By KAY S. PEDROTTI
Staff Writer

Because her father set such a good example, Lynn Henning has set up her wholesale plant business, Covered in Bloom, to do much more for the community than provide greenery.

Henning says her dad, the late David Hardy of Macon, "taught me from when I was just a little girl, how to grow plants and how to treat people." He built her first greenhouses, she adds, in 1994 when she gave up her real estate management job in Atlanta to start the home-based nursery because she needed to be close to her two young sons.

Hardy, whom Henning describes as "one of the most giving people on earth," died of cancer in 1995. It's his example that has led her to open up the wholesale business to individual customers, and to participate in "Partners in Education" and church fund-raising, Henning notes.

She continues a long-standing policy of giving plants to Fayette Senior Services and numerous county schools. Now parents and others can come to Covered in Bloom, mention the name of their favorite school when they purchase plants, and the nursery will keep track and send checks for a percentage of sale to those schools. There is no big "retail markup," she says, again because she feels strongly that "everyone should give back to their community as best they can."

Churches which want to fund a specific project, she says, such as youth trips, missions or special outreach projects, can receive the same percentages through agreements with Covered in Bloom.

The business has 62,000 square feet of greenhouse space and is kept "a squeaky-clean environment," Henning says, because of the danger from insects and diseases. She says the State Department of Agriculture inspectors say "they love to come out here because there's nothing for them to do." She pointed out a small area of wild grasses in an open area, noting the grasses would be uprooted "because I bet they're full of thrip," a tiny bug that sucks the life out of such popular plants as impatiens. "Sticky cards" hang in all the greenhouses, to trap bugs and alert the growers to problems as soon as possible.

Besides insects, Henning says her biggest worry is "the weather ... as an indoor farmer, I have come to have the utmost respect for those people who depend on outside crops for their living; I don't see how they do it."

Covered in Bloom stocks huge quantities of hundreds of varieties of flowers, perennials and ornamentals, but no trees or large shrubs. Hennings says "I figure if I can't pick it up, I won't grow it." Most of the plants are propagated by her staff of 22, including office manager Kristin Kuhr and construction manager Don Roberts.

The perennial garden being developed at the entrance to the nursery also will include a "netted" area for butterfly habitat, Henning says. That will make school field trips more educational and exciting for children, she adds. Some of the butterfly-attracting plants will include angelonia, scabiosa, verbena and pinta, she notes.

Now a single mother, Henning says she manages only with the help of a nanny, Mary Pridgeon. Taylor, 7, is a Brooks Elementary School student, and Connor, 4, goes to preschool. The boys are noted in a "decorated" cement area as "future CEO's." The business also supports seven dogs, four cats and four rabbits (who are not allowed in the greenhouses).