Save Henn's Plant Farm: Rebuild and Restore

Henn's Plant Farm, LLC, owned by Bryan Henn Jr., in the Hooper's Creek area of Fletcher, received major devastation with Hurricane Helene. The massive floods it produced caused our nursery to lose 90% of our shrubs that we had across a total of 12 acres. Not only did the flooding wash away or cover our shrubs in thick mud but dozens of greenhouses and pads that were fully equipped with irrigation were destroyed beyond use.

My name is Alice and I am starting this page for my brother and our multi-generational farm to try to keep us going for more years to come. Unfortunately, our farm insurance does not cover any flooding and we did not have any crop insurance. The shrub crops that were washed away or were covered in mud are what we would sell from now until next fall, when the next crops are ready.

This is bottom growing pad before the storm...

This is part of the area after the storm..

We are a wholesale nursery selling annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees to local garden centers and landscapers. A few of our annual houses received damage as well. The picture below shows the creek outside of its retaining wall and eroding under the greenhouse leaving behind just the concrete around the greenhouse supports with no ground underneath.

Our Farm History...

Henn’s Plant Farm, LLC originally began in the 1950s when Mr. Frank Henn (our papaw) begin growing flowers in the field, digging and selling them. He then erected a small propagation house and adding other wooden greenhouse structures. Some of these houses were moved from the location off Sweeten Creek Road in Asheville to the current location in the Hooper's Creek Community of Fletcher in the summer of 1971, at which time son Charles (our dad) joined the business.

The farm continued to grow and before the storm was a total of twenty heated and twenty-four ground cover and shrub houses, with four acres of open nursery area. Mom (Betty) and Dad owned and operated for 46 years with Dad retiring in 2018 and my brother Bryan taking over. I came back on in spring of 2018 to learn the office / accounting world from our mom before she passed in 2021. We truly are a family business...Bryan and I worked as kids and now several of our own kids have worked at the farm as well. It is our life.

Bryan surrendered to preach in spring of 2022 and he is now the pastor of Woodland Terrace Missionary Baptist Church in Asheville. With the help of his Henn's team, he has been able to run the farm and still spread the gospel.

Earlier this year in May, we were hit hard by a freak storm that produced baseball sized hail and extreme high winds. It caused massive damage to most greenhouses, shrubs, and buildings. Little did we know that something even more devastating was right around the corner.

We are so thankful to have what we have left of the farm to work with and start to move forward. We have been truly blessed.

The last 2 weeks we have been busy trying to rinse and save any shrubs that we could get out from the mud and move to safe areas. Our team has worked daily (including our retired Dad, Charles) to think outside the box and recreate irrigation in the shrub growing area and start moving the ground around to clean up and start a new normal. We are so thankful for all the hard work that a few volunteers have done as well.

We would love any type of assistance or donation that will help our beautiful family nursery continue to operate. Having a business last three generations is so rare and we would love for it to continue to survive.