When someone brings an idea or issue to Dale Deppe’s attention, they’re met with questions. A lot of questions, but thoughtful ones. As founder of Spring Meadow Nursery in Grand Haven, Michigan, Dale built the nursery to an international success by taking an unconventional approach to problem solving.

Those closest to Dale call him a “contrarian” leader — one whose goal is to “come in from a different angle,” says Jeremy Deppe, Spring Meadow’s GM and Dale’s son.

“He challenges us to move the needle every day in every area,” Jeremy says.

His assiduous methods led him to coin a phrase that’s uttered anytime something is discussed or implemented, from a production process to a new marketing strategy — “It’s a good start.”

The phrase keeps his team focused to build on their successes and not to stop just because something worked well.

“Dale always says ‘It’s a good start’ because the bar keeps getting raised,” says Tim Wood, product development and marketing manager at Spring Meadow. “The product or the process can always be better. Just take one step forward and then another. That’s how you get to your goals — by taking one step at a time, never stopping to rest or sit on your laurels.”

Dale asks of everyone in the company, including himself, “What are you going to do today?” Don’t worry about yesterday — that day has come and gone, he says.

Contributed photo courtesy of Spring Meadow Nursery

“It’s amazing what a business or a person can do when they choose to do something every day,” Dale says.

His goals and expectations allow the nursery to plan for double-digit sales growth each year.

Dale’s leadership approach was molded after years of experiences and lessons from rounds of successes and failures in nursery management and during the peaks and valleys of the economy.

Dale graduated from Michigan State with a horticulture degree and swiftly landed a job as a propagator at Zelenka Nurseries in Grand Haven. Zelenka was a large nursery that enjoyed the rewards of an expanding nursery market. Zelenka hired several contract growers to keep up with the demand for nursery product. Dale became a contract grower for his employer working nights and weekends to produce shrubs on a 20-acre tract he had recently purchased. When the shrubs were retail-ready size, he potted them and delivered them back to Zelenka’s dock.

“I was an energetic young man, working night and day on both jobs and the market was good,” he says. “I built a house on the 20 acres, brought my first crop to Zelenka and bought another 40 acres down the road thinking I’d do more contract growing.”

Three months after closing on the new property and 11 years after hiring on at Zelenka, the economy took a dive and Dale was laid off. It was 1981 and the United States was in a recession, but Dale and his bride Liz persevered. They sold the 40 acres and Liz found a job so Dale could pursue plant sales from their 20 acres.

“I built a greenhouse that summer basically out of junk and set up a mist system. I figured out how to sell the first crop in the greenhouse and the next spring I built three more greenhouses and continued to expand,” he says.

He started selling shrub liners in a potted cell, much like annuals were grown and sold, while his competitors were selling bareroot liners. Dale was selling out of plant material, but he wasn’t making any profits.

“I used to think in order to get a customer, I had to sell plants cheaper than the guy down the road. I was working 12 hours a day trying to make this work, but I wasn’t making any money,” he says. “I was selling generic plants like everyone else and I couldn’t get the prices I needed. I learned to raise my prices every year to cover my costs. It was a progression. Next, I started looking for plants that were different from what others were selling. I bought plants from all over the world and introduced them into the U.S.”

However, he faced a roadblock in that situation, as well.

“These were still generic plants. My key customers would buy those plants once or twice and then start to propagate them on their own,” he says. “To address that, I hired Tim Wood as a plant hunter because I wanted to sell patented plants. And that was my label for him. I told him plant hunting was his full-time job.”

That was 20-plus years ago.

“About the only patented shrubs on the market back then were blue hollies,” he says. “Lots of roses were being patented and there were a lot of patented trees, but not many shrubs.”

A foray into branding

Some early adopters inspired Dale to pursue patented shrubs.

“People like Jim Zampini at Lake County Nursery were using patented plants and parsing them out to protect their market. They were maintaining good price points by limiting the amount of plants in the market,” he says. “Looking at my future and the future of the nursery market, I decided to go at the market with a frontal attack and find my own plants to patent.”

