Sherry Horton: Potpourri Purveyor

The American Gardener store on Main St. in Julian sells a variety of Horton’s special creations.

By Bobbi Zane

Sherry Horton is one of the largest employers in Julian. She employs 17 people who work in two shops and in a workshop producing potpourri that is sold by retailers nationwide as well as in Julian.

Sherry, whose business has grown by leaps and bounds since she created the apple potpourri about 10 years ago, is about to expand again. By fall, her staff will be making the scented herbs in a 3000-square-foot workshop in the former Manzanita Ranch in Wynola that’s now home to the Orfilia Winery tasting room. In addition to the workshop, she plans to open an antique store specializing European decorative items.

A longing for a rural life brought Sherry from urban Dana Point in Orange County, where she operated a florist shop, to Julian in 1992. She checked all the small mountain towns including Big Bear and Idyllwild before she arrived in Julian on “a gorgeous spring day. The lilacs were in bloom and I decided this was my destiny.”

Her first business was the American Gardener, affectionately known as the Tin Shed on Washington St.

Like any successful entrepreneur, Sherry did her research before deciding what to sell in the American Gardener, a botanical product to be sure. Her research led her to design wreaths made from Julian apples. “I wanted something that was unique and I had access to the apples as I was the caretaker at the Ewing Ranch and had access to the apples. And I knew how to make wreaths from my days as a florist.”

She had the apples, but she still needed to process them to make them ready to be strung into the wreaths. It was all hands-on for Sherry at the beginning. She picked, washed, sliced and dried them before building the wreaths that became the foundation of her business at the outset.

She sold the wreaths at the American Gardener, but Tin Shed could be open only in the warm summer months.

Enter Liz Smothers, owner of the Julian Pie Shop, who asked for some wreaths to sell in her stores year round. “Liz became our first wholesale customer,” Sherry recalls.

Once the wholesale door opened there was no stopping Sherry. She started going to trade shows, something that she had done as a purchaser when she was a florist. Now she was selling something.

Sherry and husband John Horton hit pay dirt at their first trade show. “We went to a gift show in Portland and were swamped with orders at our booth.”

The rest is history. Sherry has expanded her line to include 14 different fruit based potpourris including red and green apples, pink grapefruit and limes. She also produces and sells lotions and hand salves. And she sells a line of French milled soaps, manufactured in France, based on her fragrances.

The American Gardener moved to larger, more visible, quarters on Main St. in 2000. A year or two later she added another outlet, Oakwood Creek, where she sells home furnishings and décor items. Sherry now sells signature products for Illuminations and Gardeners Eden. She also has showrooms in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

The American Gardener can be found online at: www.americangardener.com