2022 Nursery Tour preview

The Cultivate’22 Nursery Production Tour takes place Saturday, July 16, and takes attendees to three destinations: Decker’s Nursery, Millcreek Gardens and Acorn Farms.

The tour is an add-on cost of $165 to your Cultivate registration, and lunch is included.

A 100-year-old wholesale nursery specializing in large material containers, commodity and licensed plants, Decker’s Nursery sells liner material and finished stock in 1-, 3-, and 7-, 15-, and 25-gallon sizes, shipping across the U.S. and to two Canadian provinces. They propagate more than 1.5 million cuttings and 250,000 grafts a year. Decker’s partners with a variety of plant breeders and is one of the largest boxwood propagators of the newest NewGen boxwood varieties. Decker’s is a founding participant in LEAP – Labor, Efficiency, Automation in Production – program. Come see how the team at Decker’s puts innovative thinking to work by viewing their propagation including sticking and grafting operations. Attendees will also learn about Decker’s mechanized trimming, how they reuse sanitized pots and trays, as well as learn about their latest Westbrook Greenhouse expansion efforts.

For more: deckersnursery.com

Millcreek Gardens, established in 1978, is a traditional perennial grower committed to being a quality source for perennials, herbs, annuals, shrubs, and other garden plants selling more than 1.2 million plants each year. Located on over twenty acres with ninety-six greenhouses, five for propagation, and the rest for finished production, there is over 223,000 square feet of growing area plus 52,000 square feet of outdoor growing space. Millcreek Gardens leverages technology for optimal efficiencies. They use SBI nursery software to manage orders, inventory tracking, availability and set up of plant recipes and production plans and use a custom-built electronic shipping software to put trucks together and fill to capacity route trucks and track the status of all orders. They also use the RIO Batch pulling system from Flow Vision to process orders during the shipping season.

For more: millcreekplants.com

Founded in 1976, Acorn Farms is a wholesale nursery stock and tree farm grower located in the Alum Creek Valley of Central Ohio. The nursery uses well water, pond water and creek water and is equipped with irrigation systems that range from simple drip systems to enormous oscillating sprinklers with more than ninety percent of water being reclaimed. During the tour you will meet Acorn Farms’ dedicated production team and learn how recent changes in field and greenhouse orientation have improved operating efficiencies, how they’ve been able to reduce the use of chemicals to manage weeds, and about their commitment to quality.

For more: acornfarms.com