Rainbow Gardens History:

Rainbow Gardens first opened it's doors to San Antonio in 1976. The first location was near West Ave. and Blanco Rd. It was originally the Harmony Hills Garden Center which was operated by the Hardin family, starting back in 1974. Legendary hardware man George A. Beere bought Harmony Hills Garden Center from the Hardin family and brought Frank Kirby into the partnership. Two years later, the Hollywood Park Garden Center was bought from the Reeves family and the second store was born. To tie both stores together, the stores were renamed Rainbow Gardens about 1980. Although the stores were sucessful, their small size precluded much orginality with design.
In 1985 the next generation of Rainbow Garden stores came into being with the opening of the Bandera Rd. location. This location sat on two acres. The extra space was luxurious, and the new store would be the model that other Rainbow Gardens stores would be based on. Gone was the tiny store on a postage stamp size lot. In 1987 the Hollywood Park store was moved to the Thousand Oaks location which had three acres to work with. In 1989 the West Ave. store was closed and the land sold to Firestone Tire company. In 1994, Ronnie Grell joined the partnership at the Thousand Oaks store. In 2000 Mr. Beere opened a Rainbow Gardens on Nacogdoches Rd. Mr. Beere's age (over 90!) kept him from doing the things necessary to make it profitable and it was eventually closed. During the 1990's both the Bandera Rd store and the Thousand Oaks store expanded to six or more acres each.
The owners love arboretums and parks, and have tried to make our garden centers enjoyable places to visit, ie. parklike, not just to shop. Each store is different in its look and inventory emphasis. Each year a significant amount of time and money is reinvested in each location to create a unique shopping experience. Your purchases allow us to continue with our dream of creating unique and fun places to shop, far beyond the "cookie cutter" garden centers seen elsewhere. Future visions include better retail buildings and greenhouses, more fountains, demostration gardens, pathways and interesting information presented in an educational mode not found elsewhere. It wouldn't be possible without YOUR support! Thanks!