"Growers Of Quality Root-pruned Stock"

~ History ~

Park's Nursery started out originally in 1947 as a truck farm operated by my grandfather. My father, Harry, looking in his crystal ball, put up his first greenhouse in 1953...just in time for the 1955, once-in-a-hundred-winters of eight foot snowdrifts and record cold temperatures which resulted in the complete loss of his first crop of azaleas. His crystal ball was correct in that nursery products were the future, he needed a better crystal ball that could predict weather! Nevertheless, the switch to nursery crops was complete by 1963, driven by the fact a "club" root rot disease made the growing of Cole crops unprofitable.

One of the prime assets of Park's Nursery is the soil which is classified as Powell Valley clay loam. Once tiled, it drains well, is very fertile, and is harvestable over a wide range of soil moistures.

Water for irrigation is provided by a 225 gpm well with delivery via 8000 feet of 4 inch underground PVC pipe. From the outlets, 3 inch aluminum swing line pipe is then used to direct the water to either Big Guns or laterals or both.

A Winter cover crop of annual rye is used to protect the soil from erosion and compaction. The cover crop provides organic matter to keep the soil fertile and it also inhibits nutrient loss by absorbing what would perhaps otherwise leave the target area of the nursery.

A limited amount of herbicides is used for weed control and we believe that cultivating helps stimulate compact root growth. We rely upon hydraulic grapehoes and disks for a summer clean out before applying preemergence herbicides. We also use RoundUp for spot control of summer weeds.

We propagate the majority of the plants we grow with the exception of some shade or flowering trees and understock for grafting. We have the capability of propagating 80,000 plants a year but rarely root more than 40,000. We also graft approximately 8,000 pieces per year.

Once rooted, the liners are either potted in 2 7/8 x 5" pots and grown in shade houses or lined out in nursery rows for approximately two years. The two year old potted liner is then planted in nursery rows. From the nursery rows, the plants are then moved to their final spacing for finishing. All this seems like a lot of work and results in increased production time but we strongly feel that the road to quality is the transplanting and root pruning to promote a compact, fibrous root system. This also allows us to discard the culls at each stage and have a higher quantity of number one plants in the finished fields. Another benefit is a resultant more dense, compact foliage once transplant shock is over.

The plants are harvested by either manually digging the smaller plants (up to a 20" diameter ball) with a shovel or using a Yanmar (18-24" dia. ball) or Holmac (24-32" dia. ball) mechanical digger. Both machines dig a round ball which provides the maximum amount of root mass in the least amount of soil.

Plants are then loaded onto pallets to be brought into the staging for shipping where we currently market 90% of our product out of state to a select clientele located in the U.S. and Canada.