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On our second episode of "Get To Know," Associate Editor Katie McDaniel talks with Christopher Brown Jr., a Virginia certified horticulturist, the head of purchasing at Lancaster Farms and a member of the HRI Leadership Academy class of 2025.
Welcome to Nursery Management's second episode of "Get To Know," in which we talk to a person from the industry and learn about their life in horticulture.
Christopher Brown Jr. is a Virginia certified horticulturist, the head of purchasing at Lancaster Farmsand a member of the HRI Leadership Academy class of 2025.
Listen to the full conversation above to get to know Christopher Brown Jr. and learn more about what he does at Lancaster Farms.
Editor's note: Below is what ran in the March 2025 issue of Nursery Management magazine. The interview has been edited for length clarity and style.
Katie McDaniel: How long have you been with Lancaster Farms?
Christopher Brown Jr.: 18 years. It’s been a cool ride. Art [Parkerson, Lancaster Farms owner/CEO] and my dad let me experience every aspect of the business. For a while I bounced between departments. Then I came up to the tree farm. We have a 60-acre, 15-gallon pot-in-pot tree farm, and I worked hand in hand with our original tree grower and farm manager. Then when he left, I took over that position and as time evolved, I started to manage two of our three locations. Then about five or six years ago my father left the business and we reorganized people, and that’s when I came out of the field and focused on purchasing and some business development opportunities.
KM: What’s your favorite part of the job?
CB: When I started out in the industry, my dad told me one of the most valuable lessons was ‘we’re not in the plant business, we’re in the people business’ because no matter how much you know or how much any one individual knows, you can’t run a whole company by yourself. I think that when you hear it at a young age, you’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. But as you get older, you really start to appreciate that. My favorite part of my job and our industry is the people, your coworkers, the people within other businesses that you work with and the openness we have.
KM: Editor Matt McClellan visited Lancaster Farms nine years ago, and he shared that you walked down the rows on stilts to prune tall trees instead of using a rolling cart or moving ladder. Are those still used?
CB: Yes, we are still using those. It makes us very efficient, and that’s something as a business that Charlie [Parkerson, Lancaster Farms founder] instilled in all of us — was to constantly be looking for ways that we can produce a better product more efficiently, just that constant need to evolve and improve processes.
We only use them at the tree farm. We’re blessed in coastal Virginia to be very flat, so it’s very easy to use it. The stilts do have a weight limit, so everybody can’t go on them. But we have six to eight employees that use them daily during the growing season just because it is so efficient. For training, we have an old hog barn that has rafters on the ceilings, so we’ll get people up on stilts in that environment and they can grab onto the rafters. Typically, most people pick up on it an hour or so. It’s nothing fancy; it’s just drywall stilts like they use in the construction industry.
KM: How has working with a mindset of innovation as an opportunity influenced you?
CB: I think it has a daily impact on my life. My father always pushed me to look at things differently and find a better way. The mentality we have at Lancaster Farms amplifies that. It doesn’t matter where we go, innovation is all around us. It doesn’t have to be a million-dollar piece of equipment. Sometimes that might be the best thing for the problem you’re trying to solve, but all too often it can be something as simple as a pair of drywall stilts. All of us at Lancaster Farms are blessed to be able to work in an environment where we have the creativity to evolve and work on better processes.
KM: Why do you think it’s important to be involved in industry organizations?
CB: Nobody knows it all, and if somebody thinks that they know it all, then they’re obviously not in our industry. For VNLA, I was lucky to be on that board for 10 years and a past president. Being involved makes our industry better and stronger, not only for now, but for the future. IPPS is near and dear to my heart. I think last year was my 15th IPPS conference. Our motto is to seek and to share. The more we seek and the more we share, the better we are.
KM: What do you enjoy doing for fun?
CB: Before or after kids? I love to golf, fish and hunt. My wife and I were blessed with a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. They take up all my time for hobbies. I have a lot of good memories of fishing, just walking around the irrigation lakes at the farm with my dad. A lot of those moments I’ll always cherish.
