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Up close and tropical

A nursery specializing in tropical plants has a special feel thanks to the two energetic and engaging operators.

SEFFNER - There's a communal feel to Tampa Tropicals in Seffner.

It could be the Neil Young and Led Zeppelin playing in the background, or the fact that the proprietors' names are Pixie and Melody, or the fact that they sell products called Sensation, Curly Boy and Xanadu.

Whatever it is, customers love it.

"We know all of our customers by name," said Brenda "Pixie" Crawford, who helps run the farm. "When our customers come in, they hug us, and we hug them."

Crawford and owner Melody Ritter are the driving forces behind Tampa Tropicals, a wholesale farm specializing in leafy green interior foliage, such as ferns, and exotic landscaping plants.

Their nursery - seven frond-filled, greenhouselike gardens off Williams Road - is stocked with plants of such whimsical nomenclature as Basjoo Banana, Lily of the Nile, Figaro, White Butterfly and Mammy.

The names are much more colorful than the green plants, though there are a few exceptions - the rose-tinted Snowbush, the amber-flecked Gold Dust, the burgundy splotches on the Banana Roja.

Their tropicals decorate Busch Gardens, Westfield Shoppingtown Brandon, the Florida State Fairgrounds and several airports and hotels. Ritter and Crawford don't exactly know where the plants all end up, since they only sell wholesale to retailers such as Kerby's Nursery & Landscaping in Seffner.

"The little customer means the same to us as anybody else, because we're small compared to most farms," Crawford said.

Ritter and Crawford are the 3-acre farm's only employees.

A California native, Ritter and her husband, Steve, lived in Denver until Steve developed a heart condition. After doctors recommended they move out of the thin Colorado air, they purchased some land in Dover.

Steve had been knowledgeable about plants, so about a dozen years ago, they started a farm.

"I hadn't done much before, but my husband had," Ritter said. "I pretty much learned everything from him."

After wells near their Dover farm went dry, they packed up shop and moved to Seffner. Crawford joined the staff about eight years ago - shortly before Steve died from heart disease.

Ritter and Crawford became close friends as well as co-workers. Crawford, a Kentucky native, has even picked up a bit of the accent Ritter inherited from her Dutch parents.

"When I answer the phone, they think I'm her and she's me, and they do the same thing to her," Crawford said.

Tampa Tropicals' location near the intersection of Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 has helped make it fairly successful. Ritter says the farm takes in between $80,000 and $100,000 annually, though heavy rains may dent this year's bottom line.

Ritter and Crawford are happy to be doing what they love. Their nursery radio - religiously tuned to a classic rock station - will keep playing as long as they're in business.

"Anything we can do, we do," Crawford said. "Carpentry, weeding, we drive the backhoes and John Deeres - we do it all."

- Jay Cridlin can be reached at 661-2442 or cridlin@sptimes.com

WHERE: 8680 Williams Road, Seffner.

PHONE: 621-1619 or 1-800-688-9045.

HOURS: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; Saturday by appointment.

PRICES: Wholesale only, ranging from $2.25 to $8.50 per plant.