Our annual tree planting video is up! We had a beautiful stretch of weather this year to get everything planted. Thanks to our great crew for all of their hard work, especially with all of the extra complications worrying about COVID-19. We loved having our son Joey home to help out and a special thanks to my brother Chris and his iTrees.com & Harford Farms crew, and of course Sky and her tractor driving cuteness. Bring on some rain & sunshine!

To read the full story about our 2020 tree planting CLICK HERE for our blog post Planting for the Future!

Planting for the Future! Our 2020 Tree Planting is in the Ground!

We took advantage of the perfect weather and got all of our new liners planted this past week. We planted our 21st crop last week as we celebrate moving forward into the next 20 years of growing. Everything planted perfectly, and we are thrilled with how great this new crop looks. Our crew was excellent as always, and we are very thankful for everyone who helps us get it done. An extra treat this spring was having our son Joey home from college to help out. Our kids have both planted with us since they could walk, and this was going to be the first year Joey would be gone away at college and miss planting week. Due to his University being shut down, he is home now finishing his semester online. Thankfully he was able to help plant too. It was fun to have him around for one of our favorite weeks of the year!

The crew here at SGN, whether experienced employees that have done it before or new ones jumping in for the first time, are the absolute best and getting the job done with the utmost level of care and attention. As Jamie always says, “the most important day for this tree is when it gets planted here in my nursery.” It is important that our trees are planted properly so that they have the best chance at success later in the landscape long after they leave our field.  Our team here at the nursery understands the importance of getting it right from the start. We are especially thankful for the crews at iTrees.com and Harford Farms (both family operations) that also join us in tree planting efforts at the nursery. Chris, Lalo, Kyle & Ray help out immensely to keep things running in a timely manner. This year with the extra added stress of everything going on in all of our family & community lives with COVID-19, we are so appreciative of the hard work our crew puts in every day. We are all thankful to be able to be working right now when so many other small businesses are shut down. But that extra level of stress around getting our jobs done during a pandemic is definitely in the air this spring. Being able to all work together towards the common goal of planting trees for the future of our business was surely a positive and hopeful way to look forward to brighter days ahead!

Some new varieties we are excited to be trying out this spring are Matador Maple, Skinny Latte Kentucky Coffeetree, Limelight Hydrangea Tree Form, Gladiator Crabapple, Snowdance Japanese Tree Lilac, and KB Crystal Oak … just to name a few. We are always looking for new trees to trial in the nursery and add in to our rotation.  The Skinny Latte Kentucky Coffee Tree and KB Crystal Oak are a few ones ones coming out of the Morton Arboretum being evaluated for the Chicagoland Grows Program. Matador Maple, Gladiator Crabapple, and Snowdance Japanese Tree Lilac are all new introductions into the First Editions program at Bailey Nurseries. This is our first year getting liners with Bailey Nurseries. We had been a Carlton Plants customer in the past and last year Bailey Nurseries acquired Carlton Plants. We are looking forward to growing our relationship with Bailey Nurseries and growing some of their innovative trees! The new liners from our partner growers came in healthy and ready to grow. We are very happy with the quality trees and long standing relationships with J. Frank Schmidt Nursery, Bailey Nurseries, Robinson Nursery, and Kuenzi Turf & Nursery.