About the nursery
Plant availability lists
Native plant introductions
Recommended varieties/FAQs
Client/site listings

Why do the non-native plants you buy ending up costing so much to keep them looking good?

After WWII the stage was set for the nursery business that existed into the 1990s. The model was simple, as explained by a nursery veteran when Dan was first starting his business. Don't mess up a good thing...this is what it takes to make money.

What were the general principles?

1. Grow what is easy.

Nursery stock should be selected for what is easy to grow from cuttings or from large, easily handled seeds such as acorns (oaks).

2. Every plant must have a fatal flaw.

For instance the Burford Holly is an excellent example. You buy 20 five gallon plants to place around your foundation. They are $18.50 apiece (1982 price). The plants grow fine for four to six years and make an attractive box hedge.

At five years you begin to have some problems - yellow leaves appear. You make a trip to the nursery center to find out that your plants need iron and magnesium. For $5.95 you buy five pounds of Copperas (ferrous sulfate) and five pounds of epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate) for $6.95. And viola, within two weeks the leaves are dark green and the plants look happy. It's May and the wife is happy.

Move ahead to August, the hollies now look sickly. Upon close inspection there appear numerous white scale-like deposits on the bottom of the leaves. Another trip to the garden center confirms the presence of a pest - the difficult to eradicate scale! Now for $12.95 you buy one quart of Diazinon and a spreader.sticker ($4.95 a pint) Of course now you need a sprayer ($19.95). So one hour and $40.00 later you are back home spraying a potent poison around your house. But hold on - now comes the real expense.

3. Don't grow plants that live a long time.

It's now Spring of the following year and here comes Grandma and Grandpa for Easter. Big problem, three of the 20 Burford Hollys you planted six years ago are dead. Of course now they are 4-5' tall and a trip to the nursery shows you that the replacement size is a 10 gallon at $72.00 apiece. The wife is adamant - it's her parents visiting. You borrow your neighbors pickup truck and for $230.00 plus another $20.00 for iron, magnesium and poison you're all set. Wait, you need another shovel ($14.95) because you broke the other one digging out the dead roots. Sweat, anger along with a sore back and stings from the omnipresent paper wasps set things right - but only for 10 months. Every spring you need to replace three to five hollies. Congratulations, you are now sucked into the business model that drove the U.S. to prosperity through 2008.

Enjoy the ride...