WESTERN Member Involvement
Greenleaf Nursery Company
Greenleaf Nursery Company’s “O2 – Planting for the Future” program is aimed at promoting to future generations the benefits of plant ownership and horticulture and environmental sciences.
Read more about Greenleaf Nursery Company’s “O2 – Planting for the Future” program in this article, "New Planting Program Introduces Families to Fun, Stress-Reducing Gardening in their Own Backyard," published in the spring edition of the WESTERN magazine.
Going Green may be the latest buzz in business today, as every industry seeks to climb aboard. The nursery industry has been all about “green” for decades, but it has been slow to take credit and to promote their involvement and share their contributions.
Greenleaf Nursery Company (www.greenleafnursery.com) is introducing its “O2 - Planting for the Future” program (www.o2plantingforthefuture.com). More than just a marketing program, it is a multi-layered eco-friendly movement! Full Article...
Loma Vista Nursery
Loma Vista Nursery, a 2009 WESTERN exhibitor and member of the WESTERN Nursery and Landscape Association from Ottawa, Kan., launched a company-wide “green initiative” this spring with the goal of implementing more sustainable business practices. Spearheading their “green initiative” is Loma Vista Nursery’s Pot Return Program. This program encourages local customers to recycle their empty plastic container pots by returning them to Loma Vista in one of two ways. Loma Vista has set up collection bins at their Landscape Distribution Center in Olathe, Kan., for customers to drop off empty container pots during normal hours of operation. In addition to the drop off location, Loma Vista Nursery offers a collection service to select local customers. To date, the participating businesses include fellow WESTERN members Kokopelli Nursery, Curby’s Lawn and Garden, and Northstar Garden Center.
The majority of containers collected will be reused. Those that aren’t will be recycled. Loma Vista has joined forces with a company that collects their unusable container pots and their used greenhouse plastic and turns it into usable plastic for various items.
Loma Vista’s commitment doesn’t end at plastics. They have put into practice a company wide recycling program that includes recycling of paper products, cardboard, and aluminum in addition to plastics.
Loma Vista Nursery is a wholesale nursery specializing in high quality, cold hardy plant material. They produce containerized plants and field grown trees for retailers, wholesale distributors, and landscapers across the Midwest.
Founded in 1991 by Mark Clear, Loma Vista Nursery is family owned and operated. Their 310 acre container production nursery is located in Ottawa, Kansas, just 40 minutes south of Kansas City. They have over 650 acres of in ground tree production just 20 minutes west of the container nursery in Baldwin City and Willow Springs, Kansas. Loma Vista Nursery also maintains a full service Landscape Distribution Center in Olathe, Kansas, to meet the needs of their local customers.
Forrest Keeling Nursery
Here is what Kim Young of Forrest Keeling Nursery said it was doing to become more environmentally friendly.
We are continually moving to sustainable practices in our business. It is a process that will never be complete, and you must have faith that little things make a difference. Water is our most precious resource and our biggest challenge. We recapture all of our production irrigation water and have constructed wetlands to filter chemicals and are continually upgrading to drip irrigation. Currently, the runoff from our retail/rewholesale lot is the only water that we do not recapture. This spring we are installing a bio swale (Rain Garden) to capture this runoff.
Ninety percent of our growing media consists of by-products that could end up in a landfill.
Our production has shifted to primarily native species … which require less of EVERYTHING… water, chemicals, heat, etc.
We have established seed orchards of native selections, from various eco-zones and track all products to seed source, which enables us to meet a wide variety of customer demands for local seed sources. It is all collected and processed locally.
We accept yard waste, brush and tree limbs from the surrounding community which we chip and grind for field mulch on site.
Many of our trees and shrubs are used in outplantings such as wetland restoration. The contractor returns our plastic pots and we reuse.
We print our catalog (20,000) on recycled post consumer paper.
Hillermann Nursery and Florist
Here is what Sandi Hillerman McDonald of Hillerman Nursery and Florist said it was doing to become more environmentally friendly.
As a retailer, we are doing other types of sustainable activities at Hillermann’s than Forrest Keeling as a grower. We have always been eco-friendly in a lot of areas but never really promoted these issues. I feel bad we have taken these actions almost for granted and have not shared them as educational tools until now. We, of course, are always learning of ways to continually enhance our efforts even further. As a company we have had a paper, aluminum and pot recycling program set up for several years. Our more loyal customers also know we recycle pots and they return them to us frequently. The Mo Botanical Pot Recycle Program has been a real blessing for our metro area. They collect plastics of all types and turn them into recycled lumber planks. This year we are putting recycle bins on our parking lot for ALL of our customers instead of hiding them in the back of our complex.
We have endorsed the MDC’s “Grow Native” program and handle a nice selection of native plant material and are also this year recognizing our “drought tolerant” ornamental plants for educational purposes with water conservation.
Several years ago we introduced pharmaceutical products in a department we call “Natural Gardening,” safe for family and pets. This department in our store is now almost equal in size to our chemical department in selection. This department has front and center attention in our store. It has grown over the years and interest has also.
We have increased educational messages about the good of tree plantings and this year have joined forces with the Washington Urban Forestry Council to promote tree planting in our community to increase our canopy. Planting trees remains the cheapest, most effective means of drawing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
We have changed out all outdoor fixtures and ones in the store to fluorescent.
We are trying to buy more local products, other then what we grow, to cut down on fuel submissions.
We are growing our 5” annuals this year in biodegradable rice hull pots to eliminate plastic waste. We are growing with integrated pest management in mind (not always successful, but trying it first).