For Everde Growers, a nursery with 14 farm locations across four states, all kinds of factors go into deciding what trees to grow.
David Kirby, executive vice president at Everde, said the company is guided by a demand plan, which it creates by comparing market intelligent from its sales team along with production input from the operations team. The process is made more complicated because Everde has to take into consideration both the retail and landscape side of the nursery business.
“The demand from each channel can vary greatly,” Kirby said. “Our goal is to grow and deliver the trees that will fill our customers’ demand while taking consideration for ‘New Genetics’ and cultivars that our customers may not currently be aware of.”
Additionally, Everde relies on trialing areas at its farms in Oregon, California, Texas, and Florida, where it grows a mix of similar varieties and new cultivars to determine what trees grow best and are likely to be popular sellers. Kirby said Everde works with tree breeders from around the world to figure out which trees to place into trials.
Read the complete article at www.everde.com.