Dale first patented Weigela Wine & Roses followed by Little Henry sweetspire.

“I started licensing right away. When I patented my first plant and negotiated my royalty stream with the breeder, I decided one-third of the royalty stream would go to a marketing fund. We still do that today,” he says. “Around the same time, Anthony Tesselaar charged a royalty fee of $2 or $3 for the Flower Carpet Rose. It really woke up the nursery industry.”

By 1999, the ColorChoice brand was born.

For the next few years, Spring Meadow expanded its licensee group while Dale began to look for partners in the industry to help transition the wholesale brand into a consumer brand. In 2004, Spring Meadow joined with Proven Winners and launched Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs.

“I’d see Proven Winners annuals ads in magazines, and [Proven Winners founder] Tom Smith is down the road a couple of hours,” Dale says. “Ironically, we found out they were also investing a percentage of their royalty income into a marketing fund.”

The companies formed a partnership with a long-term contract and Spring Meadow retains exclusive rights to select, develop, distribute and market shrubs under the Proven Winners brand.

“Dale was instrumental in driving the push into branding as a way to differentiate from commodities,” Jeremy says. “Branding has provided a way for each part of the supply chain to add value and introducing new varieties has made gardening easier for consumers.”

Dale says brands are critical to the health of the nursery market and doesn’t see it as a “battle of the brands.”

“Branding has changed the profitability of the customers we deal with, and that’s one of the things I’m most proud of,” he says. “Branding has elevated the price point at every stop of the supply chain. There’s no question that branding has changed the industry forever. It gives people hope.”

Prior to the partnership, Spring Meadow already had a marketing team. And now with the branding agreement in its 15th year, Spring Meadow continues to fund its own advertising.

“When you see an ad for shrubs, Spring Meadow created that and paid for it,” Dale says.

Bountiful giver

Dale’s fortitude didn’t stop at branding or even with his own company.

“He has donated his time to many industry boards and committees with a goal of clarifying their mission and making the necessary changes to get closer to achieving those missions,” Tim says. “In most cases, it wasn’t what people wanted to hear, but in the end, those that served alongside him appreciated the journey and strides that were made.”

He’s been a member of the International Plant Propagators’ Society since he was 20 years old. He’s a champion for the Horticultural Research Institute, where he and Liz created a scholarship fund in 1999. The Spring Meadow-Proven Winners Endowment Fund topped $800,000 last year and a total of 30 Spring Meadow-Proven Winners endowed scholarships have been awarded to students since 2004. Liz and Dale believe that bright, well-trained, qualified people are essential to the green industry and that backing motivated students plays a vital role in protecting and growing the industry. Through HRI, the AmericanHort Foundation acts as the administrator of endowments that help students to obtain the education necessary to successfully pursue horticultural careers.

“Our team has been blessed by this industry and the mentors who’ve helped us along the way. These scholarships represent our commitment to continue the encouragement of emerging professionals,” he says. “We are pleased to be able to support these students in such a direct way.”

Besides scholarships, the endowment also provides funds to HRI to support research that represents a return on investment for the green industry.

“I am amazed how caring he can be. He does not talk about it, but he is all about sharing his blessing with others,” Tim says. “He shares the credit, he shares his time, he shares his ideas and he shares his profits. For example, Spring Meadow pays out management bonuses every six months based on profits and merit. In addition, 10% or more of our profits are given to charities. He cares about people and you can see it in his actions. He cares about his customers and finds ways to make them successful. ‘Seek and Share’ is the IPPS motto and he lives it.”

When Tim approached Dale with the idea of raising money for breast cancer research through the sales of Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea, Dale made a goal to raise $1 million and insisted the nursery hire a full-time person to make it happen.

Last year, Spring Meadow surpassed its million-dollar fundraising goal which benefits the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). Since 2009, the Invincibelle Spirit Campaign has supported BCRF by donating one dollar for every Invincibelle Spirit and Invincibelle Spirit II hydrangea sold, as well as through Pink Day cause marketing events, which are hosted by independent garden centers across North America.

