Geared for growth

Businessman Chris Richardson wasn’t looking to get into the green industry. In the early 1990s, he was busy building multifamily housing developments in Texas. He needed plants to landscape his apartment complexes, so he lined a short stretch of road on his ranch with plants and put up some sprinklers. A couple of serendipitous years later, Creekside Nursery LLC in Hempstead, Texas, was formed. The 40-acre nursery was no longer an experiment or a means solely to supply plants for Richardson’s own developments.
 
Since 1995, Creekside Nursery has stealthily positioned itself as a major player in the Texas market. With greenhouses and outdoor container pads full of annuals, perennials, potted plants, trees and shrubs, the nursery has grown 20 percent a year for more than 10 years.
 
“Even in this ‘new’ economy, we’re still expanding and we continue to gain market share,” said Bill Brown, general manager of Creekside. “We’re a high-production nursery. It’s a high-speed place.”
 
He attributes that double-digit growth rate to a well-seasoned staff, the proliferation of new plants offered and an effort to automate as many processes as possible.

Perpetual movement 
The nursery is almost always in expansion mode. Richardson’s construction company and equipment help support the nursery with some projects.
 
“If we’re going to do a major project, we’ll utilize the construction crew. But for other projects, we have people on-site that can build what we need,” Brown said. “But it’s nice to have the expertise and especially the equipment when we need it.”
 
Creekside operates 1.3 million square feet under cover and 9 acres of shade houses. The majority of the greenhouses are Ludy and Crider models. Creekside modified a Cravo house by adding hoops to the roof. It’s now a huge gutter-connected hoop house.
 
Creekside does most of its own propagation, which is supported by 175,000-square-feet of propagation houses. One of the houses is equipped with bottom heat and movable tables. It’s reserved primarily for unrooted cuttings for color crops.
 
The winter protection houses measure 88- by 300-feet, which allows the nursery to set them on existing beds without having to modify the houses.

Innovative solutions
Efficiency and cleanliness are imperative objectives at Creekside. Concrete roads run from the color department to the loading dock — another advantage of having an owner with a construction company.
 
“We work hard to minimize the number of touches on the plants,” Brown said. “We can pull from the color house and send plants on racks to the loading dock. We can do all the assembly at the source of the plants.”
The grower discontinued the pallet loading system in 2000 in exchange for the conveyor system.
 
One of Creekside’s clever innovations is the tractor tunnel built under the busy road that intersects the property. The road had a dangerous bend with a blind spot, which put nursery workers and drivers at risk. When Creekside found out the road would be closed for bridge work, the company was able to build the tunnel.   

For more: Creekside Nursery, (713) 265-4300; www.creeksidenursery.com.