as close as Eastern Washington.
Clearview developed from a topsoil business owned by Dan McAuliffe. Homeowners would come to the business to get bulk topsoil and bark. McAuliffe didn’t think the dump trucks filing in and out of the driveway made for the most customer-friendly atmosphere, so he purchased the nearly 11 acres and developed a place that would be, Torchia said. She runs the daily operations at the business.
Big holding pens full of bark, rock and stone are available for customers to fill up a truckload. Sometimes the employees play bocce ball on the grassy fields nearby. Toy dump trucks litter a sand pile.
“Parents can throw their kids in the sand pile and shop,” Torchia said.
Shoppers often poke around the place for an hour or more, she said. They’ve built a pond display, and they just began selling the pond supplies and equipment. They offer cast iron statues, blown glass and other garden art accessories too.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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