SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Philip Helland, founder of Landscape Garden Centers, died Saturday at the age of 83.
He’s a lifetime leader in gardening and landscaping.
Helland was a partner at both Aberdeen and Watertown Lakeland Nurseries. He and his family moved to Sioux Falls in 1977 to open a third location.
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It’s where he soon met his friend and colleague Paul DeJong.
“I started there in the spring of 1982. I believe it was March,” Paul DeJong said. “The company was called Lakeland Nursery. It was nothing like you’d assume today. It was a smaller garden center out of the rural edges of town.”
A few years later, the Lakeland Nurseries partnership broke up due to health reasons. Helland took over the Sioux Falls center and renamed it.
“My dad founded Landscape Garden Centers, and created the name Landscape Garden Centers,” his son Erik Helland said.
Helland operated Landscape Garden Centers for decades, planting a legacy in the Sioux Falls community. In 2002, he sold the garden center to his son and DeJong.
“After he sold it, he was at a rather young age. He was, I believe, just 60. So, I think he got a little bored at times. He’d come in and read the Wall Street Journal, still meet people,” DeJong said.
Along the way, Helland helped develop several Sioux Falls neighborhoods. He was a part of the Washington Pavilion Board of Trustees and the South Dakota Symphony board. He was also an honorary member of the South Dakota Nursery & Landscape Association.
“Learning those things from my dad is very helpful in being successful,” Erik Helland said.
Visitation is happening Thursday, March 20th from 5 to 7p.m at Miller Funeral Home-Southside.
You can read Phil Helland’s full obituary here.
