President’s Message

Instant gratification

By Jim Simnitt — Posted January 23, 2020

This past fall I was able to take time away from my nursery and visit a few of our new retail customers. It’s always great to get out and see how the retail sector of our industry is doing. One of the things that kept coming up was an emerging trend of “just in time” […]

Why we connect

By Jim Simnitt — Posted January 1, 2020

Oregon is a diverse place with mountains and coastline, high deserts and fertile valleys. The nurseries that dot the Oregon map are just as diverse. Liner production, reforestation, cut flowers, Christmas trees, retail, and large specimen growers are just some of the categories represented, and our people are just as diverse as our products. Oregonians […]

Slowing down to take stock

By Jim Simnitt — Posted November 22, 2019

The days are shorter, colder and wetter, which means it’s beginning to look a lot like the winter season around the nursery. This time around the holiday season is a slower time of year. The greenhouses are all buttoned up for winter. The pipes are drained and winterized. We have the time to slow down […]

Ready to rise and shine

By Jim Simnitt — Posted October 23, 2019

I was fortunate to grow up on our family nursery in Canby, Oregon. It is where I found a love of plants and the nursery industry, and has brought me to being your president of the Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) this year. If we have not met, let me introduce myself. My name is […]

A word of thanks

By Mike Hiller — Posted September 26, 2019

“Thank you.” These two words are so often underused, but I have chosen to start out this month’s column by using them for a specific reason. It has been such an honor to serve as president of the Oregon Association of Nurseries for the past year. Thank you to all of the staff members and […]

Building your team

By Mike Hiller — Posted September 4, 2019

September is one of my favorite months of the year. On the nursery, we are starting to push plants into dormancy to get them ready for the coming winter. We may work tirelessly all summer to help the plants size up. This is also when they set flower buds for the next spring. But the […]

Welcome to Farwest

By Mike Hiller — Posted July 26, 2019

Welcome to our Farwest Edition of Digger magazine. The Farwest Show is a time for our members to showcase what is new and display all of the high-quality plant material from the Northwest. I hope you have already made your plans to attend, but if not, I hope you will consider coming to see the […]

OAN goes to Washington, D.C.

By Mike Hiller — Posted June 24, 2019

I traveled to Washington, D.C. along with our OAN executive director, Jeff Stone, and the chairwoman of our Government Relations Committee, Leigh Geschwill of F & B Farms & Nursery. We were there to represent the Oregon Association of Nurseries, and to lobby for the needs and priorities of Oregon’s nursery industry. This was my […]

Being a part of a community

By Mike Hiller — Posted May 24, 2019

As our spring shipping and retailing season is wrapping up, it is a great time to look back and digest how that season went. Whether you are involved in wholesale, retail or both, I hope your season was a good one. It often amazes me how relatively short the season is and how much product […]

Knowing our customers

By Mike Hiller — Posted April 26, 2019

Last fall, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Bridget Behe, a professor of horticulture at Michigan State University. She was giving a presentation on her research into the marketing of edible and ornamental horticultural crops, which is her area of expertise. If you are not familiar with Dr. Behe’s podcast, “Connect 2 Consumer,” I […]