The Horticultural Industries Leadership Awards (HILA), sponsored by Syngenta, is the only North American awards program to honor leaders from the greenhouse and nursery industries. Six award winners will be honored in these industry sectors in North America.

HILA recipients will have made significant contributions to the horticulture industry, such as by contributing to its development with their innovation and expertise; excelling in environmental stewardship; enhancing the lives of employees, customers, communities and the industry at large with their charitable giving; and/or otherwise making a positive impact on the industry.

Is there a nursery or greenhouse grower you think should join the Horticultural Industries Leadership Awards Class of 2020? Email the following information to HILA@gie.net to nominate them today!

• Person nominating
• Email/phone number of nominating person
• Company of nominating person
• Nominee name
• Nominee email
• Nominee phone number
• Nominee company name
• In your own words, please explain why you think this person deserves to win a HILA.

Art Van Wingerden is always pushing forward. Even as a head of one of the largest greenhouses in the U.S., he’s never content to rest on his success. Art has spent nearly his entire life in the greenhouse, growing Metrolina Greenhouses in Huntersville, North Carolina, into the $240-million powerhouse it is today. But to him, it’s all just a part of doing what he loves.

Those who know him say that Art thinks of his job as his hobby. He enjoys the open nature of the industry and growers’ willingness to share knowledge, along with the family aspect of his operation. But he also has a deep love of growing.

“We’re dealing with something that people enjoy,” he says. “People like plants; they like buying them and they like being successful with them. That’s what’s fun about being in business. People enjoy buying your products. It’s not something they have to have; it’s something they choose to have.”

And he instills that same passion in his staff. Ivan Tchakarov, director of growing, says he knows Art will back him up when he needs help, but also empowers him to get the job done.

“He’s really good at approaching people and backing off and letting them do their jobs,” says Ivan, who began working at Metrolina 21 years ago. Starting off as a grower after graduation, he moved up the ladder under Art’s leadership.

“It’s been quite a journey,” he says. “He puts a lot of trust in his leadership team and I think that’s what’s driving us even more. He’s a good leader because he coaches and teaches but then he steps back and watches us advancing toward our new goal — whatever that goal for the company is.”

Growing up green

Art and his brother Abe moved with their parents from Holland to the U.S. when Art was 4 and Abe was just 2. A little while later, their parents started the operation that eventually become Metrolina Greenhouses.

Art started out working in the greenhouse right away, and by the time he was 5 or 6 years old, he knew that’s what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He says that while working in the greenhouse was just something that was expected as a kid, it grew into a deeper passion.

“I just kind of figured that’s what I was going to do — and not out of obligation. I enjoyed it,” he says. “I enjoyed working with my parents back then and I still enjoy it today.”

Art worked at the greenhouse all through school and learned things the hard way, says Abe, also co-CEO at Metrolina. “Nothing was ever handed to him. Everything was earned, you know, the old Dutch way of ‘I’m going to keep telling you you’re doing it wrong until you do it right,’” he says.

It’s that passion, and an ability to compartmentalize what you can and can’t control, that make Art a success, Abe says. Without passion, the uncertainties from the weather to unpredictable customers can beat a grower down. But Art is always looking to do the best at what he can.

“Art is super-focused on the controllables and the things he can impact rather than, ‘Hey let’s sit around and complain about the weather,’” Abe says. “And I think that purveys to the company and allows us to keep our focus on looking forward instead of saying, ‘Oh, it rained yesterday.’”

Explosive expansion

Metrolina Greenhouses’ extraordinary growth over the past 12 years has been due in part to Art’s constant innovation, hard work and a willingness to learn.

“We’ve been able to do a lot of expansion and growth and Art’s done a lot of leading of that on our supply side,” Abe says.

Abe, who worked at Proctor & Gamble for 10 years before returning to the greenhouse in 2007, handles the demand side of the business while Art handles the supply side. But while many operators are more focused on streamlining the growing process, Abe says Art has been a big driver of the company’s expansion.

