Profile on Plow & Hearth--Reaping What You Sow (2,623 words)

The site's front-end interface is designed by Fry Multimedia of Ann Arbor, MI, while the catalog back end handles the fulfillment of orders, which are batch-loaded into its off-line system.

The upgrades to the site will come courtesy of Plow & Hearth's new parent, 1-800-FLOWERS.

In spring 1998, explains Peter Rice, "We were in the typical entrepreneurial situation where my wife and I were shareholders who had invested in the company over time, and we were looking for a strategy to get liquidity."