Mark Bates started his store in Brentwood in 1988 and with over 30 years experience it seems he's always been around plants. In 1955 Earl B. Bates Nursery opened on White's Creek Pike in Nashville. This is the business, run by Mark's mom and dad, where Mark learned the nursery business while working with his family. But, the story goes even farther back than that, when in the early 1930's Mark's grandmother, Bessie, convinced her husband, Byron, that they should build a "hot house" and started growing plants. In a tough economy the enterprise thrived, and as the business grew she and sons Earl and Wilburn opened Bates Florist.