“We work very well together and when you’re in a real growth mode like that you’ve really got to work hand-in-hand to make that happen,” Abe says. “A lot of times operators don’t want to be a part of that growth. They’re trying to get the operations working right and he’s done nothing but push as hard as the demand guys on helping this growth happen and accelerate over the past 12 years.”

Art is always pushing the envelope and trying to find faster and better ways to produce, while still maintaining quality standards. And by adopting new and different ways of operating, like new water sanitation methods, acquiring new facilities and establishing new protocols, Metrolina keeps growing.

When others were stagnating and holding off on expansions, Metrolina was building another 30 acres of greenhouses. And the company is going even farther, increasing that expansion to what will probably be 40 acres in the end, Ivan says.

“He’s very quick to adopt new things and he’s a very good listener, so I think that’s what makes him special,” Ivan says.

Art instills that drive to do better in all of his staff at Metrolina. He tells his managers that their job is to make the next person’s job easier. Whether it’s putting the right tags in, properly centering a seedling, picking the right cuttings or choosing the best varieties, he’s always pushing them to do their best.

“Don’t rest on your success. Always be prepared for the next success,” he says.

Always be learning

One thing Art learned from his dad was to listen to others in the industry. And with a large family (his father had 11 brothers and four sisters who were all in the green industry), there were plenty of mentors for him as he made his way.

“You glean knowledge from them and make sure you’re running a successful company,” Art says. “There’s not one right way to run it. You’ve got to find what works for you and what’s in your supposed wheelhouse and what you enjoy doing and making sure you keep your company going the right way but be nimble enough that you can move when you need to.”

Art tries to get to Europe at least once a year, especially Holland, to see the latest innovations, and travels around to other greenhouses in the U.S. As the labor shortage continues, he believes automation is the future and he does his best to keep up to date with the latest technology.

Art says he’s always believed in innovating to help ease the demand for labor, which is hard to find. But the pioneering spirit at Metrolina is about much more than robotics or automation.

Family photos courtesy of
Metrolina Greenhouses

“It’s just the daily mentality around innovate or stagnate that allows us to every day say, ‘How can we do a little better?’” Abe says. “There’s never a stagnation around here. There’s always a sense of, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’”

And he wants his staff to learn from each other. He says the best way to get to the next level is to surround yourself with smart people. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is thinking you’re the smartest person on Earth, he says.

“Don’t think you’re the guy with all the answers,” he says. “I know I’m not the guy with all the answers.”

“We’re dealing with something that people enjoy. People like plants; they like buying them and they like being successful with them.” —Art Van Wingerden, Metrolina Greenhouses

The philosophy of looking forward instead of back has served him well over the years. As the company innovates and tries new things, mistakes are bound to happen, but he says you can’t dwell on the past.

“One of my sayings I say all the time is, ‘The past is for learning. The future is for doing,’” he says. “You can’t change the past. You can only affect the future, so what am I going to do to make the company better tomorrow?”

And that’s something Art has passed down to Ivan. He says the best thing he’s learned from Art is to never look back. “Whatever is done is done,” Ivan says. “We just need to look forward and if we have not done right, we just need to look forward and try not to repeat our mistakes. He always says that.”

As Art says, failure is the pavement to the road to success, so no matter what, he wants his people to wake up every day willing to learn and try something new.

And while Art is extremely motivated, he hasn’t forgotten that people are what make the business thrive and strives to put a personal touch. During peak season, Metrolina employs about 1,300 staff (including 700 full-time people) and the human element is key to the company’s success.

“Art brings a reverence to our history and a sense of this is still a family business,” Abe says. “So yes, we’re a $240-million enterprise but we know people’s families and what situations they’re going through. This is still a family business and we still treat people like family. And if you treat people like family, they’ll act like your family — the good parts of course.”

Art says building the team they have in place is one of the company’s biggest accomplishments in his time there. He knows about his employees’ personal lives and encourages them to take charge of their work.

