Garden party: Jefferson Boulevard store combines owner's passion for exotic plants, antiques and landscape design to form a unique, one-stop showroom. (Small Business).

WHOEVER made the rule that small businesses need a simple, clear-cut business plan never encountered Stephen Block.

Part horticulturist, part landscape designer, part antique dealer, Block has managed to fit these pursuits into Inner Gardens Inc., the company he built by rolling five businesses into one.

"It's always been difficult to characterize exactly what we do," said the 49-year-old Block.

Besides antiques, his 15,000 square foot Los Angeles showroom and nursery showcases rare orchids, trees and flowers. It also installs and maintains plants for local homes and commercial establishments.

"I have to go to about 15 different places to find what he has under one roof," said Nancy Goslee Power, the garden designer responsible for creating the Norton Simon Museum's sculpture garden in Pasadena.

Inner Gardens originated as an outlet for Block's fascination with antique hunting. Searching the world for unusual objects to incorporate into garden designs, he transformed his garage-based landscaping business into one of the nation's largest retailers of rare plants and garden antiques.

From its founding in 1989, Inner Gardens has grown to 20 employees and $2.5 million in revenues. Four-fifths of its business comes from landscaping services and antiques sales, the rest from the nursery operations.

"It's absolutely crazy-making. I'm being pulled in a different direction every minute of the day," Block said. "But if I did it all over again I'd do it just the same. I love the adrenaline and I need the diversity because I get bored very easily."

Lang haul

The sprawling indoor/outdoor site, just east of Culver City, is something of an anomaly on a quasi-industrial strip of Jefferson Boulevard. Mammoth items fill every crevice of the showroom, from 20-foot tall indoor trees to cannibal-worthy copper pots and massive iron chandeliers.

"I like things big," Block said.

Liz Blair, creative services director at House Beautiful magazine, tapped Block to design the courtyard garden for the magazine's 2002 Brentwood showcase home. "He's created one-stop-shopping for the luxury garden," Blair said. "Plus he's got an amazing design aesthetic."

Block, who grew up on a farm in central Florida, didn't get his first taste of gardening until he bought a rubber tree for his apartment while attending the University of Florida. On the way home, the tree broke, and Block was so clueless he had to call his mother for advice. She told him to stick the broken stem in a glass of water.

When roots unfurled, Block was hooked. He signed up for horticulture classes and opened a plant kiosk in a Gainesville, Fla., mini-mall with $200. Three years later, he sold the business to his manager and went into real estate.

Fast forward a decade to 1989. Block moved to California and returned to his earlier passion, horticulture. He landed his first gig installing and maintaining the corporate garden of Ken Ruby Construction at the Westside Towers at Olympic Boulevard and Bundy Drive.

"One day I was in an Armani suit on the top floor," Block remembered. "The next day, I was in jeans and a T-shirt with a pair of scissors and a bucket cleaning and watering the plants."

Word of mouth

Soon, other commercial real estate developers asked Block to install their corporate gardens. When his clients complained that they were spending too much money on fresh cut flowers every week, Block decided to offer orchids as an alternative. From there he started expanding his collection of interior plants.

In 1999, after outgrowing its first location, a 4,000-squarefoot green house in Culver City, Inner Gardens moved to its current showroom, where Block added an outdoor nursery.

Prices are steep -- a giant plaster planter shaped like a clamshell goes for $750 -- but the clientele, including Cher, Dennis Quaid and Charlize Theron, is unfazed by such numbers.

"His vision is not to be like every other landscape designer. He sees past the traditional terra cotta pots lined up in a row," said Michael Berman, co-owner of Thomas Schoos Design, one of Block's competitors.

Last year, the company had a growth spurt, thanks to an appearance on Martha Stewart's television show and a mention in an issue of Martha Stewart Living, in which the ubergardener herself referred to Block as a "kindred-spirit."

This year, Block has allocated about $150,000 to marketing and plans to double his exterior nursery to accommodate a larger variety of "bread and butter" plants that will complement his rare specimens. "I want designers to come here and be able to buy for all their clients, not just the one's who can afford one-of-a-kind orchids," he said.

He's also expanding the Inner Gardens wholesale line--a high-end collection of garden containers, sconces and chandeliers -- from six items to 25. He wants to go national and appeal to a wider demographic, or as he puts it: "I want to be Donna Karan and DKNY, Armani and Armani Exchange."

RELATED ARTICLE: PROFILE

Inner Gardens

Year Founded: 1989

Core Business: Landscape design, maintenance and garden decor

Revenues in 2001: $2 million

Revenues in 2002: $2.5 million

Employees in 2001: 12

Employees in 2002: 17

Goal: To grow the business outside of Los Angeles, increasing national exposure and national sales.

Driving Force: Passion for gardening and a voracious appetite for collecting.