Lincoln Park Nursery makes its mark with unique offerings, customer care

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

What do giant rocks, chains that drip water, a stone bench, and an ornamental flowering cherry tree all have in common?

If you said they’re items on display at Lincoln Park Nursery in Amherst, you’d be correct.

You’d also be right if you guessed they’re products of owner John Maloney’s imagination.

In fact, he’s a big proponent of “one of a kind.”

“I like to do things different than other nurseries,” he said.

“If you want a custom bench, I make one – which means no one else will have another bench like it,” Maloney explained. “Our water features are all custom made and drilled here in-house. My brother and I drilled a hole through a rock, heck, almost 30 years ago, and made water come out of it. … No one else will have a water feature like that.

“That's what I like. I like to set ourselves apart from other companies when we do things. I want something one of a kind – something no one else will have.”

“I like to set myself apart when it comes to these things: things that stand out, the ‘wow factor’ kind of thing,” he said. “That's what we kind of strive to do. One-of-a-kind, handmade, unique, locally grown, organic.”

With the weather starting to spring, “April, May and June are our busiest months,” Maloney said. “Everyone coming out to get all their stuff for the season – because we're all cooped up in the wintertime, and everyone's anxious to get out here. Everyone comes in and usually is going to start getting their mulch for their landscape beds, or else need new landscaping. We'll carry all the seasonal items – your flowers, your hanging baskets, all your annuals, vegetables, things like that.”

For those Lincoln Park Nursery customers looking to go a step further than hanging a plant, “We can do anything from a simple tree planting to a full-blown landscape,” Maloney said.

“Not only do we sell all this stuff and deliver, but we install everything, as well.”

He explained, “If they're interested in having us do the landscape estimate, we set up a time for me to come out and meet them at their house, and I talk with them and go over the areas they're looking to do, any ideas that they might have. … That way, I can try to include some of these in our designs.

“We still do hand-drawn designs – nothing computer-generated. We go out, we do pictures, measurements, exposures, we gather up all that information, we bring it all back here, come up with the design, and then from there, I say, ‘We're going to call you once the design is done; we're going to come in here; we're going to present the design to you; and then we're going to walk around the nursery and look at plants.’

“I always like to do it like that because, for me to sit there and explain to the customer what a weigela is and what a spirea is on the job, they're like, ‘Well, I don't know.’

“What's nice is, ‘Let's come in and look at plants.’ I'm always a visual person. I want to see these plants, so I always like that process. Then it gives them the option as we're walking around our yard, ‘Oh, well, what is that? Oh, well, what's that?’ That will help me better understand what they're looking for, as well. And then I can really narrow their estimate down as to, ‘Oh, you really like that Japanese maple. Sure. We can put that right here.’ ”

For those whose thumbs are a little greener, “Another service we offer is the ‘We design, you dig.’ That's where, ‘Well, gee, I can plant stuff and dig a hole, but I just don't know what bushes to put where,’ ” Maloney said. “That's when the customer will provide the pictures and the measurements. Kind of what I would do if we were going to be doing the work. So, they're going to provide me with all that information, and we'll come up with the hand-drawn design for them. At that point, same thing, they're going to come in, we're going to present that design to them. We'll walk around and show them the plant material.

“They're actually going to get 20% off of their plant material if they purchase it from here. So, ultimately, the $125 design fee that we charge them for that service becomes free because they're saving money on all of the plants out there.

“A lot more people are going that route where, ‘Gee, I'm a young couple, and I just bought this house. I can't afford to have you guys do it, but if you can do the design for me, that'll help a lot.’ ”

Lincoln Park Nursery is celebrating its 75^th anniversary in 2026. Maloney is a third-generation owner – he actually grew up in the house next to the nursery. His grandparents, Jim and Grace Taylor, started the business in 1951. Maloney’s mother, Cheryl, took over in the 1970s, soon to be joined by his father, Tom. John began working at Lincoln Park Nursery in 1996, “and then I took over about 10 years ago,” he said. “This is the only job I've ever had my whole life. I've never filled out a job application!”

At Lincoln Park Nursery, “What you'll find here is just good customer service,” Maloney said. “That's, I feel, a dying industry, unfortunately. But one of the most important things, in my book, you have to have a good attitude and a smiling face when somebody comes in.”

He added, “It's rare that you still find family-owned businesses that … have been around as long as we have – but we must be doing something right if we've been around this long.”

Lincoln Park is located at 147 Old Niagara Falls Blvd. Though it’s a little off the beaten path, “The nursery grows every year,” Maloney said. “So many people who live in this area, ‘I've lived in Tonawanda or North Tonawanda my whole life, and I've never known you were here.’ I always say we're the hidden gem of Amherst over here.”

“I like it down on this end,” he said. “Once people discover us, ‘Wow, this place is great.’ ”

For more information, visit https://lincolnparknursery.com/ or call 716-692-6100.

The Lincoln Park Nursery/Maloney family.