Digger magazine

Written to make you a nursery industry expert.

Nurseries problem solve a pandemic

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Ben Rough (pronounced “row,” rhymes with “now”) will never forget his first day of work at J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. nursery in Boring, Oregon. The newly hired CEO of the company started on March 23 — the same day that Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a mandatory stay-in-place order for Oregonians in response […]

Director’s Desk: We have your back

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Gardening is not canceled. Oregon’s nursery, greenhouse, retail and supply chains are open for business. Our state and governor could have mandated full closures and declared our businesses non-essential. The fact they didn’t do this is a credit to the OAN’s leadership and its advocacy team. They were the perfect picture of vision, pure effort […]

President’s Message: Into the unknown

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Spring is a hectic time. Add in a worldwide pandemic with economic uncertainties, and it can be a recipe for disaster. The most unnerving aspect is the unknown. As an industry, we are accustomed to unpredictable weather. We see damaging frosts, rainy weekends, and hot, dry summers stressing the growing season. These are all hiccups […]

New Mexico garden retailers can reopen

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Independent nursery retailers in New Mexico have won the right to reopen for business, provided they do it via curbside pickup and/or delivery service only. The state government had previously left garden centers, retail nurseries and retail greenhouses off the state’s list of essential businesses, although farms — a category that includes wholesale growers — were […]

Plants for a better planet

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Great Plant Picks program highlights selections that perform consistently in the Pacific Northwest Over the last several years, many areas around the country have experienced prolonged droughts, excessively hot temperatures, and a noticeable decline in the population of pollinators. No one can deny that planting to increase insect diversity and lower water use is a […]

Garden centers must remain closed in Pennsylvania

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The Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association (PLNA) submitted a request that independent, family-owned garden centers be considered essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but received a response that no change would be made, according to the association website. Other states in the northeastern U.S., including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio, have allowed […]

One-stop national nursery industry resource for COVID-19 launches

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The Nursery & Landscape Association Executives of North America (NLAE) have launched a one-stop tool for green industry businesses to see how operations and shipments to and within various North American states and territories are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Agriculture is essential, and nurseries are a part of agriculture,” Margaret McGuire-Schoeff, executive director of […]

Little Prince of Oregon creates retail referral program

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, OAN member Little Prince of Oregon Nursery (Aurora, Oregon) has created an online affiliate marketing program called Garden Center 911. Under this program, retailers refer customers to the wholesale grower’s consumer website, www.littleprinceplants.com. Little Prince sells the plants and ships to the customer directly, and the retailer gets a 20% commission on each […]

SBI Software creates no-contact retail pickup program

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Nursery inventory management and sales software developer SBI Software (Portland, Oregon) has created a no-contact plant ordering portal in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It allows retailers to upload inventories and pictures to a website (www.nocontactplantpickup.com) where customers can then order and pay for the plants online using their computer, phone or tablet. After ordering, the […]

24,000 people register for OSU Master Gardener vegetable course

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The chance to learn more about vegetable gardening has proved irresistible to people who are spending copious time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the Oregon State University (OSU) Master Gardeners began offering their online vegetable gardening course for free, more than 17,600 people signed up as of April 1, an OSU Extension […]