Last month we featured a video with Becky Thomas (Spring Grove Nursery) & Roger Purcell (J. Frank Schmidt Nursery). Becky & Roger highlighted several new tree introductions from J. Frank Schmidt Nursery in Oregon that are currently growing in the fields at Spring Grove Nursery.  We got a lot of great feedback about the video & thought it was worth talking about some more – from another angle.

As nursery growers here in Illinois, we always have to be looking ahead as we make decisions on what trees to buy, grow, & sell.  This month we will be visiting our liner growers in Oregon to do just that – look ahead.  The liners that we purchased this past summer will be harvested this fall in Oregon & stored through the winter.  They will be delivered to us next spring 2014.  We will plant them & grow them on for 5-10 years more before harvesting them as B&B trees.  At the liner grower end, the trees have been developed into the product that we plant through a similiar lengthy process over many years.

The process of selecting & developing new tree cultivars & varieties is another whole side to this equation that requires a lot of dedication & committment from growers along the way. When the plant breeders are developing new trees, those trees are sometimes decades away from being available to the end user.  As a B&B grower, we also have to speculate when we purchase our crop what we will be able to sell 5-10 years out.  We also have the wild card of weather as a factor every one of those years which can greatly effect the success or failure of a specific variety.

The best way that we can work towards making the process easier, is to partner with quality growers & customers who we can establish good long term relationships with.  We are really looking forward to visiting soon with our liner grower partners.  We would love for our customers to be in contact & communication with us as we make our planting & purchasing decisions.  Here are a few questions that we welcome your ideas & input on:

• What do you want us to be growing for you?
• What trees are performing well for you & why?
• What trees are not performing well for you & why?
• What features are you looking for in a tree that you are having a hard time finding?
• Any other comments/ideas are welcome!!!

Please join us in the process of growing trees.  We welcome your questions, ideas, & inputs.  We love growing trees, and we love being part of a much larger network that brings quality trees into our communities!