Preston — When David and Joyce Hart learned that the owner of T&C Greenhouses on Route 2A was selling off its stock in mid-March, they went to the wholesale operation with the intent to buy $1,500 worth of T&C’s well-regarded geraniums.

“And I ended up buying the whole place,” David Hart said Monday.

The Harts, owners of Hart’s Greenhouse & Florist, reached an agreement with T&C owner Diane Majcher to buy the 20-acre property, all 20 greenhouses and the fully stocked wholesale plant business that includes some 50,000 geraniums and another 25,000 New Guinea impatiens, another signature T&C plant. They declined to disclose the purchase price for the property and business.

The Harts plan to open a retail greenhouse with annual flowers and vegetables at the 99 Route 2A spot by May 1 — in time for Mother’s Day. With computerized cash registers, current Hart’s customers from other stores will be able to use gift cards and earn loyalty points for discounts at the new store.

“I’m really excited about the retail,” David Hart said. “It’s a perfect location.”

Joyce Hart said the new facility will be “a mini Hart’s” at first, without the full stock of the three existing Hart’s stores in Norwich, Canterbury and Brooklyn, but it will grow over the next few years.

The Harts hired Majcher as manager at least through the transition, Joyce Hart said. They also took over payroll and kept all T&C’s seasonal staff of 10. 

New office manager Toni O’Connor got her first tour of the greenhouses on her first day on the job Monday.

Majcher has been working there for the past 25 years. Her husband’s father, John Charles Majcher, started the business in the 1940s, and his son, Jeffrey Majcher, Diane’s husband, took it over. Jeffrey died 10 years ago, and Diane kept the operation going.

Then in March a second tragedy struck when Diane’s fiancé and business partner Eric Babcock died unexpectedly. The operation suddenly stopped, with seedlings in their little pots, some still on carts ready to be spread out in the greenhouse racks, and greenhouses mostly stocked.

Majcher invited fellow greenhouse operators in to look over and buy out her stock. The Harts, who came for geraniums, were among them.

“I think it’s great,” Majcher said Monday. “It’s a great fit.”

Checking on plants and automated watering systems Monday, David Hart said the facilities are similar to the Harts’ wholesale facility in Canterbury, with elevated watering pipes that slowly make their way down the greenhouse spraying plants and overhead conveyors that slowly move hanging baskets to their watering station at the end of the row.

T&C has at least one feature David Hart marveled at — a greenhouse with a retractable membrane roof that’s perfect for plants that prefer bright sun and cool but not cold weather.

Inside, petunias are thriving in hanging baskets, soaking in Monday’s cold rain. Other plants are lined up on the floor. Hart plans to fill the entire space with plants from Canterbury.

The Harts started their greenhouse business in 1986. The couple started by growing too many tomato plants, and sold them to a local store. “We made $3 a flat and I felt rich,” David Hart said.

“The next year, we put up a small greenhouse,” he said, “and it grew into this.”

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday