Why is a little house with a white picket fence in the Cotswold Village parking lot?

A little beige house landed in the Cotswold Village parking lot this stormy week. It’s within sight of IHOP, Rite Aid and World Market, and white picket fencing is still going up around it.

So random. But there’s a purpose.

It’s a shed, built to resemble a house, that will serve as an express garden shop for North-Carolina-based business Witherspoon Rose Culture, which has a primary location in Durham and a second in Charlotte.

During the spring, the 65-year-old business likes to get where people actually are, said Charlotte manager Randy Fuller. Hence a busy shopping center, where people frequently flock for yoga, breakfast, grocery shopping, home goods browsing and beyond.

Witherspoon planted a couple of express locations in town before, but the last time Cotswold saw one was 2013.

This year at the Cotswold Village spot (set to open by April 18) you’ll be able to find everything a rose gardener needs to successfully grow roses, Fuller said. Think rose bushes, soil, mulch, fertilizer and pruners.

The one-room shed will serve as the checkout area, complete with literature to educate first-time gardeners.

As for the white-picket fence and the nice paint job on the shed, Fuller said, “We’re not a fly-by-night business. We’ve been doing this a long time. We want it to look nice.”

They also want to appeal to other shopping center property managers to eventually expand the reach of their express locations in Charlotte, beyond just one.

Fuller said the business sells about 180 varieties of rose bushes, not all of which will be available at the Cotswold express location due to space limitations. But shoppers should be able to browse a vast color selection from red, to pink, to apricot, to lavender, to white, to multi-colored. The cost of bushes vary, but falls around $26.99.

The express location will only be around until the first weekend of June. So stop in and at least smell the roses.

Witherspoon Rose Culture 

Cotswold Village express shop hours: Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 282 S. Sharon Amity Road.

Witherspoon Rose Culture’s permanent Charlotte location: 4401 Shopton Road. Phone: 800-643-0315.

Photo: Katie Toussaint

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Why is a little house with a white picket fence in the Cotswold Village parking lot?."