Third-generation gardener brings dedication and local expertise to Dearborn Market in Holmdel

By:  | June 3, 2024 |  Meet Your Neighbor |  Holmdel

By Rebecca King

Tom Addalia, the manager of the garden center at Dearborn Market in Holmdel, ends every summer season with a farmer’s tan. His browned neck and forearms are hard-earned – the result of daily tending to the flowers, shrubs, trees, and vegetables grown at Dearborn. But Addalia, a born-and-bred Jersey boy, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I can’t sit at a desk,” he said. “I’m an outside guy. I have to be out there helping customers, designing flower beds for them, coming up with different combinations of plants for people’s flower pots.”

Addalia, who has been working at Dearborn since February of 2022, describes himself as the “conductor of the orchestra.” He does a bit of everything – purchasing merchandise, overseeing the growth of the greenhouse and farm plants, advising customers, and sharing with staff members the expertise he, as a third-generation florist, gained over the years.

“I’m outside all day because I have to see what’s going on in my store,” he said. “People are always going to have questions, and I enjoy answering them.”

Addalia shares his knowledge with the long-time customers who have been coming to Dearborn for years to grocery shop (Dearborn also has a market that offers prepared foods, groceries, and even beauty and health items) and purchase lush, locally grown plants for their homes and yards from the garden center.

A historic market

Dearborn Gardens is one of New Jersey’s oldest family-run businesses. Frank Luccarelli bought the 100-acre plot of land Dearborn sits on in 1925. Back then, it grew peaches, apples, strawberries, peppers, and other fruits and vegetables that were sold in New York City. Dearborn Farms eventually opened its own roadside stand in the 1950s and grew to include a delicatessen, gourmet kitchen, bakery, and greenhouse. The Saker family took over operations in 2015, preserving the classic red barn look and making upgrades to the property.

“When people come to Dearborn, they know they’re going to find something different than what the big box stores sell,” said Addalia.

Dearborn is particularly well known for its Boston ferns. The ferns are so big they pour over the sides of the 10-inch hanging baskets they’re sold in. Addalia receives calls all the time from folks asking, “Are your ferns out yet?” Dearborn grows the ferns for nine months and only brings them out when they’re full-sized.

“People drive far and near to get them,” assured Addalia.

Addalia came out of a retirement of sorts to work at Dearborn. For 40 years, he owned three flower retail shops called Flowers by Addalia.

Addalia’s family has been in the farming business for more than 100 years. His grandfather Joseph came to the United States from Italy in 1905, where he lived in a farming village and made his living by tending the earth. When he moved to New Jersey, “the first thing he did was find land and farm it,” said Addalia. He sold fruits, vegetables, and flowers from a pushcart. Eventually, he was able to open a retail store in Linden called Addalia's Flower Shop, where Addalia’s father Tony also worked.

Addalia’s mother’s family was also in the farming business and owned DiMuzio Brothers, a massive vegetable farm in Edison. Addalia wound up going to college for Ornamental Horticulture at SUNY. He used what he learned to open Flowers by Addalia, which offered floral arrangements and gift baskets for anniversaries, weddings, funerals, and more.

“Back when I was growing up, the only place you could buy flowers was a flower shop,” he said. “They weren’t selling them in grocery stores or the Home Depot.”

Working at Dearborn – with its greenhouses and farmland – is much different from the floral arrangements Addalia used to specialize in. But, Addalia said his father’s and grandfather’s lessons on how to not only grow plants and vegetables, but how to effectively run a garden center, quickly came back to him, down to the tiny details.

“Everything I know, I learned from my dad and my grandfather,” he said. “My grandfather used to walk me down the aisle of his store and tell me to straighten up the merchandise. You’ll catch me and the staff doing that all the time at Dearborn, so we don’t have any sideways pots or bottles. No one ever died from hard work.”

In fact, the hands-on nature of the job is actually what brought him back into the gardening industry after selling his own stores.

“There’s no mass production, there’s no robots to do your job for you,” he said of working at the garden center. “I just love it. The one thing I told my kids growing up, as they went through college and into the workforce is that you have to love what you do.”

And though Addalia brings years of experience to his work, he said he’s still learning every day. In fact, discovering new plants and sourcing interesting flowers for customers’ gardens is one of his favorite parts of the job.

A sales representative he works with recently introduced him to Baptista plants – a lovely deep purple perennial. And a customer asked if Dearborn carried Lithodora, a low-growing, evergreen shrub with vibrant blue flowers, that was new to Addalia. Of course, he worked to find a few Lithodora plants to fulfill the customer’s vision of her dream garden – a commitment he makes to all of his customers – or, as his wife calls them, his friends.

“When I get home at night,” Addalia joked, “My wife always asks, ‘Did any of your friends come in today?’”

Dearborn Market is located at 2170 NJ-35, in Holmdel. Go to DearbornMarket.com for more information.