SUNNY HILL SELLS GARDEN CENTER; CITY'S OLDEST PET SUPPLY STORE WILL EXPAND INTO GARDEN SPACE

Sunny Hill Garden Center Inc., known for its green thumb expertise for more than six decades, is looking for a new home.

Sunny Hill Pet Shop, the city's oldest pet and supply store, will expand into the garden center at 335 Christine.

"We have sold the garden center portion of the business," said Bill Brinkopf, president of the company. "We have plans to expand our pet shop operation."

Paul Schnare, who has been involved in the lawn and garden business since 1974, has purchased the Sunny Hill garden business from Bill and Ramona Brinkopf.

"We plan to remain in our current location until June 30," said Schnare, who also owns Accu-Grow Lawn and Tree Service Inc. at 1110 N. Cape Rock Drive and Accu-Grow Lawn Care Service at Carbondale, Ill. "We will continue to operate as a separate business under the Sunny Hill Garden Inc. name."

"We will be making some changes in the pet operation here," said Brinkopf. "The store will be more departmentalized, which will make it more convenient for our customers.

"We'll double the space of our operation," said Brinkopf. "We will put in a new and larger fish operation, and we'll be expanding all lines of our supplies and pets."

Brinkopf's son, Bill Brinkopf Jr., who is vice president of the company, will oversee the pet shop operation. Ramona Brinkopf is secretary-treasurer of the firm.

"Della Hale, who has been with us for a number of years, will be a co-manager," said Brinkopf.

Schnare said the purchase adds another dimension to his business.

"At Accu-Grow we offer lawn care, landscaping, lawn sprinkling and floral services," said Schnare. "Sunny Hill will provide a complete garden center and accessories."

Schnare is looking for a site for his new business.

"We plan to conduct some surveys," he said. "We want our customers' input on suggestions for a new location. We also want the customers to tell us what they want in terms of products, guarantees and services."

Schnare, a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor of science degree in forestry, a master's degree in genetics and a doctorate in plant physiology, founded his first lawn and garden operation at Columbia. He sold that business and returned to Cape Girardeau, where in 1981 he opened a lawn service at Frederick and Themis.

The Schnares Paul and Marilyn moved their operation to its present site in 1986, when they purchased property from Town and Country Gardens on North Cape Rock Drive.

"I have known the Brinkopfs for a number of years," said Schnare. "Bill and Ramona lived across the street from my parents here."

Schnare, his wife, Marilyn, a registered nurse at Southeast Missouri Hospital, and daughter, Nicole, live in Cape Girardeau.

The Sunny Hill firm has been at its present site for more than 20 years.

"We moved to this address in September of 1968," said Brinkopf. "Over the past two decades we developed a complete nursery, including lines of garden and lawn statuaries and ornamental rocks."

Included in the complex are two large greenhouse areas a 3,000-square-foot growing greenhouse and 2,000-square-foot holding house.

Sunny Hill dates back more than 60 years.

The store had its beginning in the early 1930s when Louis C. and Charles F. Blattner founded the Sunny Hill Feed and Seed Store, at 240 S. Frederick, across the street from Sunny Hill Dairy, which was then at 245 S. Frederick.

The store dealt mainly in seed, livestock and poultry feed.

When the dairy moved to South West End Boulevard in 1941, the Sunny Hill Feed and Seed Store moved into the corner building at Frederick and Good Hope.

Louis C. Blattner quit the operation in January 1943, and Charles Blattner operated it until his death in August 1943. Fred C. McGowan purchased the store in 1945. McGowan operated the store until the Brinkopfs purchased it in 1959.

"It remained as Sunny Hill Feed and Seed Store until 1964, when we added the pet shop," said Brinkopf. "At that time we added a full-fledged pet shop, and had cats, dogs, birds and fish."