Richmond Nursery Employees Allege Owner Bullied Them Amid Abrupt Closure

After a famed Richmond nursery abruptly shut down Thursday, former and current employees are accusing its owner of being a “bully” and driving the business into the ground.

Sarah Hundley took over Annie’s Annuals and Perennials when owner Annie Hayes retired in 2021 after 30 years of running the nursery known for rare and beautiful plant varietals, native plants and knowledgeable staff. In a note posted on the company’s social media on Thursday and attributed to her, Hundley said that health issues had played a significant role in needing to shut down the nursery.

“Despite my best efforts, the challenges — both personal and business-related — escalated much faster than I ever anticipated, and I could no longer maintain business operations,” the statement reads.

Melanie Williams, who began working at Annie’s Annuals and Perennials in 2013, said that since Hundley took over, the business has gone downhill.

“A shady person bought a wonderful business. She was able to convince [Hayes] that she was a great person and [Hayes] believed her,” Williams told KQED. “We’ve been fighting ever since to keep our sanity and keep the business productive. Now that’s all gone.”

On Tuesday, after KQED’s story was published, Hundley denied the allegations made by her former employees, saying that she cares about her employees.

“I have tried since the day I purchased Annie’s to make changes that would improve the lives and safety of each team member, and I closed the business in a way that I could best take care of them one last time by providing them with severance,” Hundley said via email.

Williams said that a condition of that severance was to not speak negatively of Hundley or the business.

Beth VanTassell, who had also worked at Annie’s since 2013, shared a story similar to Williams’.

VanTassell, who a colleague described as one of the “matriarchs” of the nursery, told KQED that soon after Hundley took over, she began acting verbally abusive to managers, seemingly in an effort to drive them to quit. Two other former employees, who spoke to KQED on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation and litigation, corroborated this claim.

According to Williams, only four of the roughly 10 managers on staff when Hundley became the owner remained by the time the business shut down this week, and three of those leaders had quit their managerial roles and come back on the condition that they would not have to interact with Hundley.

“I have so many coworkers who have left under mental, emotional and physical duress,” Williams said.

VanTassell said that despite Hundley’s behavior, she didn’t want to leave her job and stayed because of the relationships she had with other employees, including several who worked under her.

She said one of the final straws came after Hundley repeatedly reprimanded her for placing an order and accusing her of spending too much money and causing budgetary strain on the business.

“She would call me to her office and just belittle me and tell me how horrible I was and how I was ruining everything for the business,” she told KQED.

After months of this, VanTassel said, Hundley yelled at her in front of coworkers during a managers’ meeting, kicked her out and told her she was no longer welcome at these high-level staff discussions. Williams and another coworker, Roxanne Seraphin, confirmed VanTassel’s telling of the events.

“I left the room, and I proceeded to fall on the ground and just burst into tears,” she told KQED.

“I continued to work until I knew that everybody that I cared about, and I was in charge of, was gone. And sure enough, they left,” VanTassell said. She left Annie’s in 2023.

Hundley said that VanTassell made the decision without consulting her, and it “cost the company a great deal of money that could not be recovered.”

Williams said that the business had been losing money for at least a few years, and there were signs that the nursery might close, but Wednesday’s announcement that they would be shutting down almost immediately came as a surprise.

She found out about the closure on Wednesday when another employee shared a photo of a letter they received. On Thursday, a message went out on social media alerting the public that it would shut down the same day.

Staff gathered at the nursery on Friday for a meeting to discuss severance, according to Williams.

Hundley said that current health issues she is experiencing needed to be addressed immediately, and made it impossible to run the nursery, which is a strenuous task. She said that she has not found a buyer for the business at this time.

It is unclear what will happen to the store’s current stock, though Williams said she believes a few employees might be retained to ensure the plants stay alive in the short term. Customers with gift cards or items to return were told they were not able to be accommodated, according to a frequently asked questions page posted on the nursery’s website.

She isn’t sure what she’ll do next but said she’s worried about her coworkers — especially at least two households that two of Annie’s employees support.

“I love what I do, and that’s how everybody there feels. It’s a wonderful group of people, and we just couldn’t imagine it ending this way,” Williams said. “There were signs, but we didn’t see this coming.”

This story has been updated to include Sarah Hundley’s responses to KQED’s questions.