Digger magazine

Ready to rise and shine

By Jim Simnitt — Posted October 23, 2019

I was fortunate to grow up on our family nursery in Canby, Oregon. It is where I found a love of plants and the nursery industry, and has brought me to being your president of the Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) this year. If we have not met, let me introduce myself. My name is […]

October 2019

By Bill Goloski — Posted September 30, 2019

Learn how retail nurseries are bringing customers into the stores during the off-season. Plus, Christmas tree farmers who weathered through the rough recession share their outlook on the future, and Oregon State University talks about their new hazelnut cultivars. In this issue: Retail for the holidays: Garden centers transform themselves into destinations for fall and […]

Ornamental hazelnut cultivars from Oregon State University

By David Smith — Posted September 26, 2019

The hazelnut breeding and genetics program at Oregon State University (OSU) has named and released two disease-resistant, red-leafed ornamental cultivars of European hazelnut, Corylus avellana L. The cultivars bring to the nursery industry new combinations of interesting growth habit, leaf form and color, and resistance to the fungal disease eastern filbert blight (EFB). ‘Red Dragon’, […]

O, Christmas trees

By Jon Bell — Posted September 26, 2019

The industry’s been on a rough ride, but some silver linings point to a bright future The years leading up to the Great Recession were merry ones for Christmas tree farmers in the United States. Consumer demand and spending were strong, prices were steady, and the supply was bountiful. The future looked bright as a […]

Retail for the holidays

By Tracy Ilene Miller — Posted September 26, 2019

Garden centers transform themselves into destinations for fall and Christmas The months leading up to December can lead to a slowdown in business at many garden centers, as gardening activity decreases. But some retailers have made these months quite profitable, and without going too far off mission, if at all. After all, nurseries and garden […]

My Farwest Show favorites

By Mike Darcy — Posted September 26, 2019

There are many reasons that I regularly attend the Farwest Show. One is for the social connection to others in the horticulture industry. There is camaraderie among garden people that I rarely see in other organizations, and it is hard to explain until you are part of it. I believe that social interactions are extremely […]

Your success is OAN’s mission

By Jeff Stone — Posted September 26, 2019

I have served as your executive director for more than nine years now and have been a steadfast advocate for the best people I have ever met. If you include my time as your government relations director prior to that, I have seen 14 years of ups and downs in our industry. When Kristin VanHoose […]

Oregon nurseries hit nearly $1 billion in yearly sales

By Curt Kipp — Posted September 26, 2019

Nurseries and greenhouses sold nearly $1 billion worth of products during 2018, according to a new estimate by the Oregon Department of Agriculture — good enough to qualify as Oregon’s best-selling agricultural commodity once again.

A word of thanks

By Mike Hiller — Posted September 26, 2019

“Thank you.” These two words are so often underused, but I have chosen to start out this month’s column by using them for a specific reason. It has been such an honor to serve as president of the Oregon Association of Nurseries for the past year. Thank you to all of the staff members and […]

SAIF announces dividends for Oregon employers

By Bill Goloski — Posted September 5, 2019

The board overseeing SAIF, the state-chartered workers’ compensation insurance company, has approved two dividends that policyholders will receive for 2019. One is a $120 million primary dividend to be paid to policyholders based on their premium. The other is a $40 million safety performance dividend to be paid based on each policyholder’s safety results. This is […]