When I first started my nursery, I soon found many nursery people who were in the plant business from their family. They had large farms devoted to plant production. Some were connected to the Christmas tree industry while others came later in the form of landowners with both production and large cold storage capabilities. They were the big wholesalers here in Michigan. We have this dune like sandy soil on the southwestern side of the state which is ideal for this type of production. That model and system would allow huge production as well as having human resources for shipping them throughout the country. They are in locations moderated by the climate of Lake Michigan.  They have several hundred employees to do the harvesting, processing, counting and grading required. They were often workers from Mexico traveling to the United States following the crop harvests in different sections of the country. I was fortunate to meet one family who worked alongside me in one of the nurseries I was employed at. The father of this family told me of the reality of his existence and all the places he was employed at over the years. No one really knew his backstory. The small retail nursery also had a back story. The owners were not farmers and usually had little knowledge of horticulture other than reading a few books. I began to ask them what they did for a living and what they were most interested in. These were the ministers, police officers, engineers, degreed in history or the arts, schoolteachers, multi-millionaire and oil magnate. Some were retired from the car industry and worked in manufacturing. Each of these individuals was part of the retail nursery industry and had found themselves in the sale of nursery stock. That is not an easy row to hoe. They shared one trait. They were short lived.

Today the nursery business is even more challenging. A small or backyard nursery is not sustainable unless you are using social media, and you are an educator and entertainer at heart. If you are a minister career wise, use those talents to spread your message of your plants as well as your life without being too preachy. Tell people your back story. Use your current occupation to showcase your talents related to your life experiences and why you are passionate about plants. For me I used the catalog system. Today that model is not used much at that level. Remember you are up against non-profits running nurseries, state land grant university nurseries, state level government run nurseries who regularly ship out of state, conservation industry wholesalers, low minimum order wholesalers of which most of them are already, as well as uncertified nurseries with no inspection or license to produce or sell nursery stock. It is a field of producers and sellers that is tough to weave through. Some companies are partially funded by government grants. This is particularly true of native plant nurseries that almost always have plant removal programs or bid on contracts for native landscape material for infra-structure projects. On the removal side of what is caught in the net of invasive species, I find it disheartening only because these same nurseries are being ecologically misled and exposing themselves to known carcinogenic compounds.

My model was the mail order business. This is not the same as it once was partially because of the costs of printing and mailing. People do like to read catalogs if they are well written with good images. The catalog is like the vinyl of the plant business. This is not J. Jill or the fashion industry.  The plant profit margins are tight.

The best aspect of the small individually run nursery is the ability to capture traits found in plants on a regional scale. It’s poor in terms of producing a profit but fantastic in its ability to do a turnaround on finding new plants, selecting them with new possibilities and then releasing them to the public. It is especially true with food plants. Most people ignore this category of nursery stock unless it is grafted trees. This broad stroke of selection, release and dissemination is critical in the years ahead of plants that are not known to be used in any current agricultural setting. It can include a vast array of exotic plants throughout the world including many unknown indigenous plants. The small nursery can fiddle with that because it has time and is not tied to any one single philosophy or idea entrenched in an ecology or agricultural textbook on the shelf. It is not commercial and scientists in modern agriculture will pretty much ignore you. You’re on an island. It is by designing this system of low budget, free of grant money trajectory allows you to leap tall buildings in a single bound. This is the nursery business model of tomorrow.  How that translates is yet to be seen but likely it will be advertising and social media that will help propel it into the future with success. Yes. People will respond with support for your mission and message whatever you decide to create and discover.

An Example: Improving the Apple Via Small Nursery Style

Apples are everywhere. It is the ‘cosmopolitan escapees’ that show the greatest promise. Here is a domesticated fruit, highly valued, which has ecologically integrated into the environment and roadsides. This type of selection is easy to harness in a small nursery. You collect a few bushels of fruit, process the seeds and plant them. A 50 ft. long by 4 ft. wide bed could easily grow a thousand seedlings. These seedlings spaced in 6 rows 8 inches apart are the future of your apple. You look for clean foliage as they grow. You look for a fast growth rate. At the end of the third year, you tag the plants that are well structured with clustered limbs, clean foliage and strong growth.  This is what is needed in the apple. Who cares if your bed of trees becomes a tangled mess of apple trees. You can leave them there if you wish or just plant out the ones you want. You can remove the weak plants in the row to space out the good healthy trees in the process. You only need a pair of lopers. Maybe your new apple bed will be a blockade for light and sound in your yard. Maybe it will become a giant floriferous hedge filled with bees and pollinators of all types. Maybe it will create a huge mess of apples all splatting the ground in one giant load of saucey goodness. It does not matter because you now have a future with these trees and soon you will share it with the world. It could be grafted or maybe you will save the seeds of the best selections however you decide what best is. Best is best for you.

 These trees are the beginning of your “breeding program” all done in a small nursery setting. No one cares about your apples at first. People may say it is a one in a million chance. Someone may ask you if it is native. It does not matter because your goal is to find no-spray apples. Your goal is a nutritious apple for syrup and cider. Your goal is to finally grow an apple free of bugs. This is only possible in your nursery because you care about the apple and how it grows. No one else does it like you. This is your island and soon it will grow to continent size if you harness the power of social media and finally disseminate your discovery. All of this is part of the small nursery industry and your small nursery while combining it with your life experiences. It’s a story for you to tell.  It’s not a hard row to hoe.

Try it. You will see.

Enjoy. Ken

A small roadside tree found in northern Michigan. Perfect for the small nursery.