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The full-service garden center and landscape design company at 194 Route 100 has been in the Lopane family since 1977 and runs another facility in the town of Amenia in Dutchess County.
Although the store lost power for a short time during the storm, it continued to have all its calls forwarded, managing supervisor Mike Lopane said. Firewood was a popular item among people who had lost electricity. “We sold quite a bit during the storm. I don’t know how much we have left,” he said.
Post-Sandy, homeowners called upon Katonah Nursery for storm damage cleanup, a large part of which is clearing away broken trees, removing stumps and chipping branches, trunks and debris.
“There seems be a lot of evergreens broken, a lot of Norway spruce and white pine,” said Lopane. The company brought in heavy duty equipment such as backhoes because, in some cases, the storm's fury ripped tree roots right out of the ground.
“We actually had to help out the town because there was so much debris over here,” Lopane said, which involved clearing some major roads.
Lopane said he has worked at the nursery since 1993, when he was just out of college. His father, Joe, is the company’s president. His brother Frank runs the landscaping and tree removal side of the business, and brother Joe does sales.
Lopane said that in the spring, residents will start to think about planting new trees to replace the old. “We’re going to have a lot of people that are going to assess their property and probably replace a lot of trees that broke in the storm,” he said.
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