Jim Sherwood in a greenhouse full of geraniums at The Treehouse. Photo by Nancy Vogt

After all, his job is more like a hobby he still thoroughly enjoys.

Jim, 71, along with his partner, Curt Lindelof, owns and operates The Treehouse in Pequot Lakes, G&S Plants and Northern Pines Garden Center, both in Pine River, and Nature's Touch Floral and Gifts in Nisswa, which Lindelof operates.

They bought The Treehouse in late 1989, and that's where the process of growing plants from seeds or cut roots starts each January. Planning and production are his favorite parts of the business, Jim said, while giving a tour of a seemingly never-ending maze of greenhouses filled with seemingly endless varieties of colorful flowers and vegetable plants.

No matter what the weather, it looks and smells like spring in the warm greenhouses. The aroma and striking colors are enough to lift anyone's spirits.

"I get to be in spring starting in January. I only walk a few feet outdoors and I'm back in spring," Jim said of working in the greenhouses.

He loves to experiment with new plant varieties in the 40,000 square feet of space in more than a dozen greenhouses. He pours through industry catalogs in search of something new and different.

"I grow way too many varieties to make sense," he said, noting it may not be practical, but he enjoys it, especially when he sees a new variety grow well. Variety is The Treehouse's niche, he said. "Sometimes it doesn't work right, but we've come up with some very fun things."

Jim's passion for plants started when he was just a boy growing up in Pine River. He was curious about his neighbor's garden, and she would give him plants that he'd plant in his sandbox.

"I literally converted my sandbox into a garden," he said.

After graduating from Pine River High School, Jim attended the University of Minnesota to become an electrical engineer. He soon learned that wasn't what he was cut out to be, and returned to his main interests of botany and vocal music.

He received a degree in education and taught junior high school biology and other natural sciences in Grand Rapids for eight years. That included a one-year fellowship to do graduate work at the U of M in St. Paul in plant physiology.

While pursuing his education and then graduate work at the university, Jim worked at Bachman's floral and garden. After leaving Grand Rapids, he worked full time for three years in management at Bachman's in the Twin Cities.

Hennepin Technical Centers in Eden Prairie then hired him to run a new greenhouse crop production program. After 10 years, the program was phased out and Jim returned to the lakes area, where he eventually bought The Treehouse, and a few years later bought G&S Plants from his sister when she was dying of cancer. He had already been operating Northern Pines Garden Center by his sister's store.

Jim has owned a home on Lower Hay Lake for 31 years.

"I've never really left the Whitefish Chain," he said. "I'm a lake person."

Though not a fisherman, Jim still loves to water ski.

But the water is too cold to ski yet, and Jim is busy at The Treehouse, where 80 percent of sales occur in a six-week period from right before Mother's Day until mid- to late June.

He's also involved in the Nisswa Garden Club as past president, and he does the elaborate floral decorations at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa each Christmas and Easter.

He continues his love of vocal music by singing in the church choir at Lutheran Church of the Cross.

Besides music, swimming, boating and water-skiing, Jim's other hobbies include, obviously, gardening. He plants vegetables, flowers and fruits at his lake home.

"I'm supposed to retire someday, but I don't know when that's going to happen," Jim said.