The grand opening of Clegg’s nursery in Baton Rouge was this past Friday after being closed for more than 6 months.

The nursery is not only reopening, but it is now combined Naylor’s hardware, a beloved hardware store that was forced to close because of the floods this past summer.

“I walked in and started looking around and realized that I was no longer employed and that there was absolutely no way we could rebuild this building or business,” Naylor’s owner Johnny Naylor said.

While Clegg’s nursery did not suffer severe damage, nearby Naylor’s Hardware and Garden Center took on five feet of water leaving the building and 90 percent of its inventory destroyed.

The two longtime garden and home improvement stores decided to reopen under one name to help recover from the destruction of the flood.

“Both of us were devastated by the flood and we just had a handshake and agreed that we are going to help each other and we are going to figure out the details later,” Clegg’s Co-Owner Tom Fennell said.

Clegg’s nursery not only sells a 5 acre variety of flowers and plants, but they not have full inventory of hardware and Johnny Naylor’s “famous seed collection.”
“Yes, it’s been a real blessing for me. It gives me the opportunity to do other things. Yeah, I mean I lost my retirement for the most part and I was counting on that but that’s okay. My stuff got wet. You know, I can get more stuff,” Naylor said.