I was saddened to learn of the recent passing (April 4) of one of the most amazing horticulture figures, I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, the incomparable Pearl Fryar. It was 30 years ago this month, when I was speaking at South Carolina’s Brookgreen Garden, that we first met. Pearl was speaking ahead of […]
So many folks think running a nursery is such a pastoral, relaxing career, but as with most things in life, the realities are quite different….especially during the winter months. We have 30 greenhouse cold frames, which are kept at two different temperature regimens, 35F, and 55F, depending on the needs of the plants growing in
Interrupting Those Long Winter Nights Read More »
We’ve not experienced two back-to-back weekend winter storms in a while, although neither lived up to the meterologist’s hype. That’s because you can’t accurately predict non-linear systems like weather and climate with a linear model. To function well, liner models require you have data input from all of the variables. In the case of weather
Stuck in the Snownut Hole Read More »
Four new Mangave selections passed the final cut for inclusion in the 2026 Plant Delights catalog, that will launch in a few weeks. To understand how difficult it is to pass our tests for inclusion, we currently have 660 different mangave selections on trial, each vying for a few coveted catalog spots. For the next
It’s the time of year, we all hopefully stop and take time to thank those who are so important in our lives. I (Tony) am incredibly blessed to be embarking on our 40th year in business in 2026. No sane person thought our model of building a private, ex-situ conservation botanical garden, and mail order
We wanted to publicly recognize our friend, plant breeder, Hans Hansen of Walters Gardens, who was just granted his 516th plant patent. Of those incredible numbers, 18 patents came when he worked for Shady Oaks Nursery, and 498 were granted since he moved to Walters Gardens in 2009. To give you some perspective, only six
On Friday, August 13, I received a short, 5am text from a friend, plantsman, Laurence (Larry) Hatch, saying goodbye. Larry 65, had notified me a few weeks earlier, that he was in the late stages of heart failure, brought on by a life of obesity. All I could think was how odd it was to
It’s almost time to say so long to our long-time Plant Records/Taxonomist, Zac Hill, who will be moving to the Charlotte, NC area in early fall, to take over a similar position with the Bartlett Tree Company Arboretum. Bartlett is a private arboretum/research facility that, under the direction of plantsman Adam Black, holds one of
Kit Kat and I were having a heart to heart conversation in my office last week. As hard as we’ve tried to encourage her to strike out on her own innovative life path, she’s opted to take the simpler, less stressful route of just being a copy cat.
I was shocked and saddened to learn of the recent passing of my college classmate, Kim Hawks, 72. Kim and I shared a lot in common, starting with attending the same high school, horticulture classmates at NC State, both of us would start mail order nurseries, travel together in China for a month, and both
