Beyond Paradise Nursery celebrated the grand opening of its 14-acre location at 23920 FM 2978 in Tomball on Friday, March 18.

Beyond Paradise Nursery celebrated the grand opening of its 14-acre location at 23920 FM 2978 in Tomball on Friday, March 18.

Beyond Paradise Nursery celebrated the grand opening of its 14-acre location at 23920 FM 2978 in Tomball on Friday, March 18.

Beyond Paradise Nursery celebrated the grand opening of its 14-acre location at 23920 FM 2978 in Tomball on Friday, March 18.

Beyond Paradise Nursery celebrated the grand opening of its 14-acre location at 23920 FM 2978 in Tomball on Friday, March 18.

People driving along FM 2978 in Tomball may have noticed a cluster of blue and green shipping containers stacked in a seemingly gravity-defying arrangement.

It may look like a work of modern art but is in fact the new location of a family-owned business that got its start in Tomball years ago and has now returned home.

Beyond Paradise Nursery celebrated the grand opening of its 14-acre location at 23920 FM 2978 in Tomball on Friday, March 18.

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Alicia Baños, the company’s president and daughter of its founder Humberto Diaz, recalls collecting and planting various tree seeds as a child, helping her father alongside her mother and two siblings.

Her family had moved to the Tomball area in 1995. Her father ran a tree service business, which he started with the intention of one day growing and selling trees.

“We started growing, little by little, different types of trees,” Baños said. “It took years for the trees to finally grow and get to a decent size and that’s when he started selling the trees.”

After about five years, the tree farm finally took off and Diaz opened his first location in Tomball. Diaz received an offer on the property a few years later and decided to sell, Baños said. He then moved the business to Cypress.

“That garden center took off and we’ve been doing business there since 2005,” Baños said. “Now, this property over here in Tomball, the one where we are right now, he bought this land in 2004 with the intention of opening a garden center but we were so busy with the other business. Finally, we had the time to actually develop the land and start a garden center here at this location.”

The Tomball location has been open for business since the day of its grand opening celebration. The Cypress location is scheduled to close in June, she said, and the family is busy continuing to set up sections of their property in Tomball.

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As of now, Baños said, customers can find a variety of plants and products including annuals, perennials, tropicals, trees, insecticides, fertilizers, mulch, stones and other items, with more to come.

“We’re getting a lot of requests for a lot of products from the landscaper side and from the homeowner side, so we’re going to try to carry as much as we can,” she said.

In addition to their products, one of the factors they’ve found has been drawing in potential clients is their visually striking facility. Baños said the colorful structure attracts attention from interested passersby who often stop to ask questions.

“Multiple times a day — we repeat the same story all day long. It’s beautiful; I get happy when we get asked,” Baños said.

The two-story building is made of recycled shipping containers. The top level office area sits perpendicular to the bottom level garden center area. A lime green container on the side of the building is propped up at an angle as though partially levitating.

“My father’s very ecofriendly so he decided to use something recycled and what better than the shipping containers?” Baños said.

With Diaz’s design and the help of a friend who’s a welder, the unique structure came to fruition and has been serving its intended purpose.

“Humberto has always liked to stand out and he wanted to do something exclusively different from any other nursery around town,” Baños said. “He’s always liked the modern style, and being from Mexico, we do have a lot of buildings over there that kind of resemble this building. So, he wanted to bring a piece of Mexico here: a little bit modern, different, colorful.”

Relocating the business to Tomball was a natural decision for her family, who have lived in the area for nearly three decades.

“They really love this area; it’s a beautiful area,” Baños said. “We grew up in this area and now they live in Magnolia, so we wanted to stay close to home.”

Eventually, Baños said, their goal is for the property to also serve as a park-like environment — a place not only for customers, but also for families looking to enjoy time together outdoors.

“We are going to design gardens here just for that — so people can come here and relax and have a picnic, or just have lunch during work hours,” Baños said. “They don’t always have to buy anything. …Feel free to come in here and enjoy your time here. Us, we’re very close in our family, so I know that people want to have memories with their families and that’s what we’re looking for.”

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