Posted on 02/15/2010 7:10:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
PORTLAND, Ore. — Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, David Niklas feels the quickening of spring as the season ramps up at his wholesale nursery in a farming community south of Portland. Niklas and his workers busily package plants for shipment.
These days, his flowers and vegetable seedlings have fewer places to go, as the housing bubble burst and the state and national economies flatlined.
Just three years after reaching a record high of almost $1 billion in sales, Oregon's nursery industry has plummeted into an historic slump. Nurseries are laying off employees, cutting costs and foregoing new buildings and equipment.
A few, like Niklas' Clackamas Greenhouses, have gone bankrupt.
"The family has poured money into it as we tried to restructure it and make new markets," said Niklas, who had to file bankruptcy after losing almost half his sales when his primary retailer was bought out. "Commercial lenders aren't talking to me because I'm coming out of bankruptcy.
"They aren't even talking to GM, so why would they talk to a little nursery?"
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
“Ornamentals will continue to decline...”
I have seen a decline in EXPENSIVE perennials, however anything that is ‘maintenance free’ still sells well, such as grasses, rudbeckia, russian sage, coneflower, hosta, etc.
Shrub and tree sales haven’t been off by much, BUT you’re right - the increases are in food crops such as fruit trees, bushes (raspberry, currant, blueberry, etc.) and potatoes and onions.
I plan on chatting up the advantages of a Firecracker Crabapple tree this season. It’s so gorgeous when it blooms, but then gives you nice, big crabapples for pickling, juicing for juice or jellies, or adding along with regular apples for a ‘spicer’ version of applesauce.
Mainly because I want one for MY orchard, LOL!
Tell her you NEED a Dwarf Mount Royal Plum. It self-pollinates so you only need one; no muss, no fuss and terrific fruit. A very attractive tree in the landscape. :)
“...as I have plenty of seeds left over from last year.”
I’m planning/planting, “The Worlds Cheapest Garden” this season. I think I have all of $20 sunk into it...and I’m pretty much done, aside from a few bags of Fertilome and the future electric bill for my grow light racks...but that only lasts a matter of weeks before things go out to the greenhouse to finish off.
If it EVER stops snowing on me! Grrrrrrr!
Hey, even WE got snow. Not quite 7” by the time it was all said and done.
I’m going to have to buy a heat mat for my pepper seedlings. Never done that before either.
“Maybe someone should start a thread of resource material.”
The Square Foot Garden - Mel Bartholomew
The Garden Primer - Barbara Damrosch
ANYTHING by Rosalind Creasy (Edible Landscaping, growing in small spaces and containers, etc.)
How to Grow More Food (On Less Land) - John Jeavons
For starters...
These are all books I cut my gardening teeth on. And I’ve never looked back. :)
I also see that ‘Gardening for Dummies’ can be had at Amazon.com for $1.99; score! :)
Or go to the library for any of the suggestions I listed. No sense spending any more money on books when your tax dollars already pay for your library. ;)
It is sad. We have a guy up the road hoping to get permission from the City Council to take his 200 acres and cut it up into 1-acre plots for 200 McMansions. He’s planted a nursery yard, built a huge building for a landscaping company...and all he’s been doing is shoveling snow and paying taxes on those 200 acres of undeveloped land.
For now. But good. We don’t WANT 200 new neighbors here in Cow Town. The stupid luxury golf course/condo/McMansion deal on the OTHER side of town is, as you said, a Ghost Town as it is.
It’s kind of nice to see SOME developemnt projects put on hold during this recession...meanie and greenspace lover that I am. ;)
But, I’m sure if it was MY 200 acres not making ME any money right now, I’d be singing a much differnt tune...
“We are in survival mode...no investments, no new workers, no new trucks or tools...”
You and everyone else on the fringes of the landscaping biz.
No, there’s no seed shortage. That was started by some of the smaller seed companies hoping to cash in on this crisis and garner more sales. ‘Tain’t true. We have plenty of seed, as do the other big companies.
However, there will be one or two crop failures along the line, so you might have to substitute a certain lettuce or tomato or green bean along the way...but there’s no nation-wide shortage going on. Hells Bells! There’s MONEY to be made these days. ;)
I have two Mt Royal plums already. I have a lonely Toka Plum that needs another red plum variety for cross-pollination. I have several apple varieties, but have not lined up flowering times to see if I have a match for cross-pollination for each. I am also looking at pears, oriental pears, peaches, grapes, etc. The pine beetles are slowly killing the lodgepole pines on our property. I am planting blue spruce and “edible landscape” to avoid a property with no trees like many areas on the west side of the Continental Divide that have been wiped out by the beetles.
No harm done. Thanks for considering us, though. :)
As for herbs, I sell a ton of seed each season, and usually around 10,000 herb plants from April - June. Yes, you read that right - TEN THOUSAND herb plants.
No wonder I’m bone-tired at the end of the day, LOL!
In case I didn’t thank you, THANK YOU! :)
Thank you so much! :)
No, I work for Jung’s. We’re not going out of business. We’ve been around for 105 years this year. :)
An excellent idea, selling the tobacco plants. :)
Thank you! We work very hard at it. We send out 8 million catalogs across the USA between all the seed companies we own.
Jung’s also owns Totally Tomatoes, The Vermont Bean Seed Company, Edmund’s Roses, Shumway Seeds and a few others I always forget. ;)
I am, though I am not necesarily ‘Jungian’ when it comes to psychotherapy, LOL!
Thanks!
/Salute
Oh, I would definately go with the hazelnut/filbert. I absolutely love mine. I have a ‘Delta.’ ‘Gamma’ is the other common cultivated variety. It’s on the north/east side of the machine shed, so it gets some winter protection, as it’s only a Zone 5...but it’s been thriving for 8 years or so, now. I get a good crop of nuts every other year.
Granted, they’re shrubby-looking and not that graceful, but mine really puts out the nuts. Nice catkins, pretty nut husks...they’ve always been my favorite nut to eat after the cashew...which isn’t really a nut. ;)
Filberts are very nice nuts. Oh so European where they are addicted to chocolate+hazelnut combinations. Do you have Scandi stuff like cloud berries, gooseberries? I only ate them a few times in my life
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