In was an honor to award Grace Dinsdale of Blooming Nursery the NNBA Lifetime Achievement Award during the NNBA 2022 Fall Meeting banquet.
40 years ago, Grace Dinsdale followed a dream and developed a plan to buy her family’s dairy farm and establish Blooming Nursery. Her vision, foresight, values and tenacity to make the dream a reality is a gift to the horticulture industry and the gardening community!
Life on the Farm
Blooming Nursery is located in Cornelius, Oregon on the 130 acre family dairy farm where Grace and her nine siblings were raised. Life on the farm was hard work! By the age of six they were driving tractors, raking stalls, feeding calves and milking up to 300 cows!
The Early Years
In 1975 the family closed the dairy farm. While Grace was finishing her college education, her mother began renting the farm to neighbors. When her mother announced she intended to sell the farm, Grace, the second-youngest was the only one to step forward. The property had been her childhood wonderland, and she couldn’t stand the thought of it passing outside the family.
In 1981, she moved back to the farm. With a small loan and a lot of energy she knocked down old buildings, added plastic to barns and established the nursery on a small corner of the farm. In the beginning the nursery was essentially a one-woman operation.
Grace’s Early Objectives were to:
- Produce the highest quality, the widest selection, and best varieties of plants
- Supply only independent wholesale and retail nurseries and landscape professionals, and support them with varieties of plants that were unique and were not typically found in big box stores
- Create and maintain a positive working environment for a community of motivated, capable people where each one has the opportunity to continually learn and improve.
Each of the 10 siblings had been given a 4.9% share of the family farm. Their mother retained the controlling 51%. During the early ‘90s, Grace began to purchase the shares held by her mother and siblings, finally gaining full ownership of the farm in 2002.
Today
Blooming Nursery has grown and improved each year. The nursery now includes:
- Approximately 20 acres planted in bare rootstock any given year.
- 200,000 square feet of heated greenhouses
- 150,000 square feet of shade structures and cold frames
- 5 acres of outside container area
Grace has remained committed to her early objectives. Under her lead, Blooming Nursery has become one of the premier Pacific Northwest growers, producing more than 2,300 different varieties of perennials, annuals, herbs, grasses, flowering shrubs and groundcovers annually.
- Finished containers are sold under the Blooming Advantage proprietary brand in distinctive burgundy pots with color coordinated, informative tags. For accuracy, all photography and written cultural information and icons are done in house.
- The Blooming Advantage brand is sold exclusively to independent retail garden centers, nurseries and landscape professionals in 8 western states and Canada.
- Blooming Nursery employees 90 year-around full time staff and an additional 40-45 on a seasonal basis. Many full time employees have been with Grace for 10 to 30 years, seasonal tenure averages more than 14 years.
- Teamwork and spirit are valued, celebrated and rewarded!
Innovation, Environment & Sustainability Focused
- Blooming Nursery is bee & pollinator friendly! All operations have been Neonicotinoid free since 2015. Pests and disease are controlled with biologicals and other environmentally sound treatments, minimizing chemical usage.
- Riparian areas of the farm were revegetated, restoring natural habitats and communities
- Crop irrigation and rainwater run-off is captured, filtered and recirculated
- Greenhouses are equipped with state-of-the-art, ebb-and-flood watering systems, saving water and reducing costs.
- One of Oregon’s largest thermal solar arrays was installed to provide underground warming for a 54,000 SF greenhouse, significantly cutting natural gas consumption
- A flat deposit & return/reuse program has been in place for years. Customers are encouraged to also return Blooming Nursery pots. The aim is to reduce plastics manufacturing, waste and control costs.
Blooming Junction Garden Center & Farm Market
In 2013 Grace opened the Blooming Junction Garden Center and Farm Market. Blooming Junction is an authentic 50 acre, 150 year-old farmstead located 15 minutes north of Blooming Nursery.
The Garden Center specializes in a broad selection of plants well suited to the local climate and condition. Well-chosen selections of shade and fruit trees, berry plants, perennials, annuals, shrubs, ornamental grasses, groundcovers, herbs and organic vegetable starts! Blooming Advantage plants are featured as well as a wide selection of plants grown by many other quality growers. Garden tools, soils, bulbs, seeds, artwork and pottery are available too!
The grounds include beautiful drought-tolerant display gardens that are a great lesson in what can be grown with very little water.
The Farm Market offers many locally prepared and artisanal grocery items, including beer and wine. The extensive produce selection is harvested fresh from our farm. We offer U-pick berries in summer, a huge pumpkin selection in fall and fresh cut Christmas trees and wreaths for the holidays.
The Blooming Junction farm grows 200 different varieties of vegetables and fruits. A sustainable food system; that helps to meet local food needs without compromising the environment and resources. Also connecting people to where and how their food is produced. The Farm also supports a local CSA.
