David Sather wanted a place to grow. After spending years developing a landscaping business in the Seattle area, he was ready to chase a dream by raising his own plant material.
When David arrived in Oregon, he knew he had found his place.
Todd Williams wanted a place to grow. After working at a retail nursery in Nevada for close to a decade, he was ready to create the plant material that he knew retailers wanted.
When Todd arrived in Oregon, he knew he had found his place.
Mikaela Eaton wanted a place to grow. After working nearly two decades in the nursery and landscaping trade in Nebraska, she left a comfortable career to accept a new sales job at a wholesale nursery in the Willamette Valley.
When Mikaela arrived in Oregon, she knew she had found her place.
Fred and Leigh Geschwill wanted a place to grow, as did Bill and Heidi Geschwill. As longtime Oregon natives with backgrounds in farming, however, they didn’t look far. They knew everything they needed was readily available to them.
Like the others, they knew they had found their place.
Oregon is Nursery Country, and the nickname doesn’t come by accident. As measured by gross sales, the state’s nursery and greenhouse industry is the number one sector in all of Oregon agriculture.
And just as nurseries lead Oregon agriculture, Oregon leads the U.S. nursery and greenhouse industry in many different horticultural segments. According to the latest USDA statistics, no other state sells more deciduous shade trees, deciduous flowering trees, or coniferous evergreens. Oregon is also near the top in broadleaf evergreens and deciduous shrubs.
Looking for arborvitae? How about ash, barberry, birch, boxwood, cedar, Christmas trees, or crabapple? Perhaps flowering cherry, flowering plum, honey locust, linden, Japanese maple, Norway maple, Pieris, pine, red maple or spruce?
Oregon is your place. No other state grows more of these plants.
But Oregon’s nursery industry is broader than just these plants. The state grows a wide variety of plants — annuals to perennials to vines to fruit trees to tropicals, and so much more. Search NurseryGuide.com, and you’ll find 18,075 different plant, service and supply listings from 388 growers and 730 companies, representing 4,611 plant varieties — all of it at your fingertips.
Or you can pick up the the printed Nursery Guide book — all 316 pages of it — at MANTS, Cultivate, CanWest and Farwest trade shows. It’s a great resource for office, briefcase or pickup truck.
Oregon is able to grow so many plants so well because of its mild climate, a long growing season, adequate winter dormancy, and available irrigation water.
But most importantly, there’s a community of talented growers who share their knowledge and help each other succeed. If one grower doesn’t have what you need, they are likely to point you to someone else who probably does. That’s why we thought we would introduce just three of them to you. Discover more at www.diggermagazine.com/nursery-country.
And next time you’re in Oregon, be sure to stop by and see David and Mikaela at Serendipity Nursery, near the farming community of Canby. Maybe arrange a visit with the Geschwills at F & B Farm and Nursery, down the road in Woodburn, or swing over to TSW Nursery in Aurora and Hubbard and see Todd and his crew.
Perhaps come to the Farwest Show, August 26–28 in Portland and meet many more great growers in a very short amount of time.
Take an extra day and explore. You’ll see why Oregon is a great place where people can grow.
Read the next Nursery Country 2020 grower profile:
Serendipity Nursery | F & B Farms and Nursery | TSW Nursery Sales Inc.
Explore the Nursery Country Issue Archives!
Nursery Country 2019 | Nursery Country 2018 | Nursery Country 2017
