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Ben's Timeline

{1983} Ben Busko is born in Setauket, Long Island, New York.

{1987} Ben started his first garden.

{1988} Known to always have a gardener’s trowel or paintbrush in hand.

{1989} Ben découpaged his mother’s cocktail table. She was pretty impressed.

{1992} Ben started “BEN'S GARDEN” selling découpage & notecards.

{1994} Mails Smith & Hawken and New York Botanical Garden a catalog, gets orders from both. Orders pour in. Ben puts his friends to work in his parent’s carriage house.

{1995} Ben had to change the “Please call 24/7, we’re waiting,” in his catalog, because his mom was not happy answering the phone at night.

{2000} A.P. English High School teacher conferenced his parents. Pages were missing from his textbooks. (He was making paperweights with the quotes.)

{2000} Publishes first issue of Ben’s Garden Quarterly. {2001} Met with C.Z. Guest, a famous socialite, to ask her to write for his magazine. While eating tiny sandwiches and watching her son practice polo, Ben talks about taking up polo as a sport. She laughs and agrees to write for his Magazine.

{2002} Graduates High School. Running BEN'S GARDEN at home in Setauket was making his parents and neighbors nuts.

{2003} Has a personal meeting with head buyer at Anthropologie, get’s an order. They end up buying all of Ben’s designs within 6 months.

{2003} Becomes a Master Gardener through Cornell University. Wholesale clients grow to include: ABC Carpet & Home, Dean & DeLuca, Kate’s Paperie. Ben begins regularly exhibiting at national trade shows in Atlanta, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York City.

{2004} Ben turns 20, and moves to Oyster Bay, Long Island and opens his first BEN'S GARDEN store & Studio.

{2006} Ben's Custom Découpage is featured in InStyle Magazine, and Ben is formally introduced to every bride, mother-to-be and gift-giver in America, even in Paris, Belgium and Chile. The orders fly in.

{2006} Starts writing quarterly magazine column for Home Magazines. Ben’s A.P. English high school teacher is impressed.

{2007} Opens second BEN'S GARDEN store in Huntington, New York on Long Island at 3850 Sq. Ft. with indoor conservatory room. Learns it's a big store to vacuum.

{2008} BEN'S GARDEN Studio in Oyster Bay expands into the space next door, to meet increased wholesale demand. It turns out customers like great handcrafted things made in the U.S.A.

{2008} Ben’s découpage designs are featured on Oprah’s “O-List.” Hip, hip, hurray!

{2009} Ben moves from Oyster Bay to Manhattan, he chooses to live above the High Line, of course.

{2010} Ben meets Martha Stewart. During two segments on her Show, he teaches her how to découpage and paint antique maps (all while trying not to fall over and speak in complete sentences), he attempts to not let on he's read all 40 of her books, and admit to looking forward to each issue of her Magazine. "Wow, every drop of glue is just where it should be...." said Ben overlooking Martha while she is gluing, "well of course," she replies.

{2011} Installs a 4,000 sq. ft. living green wall on the rear facade of his Huntington Store, the first on Long Island. The profound reality of gravity sets in quite abruptly, yet the Green Wall is deemed a success and small wonder.

{2012} Business booms and Ben flies to the Nordstrom Flagship Store in Seattle to have his first "meet-and-greet," sign découpage pieces and celebrate their Nordstrom Anniversary Event. Amazing!

{2013} Ben expands the BEN'S GARDEN Production Studio with a Brooklyn expansion to a 14,000 sq. ft. historic, waterfront warehouse overlooking the Statue of Liberty. Continues to meet and just fall in love with amazing BEN'S GARDEN customers during Special Trunk-Show Events in amazing, home boutiques carrying BEN'S GARDEN Collection all across the Country. Frequent flyer miles pile up.

{2013} More BEN'S GARDEN Stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan build out. Ben launches tech accessories, iPhone cases and more.

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