COVID-19 has meant two banner years for nurseries, but the future’s a little foggy Over the decades, Grace Dinsdale’s Blooming Nursery has enjoyed a fairly steady path of gradual growth. The past few years, the Cornelius-based wholesale nursery has seen solid sales increases, often between 5% and 10% each year. For Dinsdale, who founded Blooming […]
Hired help
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— PostedWhat it takes for nurseries to find the workforce talent they need Working in the nursery industry is not easy. Laborers in the fields endure harsh weather conditions and strenuous work that can test their physical endurance. Drivers spend long hours on the road away from their families. Growers and production staff have to constantly […]
Feeling the heat
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— PostedGreater efficiency in greenhouses can reap big rewards Jay Cushman has been in the nursery and horticulture industry for a long time. Not only did he graduate from Oregon State University with a degree in ornamental horticulture and spend more than 15 years with companies such as Sun Gro Horticulture and McConkey Company, but he’s […]
Nursery Guide LIVE clicks into place
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— PostedOAN’s first virtual show connected the industry in a new way in March Zen Landis, the Oregon Association of Nurseries’ events and education manager, knows what it’s like to prepare for and help run a big and important professional association event like OAN’s annual Farwest Show. You prepare for months, deal with logistics and coordination, […]
Virtual is the new reality – for now
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— PostedThe nursery industry’s power trade shows go virtual in the age of COVID-19 Vanessa Finney can say something about the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS), one of the industry’s largest annual shows, that just about no one else can. She grew up with it. Literally. Finney’s father, Carville Akehurst, was the first executive vice president of […]
Trade shows in the time of COVID
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— PostedThe Baltimore and Minnesota shows plan virtual offerings for January Since 1981, the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show has been held every year at the Baltimore Convention Center. One of the industry’s largest shows, it usually draws close to 12,000 attendees and nearly 1,000 exhibitors to about 300,000 square feet of convention center space. MANTS would […]
Plants on the move: Freight with uncertainty
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— PostedCOVID-19 threw nursery shipping for a loop, but things settled and stayed strong Gary “Bert” Bertleson used to have it pretty good in the summer. The head of nursery over-the-road sales for Integrity Logistics, a freight shipping and trucking broker in Wilsonville, Bertleson would regularly take an entire month off in the summer. He was […]
Nurseries, COVID-19 and the economy
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— PostedEarlier this spring, all signs suggested that the nursery industry might be in for a rough ride. In early March, the World Health Organization announced that COVID-19 had become a global pandemic. Soon thereafter, states began declaring emergencies, closing schools and limiting large gatherings. Then came the stay-at-home orders and the closure of non-essential businesses, […]
Up and running — online
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— PostedFor retailers, an unfortunate pandemic accelerates the trend towards online ordering It’s May, the month of Mother’s Day and, typically, the peak season for garden centers and nurseries in Oregon and around the Northwest. It’s the month when Americans usually spend close to $1.9 billion on flowers to honor their moms and when pastime gardeners […]
Mastering the merge
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— PostedNurseries share the benefits of integrating wholesale and retail in one operation It was 38 years ago and Grace Dinsdale had just launched Blooming Nursery, a wholesale nursery in Cornelius, Oregon; just west of Hillsboro. Her goal from the get-go had been to operate as a wholesale nursery that could supply the industry with a […]