Why Martha Stewart’s topiary guy now plans stops in Decatur
Reading time: 5 minutes
Ken Selody of Atlock Farms, a horticultural artist renowned for his work for Martha Stewart, brought his topiary magic back to Decatur in early April for a day of workshops, plant sales and friendly conversations at popular kitchen shop, The Cupboard.
We had the chance to talk with him about what brought him to the River City, his love for travel and old historic towns, and how those things add up to why he much prefers selling plants in person than shipping them.
Read on for more about this New Jersey plant pro’s frequent trips down South.
Enthusiasm commanded attention
His first visit happened by chance. Last year, while on a road trip to see the Great North American Eclipse, he asked on Instagram where he should stop for pop-up sales along the way.
The Cupboard’s owner, Ginger Cobl, and her customers jumped at the chance to bring him to Decatur. Their excitement paid off when Selody added a stop to his itinerary.
“I just sent out the word on Instagram, ‘Who wants me?’ [Ginger] got right on it. … I looked at the little shop, and at first I didn’t see it. Then people kept saying, ‘Decatur needs you! Come to Decatur! Come to The Cupboard.’ One after another.
“There were 20 or 30 to recognize it, just so I finally thought, ‘If she can get this many people to do a letter-writing campaign, she commands an audience, so yeah, let me say ‘yes.’ We had a great time. It was back at the old shop, and we had a good day and sold a lot of plants.”
Ken Selody
An emerging Southern market
That was Selody’s second visit to Alabama, having appeared at an event at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens once before. He’s stopped in to visit since his last pop-up, when Cobl pitched the idea of coming back this spring for the workshops.
“The only reason that I started [traveling plant sales] was because COVID shut down New York City so tightly, and all the customers left the city. They were all in Connecticut. They were all on Long Island. They were all in upstate New York or wherever. I had to start finding customers, and there were customers in the South.”
Ken Selody
Appreciation for artful gardening
During the two workshops in Decatur, Selody taught attendees how to train and prune plants into beautiful, sculpted shapes. Everyone left with new skills and a plant of their own.
The pop-up sale was a hit yet again this year, as people stopped by all day to pick up plants and chat with Selody, an expert who has spent years perfecting his craft. Each a piece of living art, the topiaries added even more delight to The Cupboard’s displays.
The poufy, deep purple and green leaves of coleus bursting from a single stem brought thoughts of the Truffula trees in Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax.” That or some kind of Muppet bird, maybe. Needless to say, I had to have one (see below).
A long list of likes, literally
Selody’s stop in Decatur was the fifth stop among six planned — three in Raleigh, North Carolina; one in Blowing Rock, North Carolina; and one in Memphis, Tennessee.
His warm welcome in North Alabama left him with little to sell on his final stop, so he was shifting his itinerary to return to New Jersey, load up again and make another trip.
And that’s a good thing, he says.
“I think most people would consider [another quick trip] to be a drag, but I’m kind of looking forward to it. It’s cool.”
Ken Selody
Then he launched into a list of likes, which included, and we quote:
- the drive
- driving
- getting off the road
- looking at historic markers
- going to see where generals were born
- being in the South
- Southern cities
- how Southern cities spread out
- their architecture + how “not everything has been completely swept away”
With that, it seems Selody’s fans drawing him to Decatur have, in turn, helped make him a fan of us. Stay tuned for the next time he makes a stop through North Alabama.
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