New nursery faces Florida flash flood disaster

Golden Villa Gardens, a new wholesale propagation nursery located on 6 acres in Apopka, Florida, received 12 inches of rain in less than 12 hours on Sunday, Oct. 26. The next morning, president Matt Gold was faced with a disaster.

"It was a big surprise as I drove into the farm on Monday morning," Gold says. "We had a good Florida rainstorm at my house, 15 minutes from the farm, but nothing to be worried about. When I got there, one of the employees flagged me down to make sure I did not fall into the washout by our pond at the entrance. He had not been so fortunate and bottomed out as he drove over the washout. Luckily, he had enough momentum and one side of the car had traction, so he just got a good 'bump' as he went over the washout."

Gold's neighbor down the street has lived in the area for 40 years and claims he's never seen that much rain in one event before, including past hurricanes that have come through the area.

"We believe that we got around 12 inches of rain in six hours," Gold says. "We had one big wash out at each of our two ponds where the water runs into the pond, and one pond filled up and overflowed. Additionally, we had two washouts on another side of our property. The water flowed so heavily on our ground cover that it pushed out liner trays into one big log jam. All in all, the damage was rather minimal, and very little in material costs, but it has taken our whole team's effort one full week to fix the washouts."

On LinkedIn, President Matt Gold wrote, "I appreciate the warmth and support from all the beautiful people that have commented. To be clear, the damage is fairly minimal, and we should have this fixed in a week or so w/ minimal costs. I appreciate everyone's wishes for quick recovery. I believe God has been my biggest support in all this and I believe He will continue to be by my side (as well as my wife and my business partner Gerardo)."

Golden Villa Gardens specializes in new breeds of flowering woody ornamentals. Gold and his business partner, Gerardo Villasenor, both have 29 years of experience in the nursery industry, with most of that experience in Oregon. 

"We primarily grow new genetics (patented) flowering shrubs, but we also do non-patented flowering shrubs and small fruit as well," Gold says. "We put our first plants down on the ground in February and made our first cuttings in April. Our first liners sales were in August."