How to Choose the Best Wholesale Nursery for Your Needs

               Anyone who has spent time visiting nurseries in Oregon will have noticed that each wholesale nursery does things a little differently.  Some grow conifers in the field to ship while others grow in the field to harvest and containerize.  Each nursery has its own mix of products as well.  Their specialization depends on their target market, facilities, and skillset.  Some focus on pretty retail material while others go big with install-ready landscape stock.  Most have some mix of both, and it can be overwhelming so we’re going to discuss how to choose the best wholesale nursery for your needs.

There are several elements to choosing the right product mix.  You need growers who grow for your hardiness zone, in the sizes that you want, with the right balance of products that you use.  A strong product mix will enable you to place well-rounded orders and take higher volume.  Growers are more likely to give better discounts and allocate more material to customers who take high volume and good variety, so it’s important to get this right. 

               You need growers who produce the quality of material that your customers expect from you.  I can’t emphasize this enough.  There is a difference between the cost of an item and its price.  If you have to replace, credit, etc. a poorly grown plant, it cost you more than it was worth.  It is better to “wow” your customers with high quality material. 

               Specifications are important because one person’s #15 Emerald Green might not be the other person’s #15 Emerald Green.  Could be multileader vs single and height could vary between 5ft and 6ft as acceptable minimum specs for a grower.  Material should all hit the specs laid out in the American Standard for Nursery Stock (check American Hort’s website).  Beyond that though, there is a lot of variance between growers.  Find the grower that matches your needs and then you can order off their avail with confidence.

               That brings me to the reliability of the grower.  You want to work with growers who have years of experience bringing quality plants to market.  It’s generally reliable to go with the large nurseries but there are many propagators and growers who have branched off to start their own nurseries.  Their quality and reliability can be phenomenal. 

               Another important element is the ability to get the material to your nursery.  Naturally, this is helped by choosing nurseries that carry a wide variety of material you sell.  Even so, it might be challenging to fill a truck in the summer or fall from just one source.  Here, I recommend choosing wholesale nurseries near your other vendors.  They’ll likely already ship into your area if the product mix is right so partnering with a nursery who has neighbors will put a few more pieces on the board when building combination loads.  This can be the difference between making a sale and missing out. 

The best ways to find a wholesale nursery:

1.       Trade Shows represent the highest density of growers and customers.  It provides a great opportunity to maximize your time and efforts.  Feel free to stretch beyond show hours too by scheduling breakfast and dinner meetings with potential vendors to see if you’re a good match for one another.  Many will display their materials which will give you an idea of their quality and they’ll come with price lists too.  Examples of trade shows are MANTS, FarWest, iLandscape, Cultivate, and ProGreen, although there are many, many more. 

2.       Buying Trips can be the next best opportunity to find wholesale nurseries.  Spare a little time between visiting your current vendors to scout new potential growers.  It’s easy enough to check on google maps and see who pops up.  Check out their website, schedule tours, again I’d advise getting to know them on a personal level so that might mean going to lunch or supper.  Touring a grower’s operation will give you an idea of what’s going well and what’s not going well.  It really speaks to the quality and reliability factors I mentioned earlier too. 

3.       Referrals can be a great way to find a new nursery as well.  Ask other buyers you know.  Ask your other growers who they recommend.  Any vendors might be helpful for a good lead.  Could be trucking brokers, nursery supplies companies, etc. This is the best industry in the world and we like to help one another.  If your nearest competitors don’t want to share their fishing holes, you might reach out to nurseries that are in similar climates but further afield so you aren’t in competition. 

4.       Trade Organizations like the Oregon Association of Nurseries can be a good resource and partnership is reasonable.  You likely have your own local organization as well.  I think it’s probably wise to partner with teams on both ends of your supply chain. 

5.       Google Maps is a great way to find wholesale growers.  If you know what you’re looking for, it’s pretty easy to spot what kind of grower they are, and you might even recognize certain products.  At least you’ll see if they’re annuals, B&B trees, container shrubs, etc.  If you can’t tell from above, there’s always Street View.  I’ve used Google Maps a ton over the years and it’s very helpful, especially when it connects you with their phone number and website.  These amazing tools have only been around for the last few decades. 

6.       Brokers can also be a great resource for finding the best wholesale nursery for your needs.  If your broker knows your operation, they might be able to connect you to some of those lesser-known nurseries that I mentioned earlier.  You can find whole nurseries that never advertise their availabilities.  That is a competitive advantage to the nurseries who have access.

Closing

I hope this is helpful as you consider how to choose the best wholesale nursery for your needs.  One last piece of advice.  This is a relationship industry.  If you take good care of the relationships you have, you will be blessed with more.