Columns

Does your customer’s experience match your marketing?

By Ian Doescher — Posted December 28, 2018

Imagine this scenario: you see Apple’s commercials. They’re full of young people having fun, living their best lives (we’ve all seen them). You see Apple’s advertising — slick, smooth, promising technology that changes your life and leads you into the future. You hear about Apple’s products and how innovative and game-changing they are for the […]

A bumpy ride ahead?

By Jeff Stone — Posted December 28, 2018

The year ahead could turn out to be a defining one, both economically and politically. The perception around the state and nation is that we are a people divided. We are urban and rural. We are conservative and liberal. And we are using social media as a tool for derision and conflict. We certainly have […]

We are Oregon grown

By Mike Hiller — Posted December 28, 2018

If you have not visited Oregon to experience what is grown here, you need to. This issue of Digger is the Nursery Country issue, featuring the state’s quality plants and the growers who produce them. It’s a good read, filled with good information. However, there is no substitute for driving the roads, walking the farms, […]

Obsessive gardeners

By Mike Darcy — Posted November 26, 2018

The first time that I saw a rose garden with umbrellas over the plants to protect them from rain, I was in disbelief! “Umbrellas keeping the rain off of rose flowers,” I thought. “That must be a very obsessive gardener.” Since that time, I have learned that it is not an uncommon obsession for rose […]

A homegrown connection for the holidays

By Jeff Stone — Posted November 26, 2018

Every household has a holiday tradition, as does every culture. In Mexico, the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (December 12) is a public holiday. It is a Catholic feast to celebrate the belief that a man encountered the Virgin Mary, Mexico’s patron saint, in Mexico City on December 9 and 12, 1531. St. Lucia Day, […]

Winter is coming

By Mike Hiller — Posted November 26, 2018

This might sound like a plug for Game of Thrones — after all, the Season Eight premiere isn’t that far away! But seriously, winter isn’t just coming, as they say. It’s here. Preparations must be undertaken. From a grower’s standpoint, we are almost done getting the plants ready to survive the winter. Some growers, meanwhile, […]

The Pacheco brothers

By Jeff Stone — Posted October 24, 2018

Four decades ago, Doug Zielinski — then a recent Oregon State University graduate, fresh off an internship at Kraemer’s Nursery — decided to chase a dream by becoming a fourth generation farmer. Doug’s father, Ernie, had taken over the farm when he was just 15 years old, after Doug’s grandfather, Charlie, suddenly passed away. The […]

Support is critical

By Mike Hiller — Posted October 24, 2018

My name is Mike Hiller, I work at Kraemer’s Nursery in Mt. Angel, Oregon, and I am proud to be your new OAN president. But how did I find myself in this position? Several years ago, Mike Coleman approached me to consider joining the Executive Committee of the OAN Board of Directors. I asked him […]

Common questions from the summer

By Mike Darcy — Posted September 25, 2018

It probably goes without saying that it has been a long, hot summer and early fall. With record high temperatures and little or no rain, one might have expected customers to stay away from garden centers. However, this was not the case. Customers continued to shop for plants and also relied heavily on garden centers […]

Honoring the past and charting the future

By Jeff Stone — Posted September 25, 2018

The Oregon nursery industry was built with the sweat of our earliest growers. Blessed with some of the best soil in the country, their hard work transformed unknown markets into opportunities. There is an old photograph that is at the OAN office, and I pass it every day. It looks to be in the mid-1930s […]