At Mels Nursery Floral & Gifts, Christmas begins in August.


Its on Aug. 1 that a team of about 20 Mels employees starts working on the longtime Spokane retailers Christmas Room, decorating the 55 Christmas trees that fill the room and spill into an attached greenhouse.


In that yuletide wonderland, each tree has its own theme. This year, the themes range from angels to aliens and fishing to football. Stuffed animals peer out from among the green boughs of one tree, Coca-Cola memorabilia adorn another, and vinyl 45-rpm records and a string of old drive-in movie theater tickets encircle a third. On other trees, more traditional glass balls and wooden ornaments shaped like snowmen and Santas dangle from the limbs.


The trees make their debut the first weekend in September. Until then, the windows in the doors leading to the Christmas Room are covered with black paper.


Even though we cover up the windows, we still have customers that try to peel it back and peek in, says Sue Shaw, who owns the nursery and gift store with her husband, Mel.


That kind of childlike excitement causes grown-ups to do other crazy thingssuch as come into the store two or three days before Mels day-after-Christmas sale and hide the items they hope to buy during the annual sale.


The day before the sale, we find stuff under the sofas and tucked behind other decorations, Shaw says.


On Dec. 26, Shaw claims, people begin lining up in front of the store at 4 a.m. By 8 a.m., when the doors open, Mels positions two workers in the stores parking lot to direct traffic.


People come with lounge chairs and thermoses of coffee and just sit and wait for the doors to open, says Joni Titus, who has been setting up displays at Mels for the past eight years. Then, once we do open the doors, we have a steady river of people that come into the store and head straight for the Christmas Room. About 30 minutes later, that stream starts heading toward the cash registers.


Not your typical nursery


For those who havent been inside, Mels is not your typical nursery. While it sells such conventional nursery items as lawn chemicals, shrubs, and annuals, the 14,800-square-foot store also has a floral department that creates fresh flower arrangements and gourmet gift baskets; a furniture department; a kitchenware area that also sells gourmet foods; a gift shop and greeting card area; and an espresso cart that also sells pastries and chocolates. The store employs about 20 people full time, and hires an additional about 20 part-time workers during its peak seasons, which include Christmas and springtime.


To look at Mels nowon a sizable three-acre lot just off of busy Division Street near the Division Y, and with its eye-catching window displaysyoud never believe its humble beginnings.


In the early 1970s, when Mel Shaw first started his nursery, it was in a lean-to positioned on the backside of the screen tower of his father-in-laws Auto-Vu Drive-In Theater at the northeast corner of Division and Wedgewood Avenuewhere an Eagle Hardware & Garden outlet now is located. The nursery only operatedweather permittingfrom March until October, Sue Shaw says.


In 1983, Mel Shaws father-in-law sold the property, and Shaw moved his nursery to its current location near the northeast corner of Division and Magnesium Road. After the move, the business occupied an about 2,700-square-foot building, where it mostly handled gardening supplies and chemicals. At the south end of that building was a small area where Sue Shaw set up a gift shop.


We only had about $5,000 worth of inventory back then, Shaw says. Today, the store carries more than $1 million worth of inventory.


Each year, the Shaws would put the money they earned back into their business to grow it, Sue Shaw says. One of the first things they added was a floral department. They also expanded the gift shop. About nine years ago, Mels added onto its building and began carrying furniture, a decision Shaw says she made while visiting a furniture market in North Carolina.


I remember calling Mel and saying, Guess what, Honey? Were going into the furniture business, Shaw says.


The northern section of Mels is dedicated to furniture. The area is set up in a series of displaysvignettes, reallythat depict different rooms in a house. Each room is decorated to the hiltwith attention paid to every detail. In one of the bedrooms, for instance, the sheets are pulled back slightly on a big bed. On the bed is a breakfast tray with a plate of facsimile waffles and strawberries and a glass of faux champagne. In another room, a game of Scrabble is laid outas if in mid-playon a coffee table in front of a fireplace, with a big leather sofa and a wingback chair pulled up nearby.


Titus says that sometimes she and employee Diane Newton, along with a team of helpers, will start setting up a display in the evening and work until 2 a.m. Other times, you can find them rearranging a display in the middle of the day, especially after someone has bought a piece, such as a sofa or a bookcase, from one of the vignettes. Then, its time to bring in a new piece of furniture from the barn, a building just north of the nursery where Mels stores its new inventory.


Almost daily something changes in the furniture department, Titus says. Thats why people think its so fun to come in here, because theres always something new.


About three years ago, Mels Nursery expanded into another new line of businessone that Shaw never dreamed she would trywomens apparel.


The one thing I said Id never do was apparel, Shaw says. But, her resolve wavered when she was looking for linens to sell in the store, and a linen company she was in contact with also offered some of the cutest dresses. I decided Id just sell a few of those, but its grownand has done fantastic for us, she says.


Last year, Shaw decided to add mens apparel, too. Next year, Mels hopes to build an addition onto the stores northern end so it can display more furniture and expand its mens apparel selection. She says shes not sure yet how large the addition will be.


Shaw declines to disclose Mels annual sales, but says each area of the business contributes to the bottom line equally.


The floral department bustles nearly every holiday, especially Valentines Day and Mothers Day, Shaw says. The nursery business, which Mel Shaw runs, hums from about April until August, when the Christmas trees go up. Then, right after the annual day-after-Christmas sale, the nursery begins growing geraniums and other bedding plants. It fills three greenhouses with plants, and Sue Shaw says Mels likely will add two more greenhouses this year.


Meanwhile, most of the buying for next years Christmas tree decorations takes place during January, as well as the buying for merchandise for the gift store and furniture department.


No new outlets planned


Shaw says that despite peoples requests, the business doesnt plan to open any additional outlets. Mels does have a small, three-employee card shop downtown, at 530 W. Main, that has operated for the past 12 years.


At the North Side store, busloads of tourists from Canada sometimes stop, and Mels has developed a following of regular customers through the years.


Some customers bring in clay pots or window boxes each year to have them custom planted; others come to borrow decorating ideas; and a couple of ladies come in weekly to sit, sip a latte, and see what new merchandise has arrived, Shaw says.


How do people find Mels?


Women and word-of-mouth advertising are the best thing for us, Shaw says. Women come in and tell five of their friends about us, and then those friends each tell another five friends. I think thats why weve been in business so long, even in spite of the big chains that have opened up.