Wholesale Nurseries

Slow housing market continues

By Curt Kipp — Posted September 19, 2011

If you are a nursery grower and you depend on new home construction for a big chunk of your market, you might want to cover your eyes for this next one. Then again, you probably don’t need to, because you know what we’re about to say. In all-too-familiar news, the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) […]

Join our discussion on edible plants

By Curt Kipp — Posted September 16, 2011

Commenter Joanne Rigutto of The Little Homestead (Mulino, Ore.) chimes in with a comment on edible plants and their potential to do double duty as ornamentals: Almost any plant we grow for row crops in food production has potential for ornamental landscaping. I think one of the problems is that we normally don’t think of […]

Roses for 9-11

By Curt Kipp — Posted September 12, 2011

The first of three planned “Remember Me” Rose Gardens may be located 2,642 miles away near Stoystown, Penn., but the memorial for the victims and survivors of the 9-11 attacks has major connections to the state of Oregon. Sue Casey, a law librarian with the Portland, Ore. law firm of Ball Janik LLP, came up […]

Sweeping changes coming to patent system

By Curt Kipp — Posted September 9, 2011

Yesterday, on a lark, we posted about patents. Little did we know. Today, we have word that the U.S. Senate approved the America Invents Act on a 91-9 vote. The bill will implement sweeping changes to the U.S. patent system for the first time since 1948. The bill had already passed the U.S. House of […]

Portrait of a plant patent

By Curt Kipp — Posted September 8, 2011

If you have never seen a plant patent application, there’s a lot of detail involved. This application from Terra Nova Nurseries was for a new cultivar of Echinacea, specifically Echinacea spp. ‘TNGD’ which is described in painstaking detail. The patent application was submitted May 11, 2010 and granted Tuesday (Sept. 6), so the process took […]

Nursery receives grant to study sandbed fertigation

By Curt Kipp — Posted September 7, 2011

Oregon Small Trees Nursery recently was chosen to receive a Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grant. The nursery, based in Wilsonville, Ore., will use its grant funds to evaluate a little-used, but highly efficient, growing practice involving sandbeds. “The grant allows us to introduce new practices to further minimize our environmental footprint,” Oregon […]

Energy Trust of Oregon steps in with efficiency incentives

By Curt Kipp — Posted August 31, 2011

Many nurseries looking to cut their operating costs have found that energy efficiency projects pay strong dividends — particularly when incentives are available to help pay for them. Since 1979, the state of Oregon has offered the Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) program, which proved to be very popular. Not only did it save businesses […]

Norbert Kinen 1933-2011

By Curt Kipp — Posted August 29, 2011

We’re sad to report the Oregon nursery has suffered a major loss with the passing of Norbert Kinen. The past OAN president, former general manager of J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co., and member of the Oregon Nurseries’ Hall of Fame died Saturday. He was 78 years old. Services will be held at 4 p.m. […]

Scenes from the 2011 Farwest Show: Day Two

By Curt Kipp — Posted August 27, 2011

Want to see more pictures from the 2011 Farwest Show? What are you waiting for? We’ve posted an album of them on Facebook! Go! Now!

Connecting the dots

By Curt Kipp — Posted August 26, 2011

For 33 years, the National Gardening Survey has presented a statistical picture of who the gardening consumer is and where they are going. And according to garden retail analyst Ian Baldwin, who presented his analysis of the results yesterday at the 2011 Farwest Show, the picture has been very clear over the last several years. […]