In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Lynn Payne, the owner of Payne’s Nurseries & Greenhouses Inc., found his business in an unenviable position — on the governor’s list of nonessential businesses, meaning it was forced to close indefinitely.
Payne didn’t accept that designation meekly, setting about to change the mind of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. To his astonishment, his campaign had the desired effect.
“That changed after I wrote a couple of letters to the governor,” he said. “I said, ‘We are the opposite of a nonessential business. What could be more healthy than being in the sunshine and fresh air growing your own vegetables?’ ”
Whether Payne’s effort alone was enough to convince the governor to allow plant nurseries to reopen is open to interpretation. But Payne felt vindicated by his actions when his company went on to experience its best year ever in 2020 — demonstrating conclusively, he said, how important plant nurseries were during that time of social isolation.
Now, as his family business approaches three-quarters of a century in existence — a run interrupted only briefly in the middle 1960s — he said Payne’s remains an essential, and strong, enterprise. That’s true, he said, despite the fact many customers apparently became concerned about the nursery’s future when Payne sold the company’s longtime location on St. Michael’s Drive over the winter, consolidating his holdings at its location at 304 Camino Alire and its organic soil yard at 6037 Agua Fría St.
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Brittney Tolman choses plants to make a custom planter while working Thursday at Payne’s Nurseries, 304 Camino Alire.
“We are fully stocked and going at it as hard as we can,” he said.
Payne said he initially had no desire to sell the St. Michael’s location, as that site also housed the company’s administrative and bookkeeping operations in addition to a nursery. That enterprise was opened in 1968 when Payne’s parents, Sherman and Emille Payne, returned to the business from a short retirement.
“But I got an attractive offer and accepted it,” Lynn Payne said.
Now, the focus has shifted to the two remaining Payne’s properties. Payne said that while some of his longtime customers from the St. Michael’s location have not migrated north yet — “I’m afraid a lot of them are creatures of habit,” he said — many others have, making for mixed results so far at the Camino Alire nursery.
“Sales are down overall [companywide], but they’re up at that store, so it’s a double-edge sword,” he said.
Roots run deep
The closure of the St. Michael’s location wasn’t the first time Payne’s has changed locations over its long history. Payne’s parents founded the company in 1952, opening a leased nursery on Delgado Street, according to the company’s website. By 1954, they were ready to build their own facility, which they opened a year later on Cerrillos Road in the current location of Jackalope.
They operated that nursery until 1965, when they sold the business and retired — a step they reversed a few years later when they opened the St. Michael’s Drive location.
Lynn Payne purchased that business from them in 1973 and has run it ever since with his wife Judy Payne. He opened the Camino Alire location in 1986 and the organic soil yard in 2012.
Payne said the nursery has thrived over the decades largely because of its selection of plants well suited for Northern New Mexico, which has been in a severe drought for a quarter century.
“Gardens have changed to more drought-tolerant plants,” he said, adding he has always taken pains to explain to customers that if they want a lush garden, they can’t develop one here by growing only native plants.
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A close-up of a Columbine flower growing at Payne’s Nurseries on Thursday, June 12, 2025.
Payne said he recommends going with a mix of salvias, sages and yuccas, which have become naturalized plants in New Mexico.
Another change that has come to the local horticulture scene, he said, is a growing awareness among customers of the need for healthy soil.
“It really makes a difference in people’s gardens when they use the compost we make here,” he said.
That compost emerges from yards and homes all over the city, Payne said.
“We contract with the city of Santa Fe for everything they pick up that is compostable,” he said of the organic soil yard, noting that yard and food waste make up most of that material.
Appreciation and challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic also continues to have a positive effect on the gardening business, Payne said. That experience taught many young people the value of growing their own garden and gave them an appreciation for how rewarding it could be, he said.
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James Littleton unloads a new shipment of Russian Sage at Payne’s Nurseries on Thursday.
But Payne said his nursery faces its share of challenges as well.
“There’s a lot more competition now,” he said. “When I got into the business, independent nurseries were the only place you could buy living plants. Now the big-box stores have taken a big chunk of the horticulture business.”
What those businesses don’t have, he said, is the institutional knowledge he and his workers have developed over decades in Santa Fe.
“I think there’s still a need for independent garden centers because we know what’s water-hardy and what’s going to grow in our corner of the world,” he said.
Payne said two of his employees have been with the company for 45 years and four others have been with Payne’s for more than 20 years.
“They offer a level of expertise and a knowledge of plants that big-box stores can’t compete with,” he said.