Well stocked

“Growing their own” is a green industry family tradition for the Hillenmeyer family, who have been specifying plants from their own stock since the 1840s. Hillenmeyer Landscape Design is part of a nursery cooperative with 11 other firms that own a 700-plus acre growing operation in Winchester, Tenn.

A group of mainly east coast businesses gathered, some with the intention of extending their growing season by buying land south.

“It’s a bread-and-butter nursery,” Joseph Hillenmeyer says of the plants grown there: boxwood, viburnum and hydrangea. “It’s consistent plant material that you can sell easily, and I know I get high-quality stock.

Meanwhile, the cooperative is not a profit-driven entity. “It is set up to give nursery owners a high-quality product at a better price,” Hillenmeyer says, relating that he draws his base material from the cooperative. He also buys plugs and grows his own perennials, and sources from a variety of nurseries.