Anita Heuver acquired the nursery portion of the business from her father in 1970 after working on the farm for over 20 years. It used to be pasture land with horses and cows. She took the horticulture program at the University of Guelf then worked in garden centers for a while, including a nursery in Holland. Her father worked in landscaping then saw a need for plants in the industry so he began growing sod, trees, feed for animals and other plants.
The nursery is open year round (except Christmas) , but majority of their business happens from April to October. There business is about 15% retail and 85% wholesale to other greenhouses and landscapers of all types. Due to their diverse customer base, they have a variety of advertising in orer to connect to each of them. The different types of production they do include:
The nursery is open year round (except Christmas) , but majority of their business happens from April to October. There business is about 15% retail and 85% wholesale to other greenhouses and landscapers of all types. Due to their diverse customer base, they have a variety of advertising in orer to connect to each of them. The different types of production they do include:
- Greenhouse production of perennials and annuals
- Container
- Pot in pot
- Caliper
- Bare root
The caliper section, housing large trees, is sprayer with roundup from an atomizer (doesn't use water, spreads a very thin layer like a dusting). Next years sedum production happens in the greenhouses, which are shut down when it gets cold and don't start again until February. Beside the greenhouse are a series of cement bins that store sawdust, peat moss, bark mulch and sand. The sawdust specifically is just for bulk when making soil. Across from the bins is a yellow building used for cold storage, and a white building for potting and storage. Trailers are used behind their Kapotas (I know that's not right but I can't recall what it actually was) for transporting pots.
Water is a different issue for this nursery. They don't use any from the lake because it is shallow and salty, everything comes from the canal irrigation system. That system is shut down on October 1st, so they fill up their reservoir as much as they can before then, in hopes it will be enough to water everything before it freezes and opens back up on May 1st. It is important for them to freeze their crops in wet. The water is filtered through a series of different irrigation systems, some of which are higher pressure over large plots with potted plants in order to overcome wind problems.
They use an AGS system which is a nursery program. It help with orders, stock, accounting system, payroll, and it keeps track of what jobs are done and where people work in a day. In the peak season they have 80-85 employees, but late September they have 60. That number slowly dwindles to about 20 for year round employees. Labour is their biggest cost, and when they need more help they can't charge as much. The largest customers they have are commercial contractors, but they wouldn't survive without the small $1000 a week customers.
Plant information:
- 2 and 5 gallon are general shrub pot sizes
- Some shrubs take 2 years, some a year, some a year and a half
- Native willows grow fast, they have to be sold within 2 years or they don't transplant well
- Did grading prior to putting plant material in, drainage away from plant bottoms. Never pots sitting with water in base. Always plan out the work before
- Every row is sunk to the middle so it drains inwards
- Grow 7, 10, and 15 gallon pots for trees in a pot in pot system
- Rows are well spaced for selecting orders, never fall and knock each other over
- Rows are well spaced for selecting orders, never fall and knock each other over
- Irrigation for trees: spaghetti tube, mist system directly into pots
- Someone checks to see that every tree is getting watered each time they are watered
- Each row can be timed separately
- Pot in pot: don't need to do anything in winter. Need good drainage (weeping tile)
- Trees wrapped in plastic at the base for rabbits so they don't rip up the trunk. Occasional deer, not much
- Potted plant need a lot more water, hot season watered daily
- The potted area is 25-30 acres
- Poplars are staked for the first year
- Mice can be an issue at times
- Lots of evergreen production that needs lots of land and time commitment. It takes 15 years for a spruce rotation
- Often drainage issues in the large field of trees
- Planting a budded tree, very few seedlings. Most of what they have are tissue cultures, some are grafted varieties.
- Drip water the planted trees
- Alternates wide and narrow row in the large fields- for machinery (wide)
- Plant grass between rows, even when it's raining they can get out into the field to fill orders. Helps with weed control
- Weed control in rows is done with roundup
- Minimal fertilizer- worst damage and cost to product is from trees not shutting down for winter (need to freeze in)
Business information:
- Lots of times they have a contract with a landscape company for a project this year, but it ends up being postponed till next year.
- You can't predict or plan for what is going to happen in terms of sales.
- Guessing game for how much and of what to produce
- Guessing game for how much and of what to produce
- Need to have an attention to detail in the layout
- They may eventually have to contain runoff water so it isn't an issue in the lake
- Every location is labelled for the computer system and orders
- Hail last year, most of what was in it died this spring. They replanted and double ordered for what was lost. Extra $100 000 expense this year because of it.
- Hail can be devastating. No insurance. Some funding from agro stability.
- Tree production is a guessing game.
- Green ash doesn't sell well
- Elms are the biggest commercial tree
- Part of a trial to look for large street trees and park trees for our area. Lucky to get 1-2 new varieties a year.
- Used to do budding, now contract it out (BC)
- Gophers- little control with poison in spring. Otherwise just live with them
- Keep good maintenance on machines, an use older equipment for smaller tasks.
- Lots of competition- biggest from BC
- About 1000 acres of land. Produce on 700-800 of those acres.
- Neighbours do barley and such
- After going through a few hails it might be better to just cut your losses and get rid of the trees that were affected a lot.
- They have inside and outside sales
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