US (ND): 86-year-old nursery owner keeps gardens growing

Neal Holland's encyclopedic knowledge of all things plant is no fluke. For 32 years he was a horticulture professor at North Dakota State University. Two years after retiring in 1986, he opened Sheyenne Gardens in Harwood. The original Sheyenne Gardens was started by Ruth and Martin Johnson in West Fargo. It closed in the 1970s. But the couple encouraged Holland, who worked in nurseries and floral shops part time while teaching, to re-use the name when he opened his business.

Since then Sheyenne Gardens has grown to six greenhouses on 18 acres of land. It's a sprawling property Holland sometimes navigates using a golf cart. More than just racks of plants, it includes display gardens that resemble real backyards so customers can see how a plant, bush or tree will look in a real setting. The inventory consists of about 500 varieties of woody plants and 700 kinds of perennial plants.

"Our goal is to have more variety than anyone else in the three-state area. That's what brings people here. In one afternoon we had people drive in from Bowman, Langdon and Park Rapids (Minn.), but still some people in Fargo don't know we're here," he says.

The people that do come to the nursery 5 miles north of Hector International Airport often make a habit of it because of the expertise they get from Holland and the other horticulturalist on staff, Adam Volz.

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