Leadership

Deborah Rodgers, Owner/President

Contact Deborah

Deb Rodgers’ love affair with the business started many years ago when she worked for the well respected Lois Woodhull, the former owner of the Plantage. Lois built her business and reputation on providing quality products and was recognized as one of the best perennial growers in the region. Deb is now modeling the North Fork Boutique Gardens on the knowledge and teachings of her former mentor.

Deb has a wealth of experience in operating a business and understands the importance of customer service. She has helped grow WRS Environmental Services Company, a family owned business which remediates and restores land and water through out the tri-state area and beyond,   serving as Office Manager and Quality Assurance Director. She is also the Owner of the Indy 3000 Inc. family of companies, a woman owned automotive lubrication, NYS inspection and small repair shop servicing the public together with fleet accounts & contracts servicing all county vehicles for over 15 years.

Kathryn Donoghue, Controller

Contact Kat

After falling in love and moving to the North Fork of Long Island to start a family, Kathryn found herself changing industries and at NFBG. Although she does not come from a horticulture background, she has quickly learned from her expert colleagues.

Prior to NFBG, Kathryn (Kat) for 8 years worked in “High-end” retail,  managing multiple stores from Manhattan to The Hamptons developing exceptional customer service skills, visual merchandising, loss prevention, marketing and business etiquette skills. No wonder she was quickly promoted to Executive Manager. If you’ve had the opportunity to chat with Kat at NFBG, you get it.

Now a “local” on the North Fork of Long Island, Kat enjoys spending time with her husband, son, daughter and fur child. She enjoys all things DIY, spending afternoons on the beach or in the woods and every aspect of being a Mom.

Matthew Purcell, Director of Operations

Contact Matt

Matt caught the bug early in life starting on a family trip to Sequoia National Park at age three. He assures all this was not a glamping trip, tents up and down every day with his four siblings a schedule like no other, cross country in a two-tone gold and green Dodge van. Whatever it took to reach the next museum, art gallery, statue, campground or national park. He remembers the van driving through the trees as well as running atop those magnificent although fallen trees. The size of the trees was enough to influence his direction in life.

In high school he worked as many hours as he could, around a busy sports schedule, mostly lawn jockey but also on landscape and patio installations. Matt holds a B.S. in Ornamental Horticulture from Delaware Valley College and is a NYS Certified Pesticide Applicator.

Matt has had the pleasure of working in landscape, retail, re-wholesale and wholesale segments of the industry for nearly 30 years and believes a quality first approach is priority one. 

Matt built and managed a 20 acre wholesale perennial growing facility from the ground up for the last 18 years, delivering product throughout the northeast. He has assisted in design of custom software packages focusing on customer relationship management, inventory and product availability, order entry and packaging for retail sales.

Although Matt is a workaholic he likes to spend time with his wife and four children on the family land barge, all kidding aside the boat is in the yard more than on the water. Fishing, tubing and sightseeing on the waters off eastern Long Island. No more glamping for him it’s all about the plants and reaching new heights with NFBG.

Joshua Scruggs, Director of Sales and Business Development

Contact Josh

Joshua (Josh) Scruggs is Director of Sales and Business Development. He partners with green industry professionals to ensure that NFBG can fulfill their nursery needs.

Josh has over two decades of green industry experience working in nursery management and operations, as a nursery buyer and in sales for family-run businesses and national corporate nurseries. He believes that customer service and quality plant material are the key to building long-lasting professional relationships.

Josh has a Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Industries Management with an emphasis in horticulture from the University of Minnesota, Crookston, Minn.

He enjoys family time with his wife and two boys and is active in greyhound rescue.

Paul Thornblad, Account Manager

Contact Paul

After more than 4 decades working in garden center related businesses I always come back to an old saying: “Good plants sell themselves”. With this in mind, let me show you what NFBG has to offer.

Karen Bassett, Sales Representative

Contact Karen

Karen’s love of “playing in the dirt” started with a childhood backyard mud kitchen and the scent of honeysuckle, hyacinth, and spearmint from her mother’s garden.  She later studied horticulture at SUNY Farmingdale and started out as an herb gardener.  Her horticultural interests continued and she refers to herself as a plant addict and amateur entomologist.  Perennials and natives are personal favorites and her home gardens are registered on the Pollinator Pathway as well as the Monarch Waystation Program.  Karen is a member of the CT Entomological Society and has been known to teach classes about insects to the elementary school kiddos in her town.   “The kids always love it when I tell them that dragonflies used to be the size of third graders!”  

Prior to joining NFBG, Karen had a successful outside sales career in the travel industry, so providing excellent customer service is second nature.   Her love of travel, hiking, kayaking, swimming, or nearly any other outside activity, keeps her smiling.  As the most recent recruit, she is thrilled to join the NFBG team and set some roots down with us here.

Originally from Long Island, with lots of family on the North Fork, Karen currently resides in CT with her husband, her son, and a hedgehog named Cali.

John Doe