One of Pike Road’s largest retail businesses, Froggy Bottom Materials, is expanding its footprint with the acquisition of Moore and Davis Nursery in Shorter, Alabama. The Shorter operation will be rebranded as Froggy Bottom Growers and will supply the company’s Pike Road garden center, while continuing to offer wholesale sales on-site.
“The acquisition of Moore and Davis Nursery is something I’m really proud of because I’ve been shopping there for 25 years and I’ve known those guys,” Froggy Bottom President Chris Lashlee said, noting the site’s proximity and readiness. “The location is 10 minutes from our office and garden center. The infrastructure and the layout of the nursery are well designed and done well.”
Lashlee said owning the growing operation tightens quality control, strengthens the supply chain, and improves pricing and selection for customers. “We want to provide the very best quality and best selection of plants we can to all of our customers,” he said. “By us having the nursery up the street where things are grown from scratch, it allows us to ensure the very best quality and prices for our customers and an amazing selection.”
With the Shorter nursery in-house, Froggy Bottom expects to produce the majority of what it sells. “We will now have the ability and will grow probably 85% of everything we sell and plant, which is huge,” Lashlee said. “From a supply chain and logistics sense to a quality control stance, it just gives us a lot of control over what we provide our customers.”
Operations are already scaling. “We’re growing plant material from scratch up there,” he said. “We’re going to start growing color flowers and seasonal plants. We’ll grow our own mums and ferns. And we will expand to grow our own vegetables too.”
To support that expansion, Froggy Bottom is investing in additional infrastructure at the Shorter site. “We’re building more greenhouses up there,” Lashlee said.
On the retail side, Lashlee said the Pike Road garden center was built to serve the broader Montgomery market. “Montgomery has needed a real garden center for so long,” he said. “Our nursery in Pike Road is by far the largest retail nursery the Montgomery area has ever had.”
He shared that his wholesale customers—especially landscape professionals—will see added convenience. “We have a lot of landscapers that come here and buy plant material, and they can get their wholesale pricing here,” Lashlee said. “If they have a state agriculture landscape license or a nursery dealer’s license, they can get wholesale pricing.”
Lashlee shared that wholesale customers may purchase the same quantity of plant material at either the Pike Road or Shorter locations at their normal wholesale price. In contrast, retail customers should continue to shop at the Pike Road garden center.
He emphasized that Froggy Bottom will remain rooted in a family-owned business model as it expands. He said his three sons are part of the plan—“Two of them are already working here and one that will”—and that the company is “really planning on building a generational family business that focuses on quality and customer service.”
Community involvement will continue to be a pillar for Froggy Bottom. “This past Friday night, we hosted the Pike Road Football Drawdown and had a huge turnout,” Lashlee said, confirming the event will remain annual. “We’re going to make the Easter Egg Hunt and Fall Festival annual events as well. We plan for each to get bigger and bigger each year.”
He added, “It’s really important for us to be partnered at the hip with the community. We love Pike Road.”
To learn more about Froggy Bottom, visit their website at https://froggybottommaterials.com or stop by their garden center at 11672 Highway 80 East, Pike Road, AL, 36064.
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