“It’s very rewarding because you know you have a lot to do but you also know that if you don’t make the perfect call, he’s there to guide and there’s the understanding if something’s not quite right, you can fix it and move forward and not look back,” Ivan says.

Born in London and fond of using quotes from the legendary prime minister Winston Churchill, Alan Jones is a quintessentially British plantsman. He will occasionally jokingly refer to his current country as “the colonies.” John Clark and Dennis Hendrix, the two men that partnered with Alan to buy Manor View Farm, will joke about the past history between the two countries. Despite Alan’s British sense of humor, they have formed a strong bond that has ensured the success of Manor View Farm.

Working for the Queen

In England, it’s customary for agricultural and horticultural students to get some practical experience before heading off to college. Alan had always been interested in plants. He even organized greenhouses while in high school, which he says “was probably unusual for a high school student.” Alan gained two years of horticultural experience by working at The Royal Gardens, Windsor Castle, and The Savill Garden and Windsor Great Park.

Built by William the Conqueror, Windsor Castle has been the home of British kings and queens for nearly 1,000 years. History oozes from every corner. Alan worked in a Victorian greenhouse complex and walled garden that supplied the palace with plant material — from bouquets for a state dinner to houseplants. He lived on the castle grounds with his fellow students.

Growing plants for a palace at The Royal Gardens was different than working at The Savill Garden, a woodland garden in Windsor Great Park, a large park connected to the castle grounds.

“We bumped into the royal family from time to time,” Alan says. “The Queen would be out riding horses, so you’d come across them. She would expect you to have a conversation with her, even if only briefly.”

“You’d see the Queen Mother coming through The Savill Garden when she was out exercising her dogs. She’d always stop and talk about the plants and ask questions about what you were doing.”

Alan enjoyed his experience at Windsor Castle and it solidified that horticulture was the right career for him. He also got the benefit of receiving a Christmas card (and a Christmas pudding) from the Queen.

A journey to the colonies

After he graduated from Pershore College of Horticulture, Alan went to work for Oakover Nurseries in Ashford, Kent. Tom Wood, Oakover’s owner, introduced Alan to The International Plant Propagators’ Society in 1979.

However, Alan’s eyes were wandering across the sea. His maternal grandmother was born in the U.S., and through that family connection, he was related to Lib Flemer, the wife of Bill Flemer III, president of Princeton Nurseries in New Jersey. Bill was a very influential leader in the U.S. nursery industry, who served as president for numerous regional and national associations and was credited with 62 tree and shrub introductions. Alan had met Bill a few times when he visited England. After finishing college, Alan spent six weeks crisscrossing America on a Greyhound bus. He stayed with the Flemers in New Jersey, visited some other relatives near Boston, and traveled across the country to the West Coast, stopping at nurseries along the way.

His visit gave him some in-person knowledge of the U.S. nursery industry and strengthened his resolve to make the move. In 1984, Alan emigrated to the U.S. and went to work for Bill. Princeton Nurseries has a long history. It was established in 1913, shortly before World War I, before growing to become the nation’s largest commercial nursery.

While at Princeton, Alan was initially involved with propagation and container production. But by the end of his time there, he was a vice president of the nursery and involved with all aspects of production at the Kingston, New Jersey, location.

A new beginning

After 10 years at Princeton, Alan left in 1994 to join Manor View Farm in Monkton, Maryland. The 100-acre nursery grows a wide range of finished B&B trees and shrubs, and propagates a wide selection of potted shrub liners for sale to growers.

John Clark had been at Manor View since 1988, and was one of the people who interviewed Alan for the job.

“We were looking for someone to run all of our growing production operations and Alan certainly fit the bill,” John says.

Manor View was just starting its own propagation liner division, so Alan’s experience as a propagator at Princeton Nurseries as well as his knowledge of field growing made him an ideal candidate.

“Princeton was Princeton back then,” John says. “We were very small. We felt really fortunate to get Alan at that time.”

The Patterson family sold Manor View Farm to Alan, John and Dennis Hendrix in 2007. Alan’s leadership was evident then to his partners as well as his employees.

“He has more energy than anyone I’ve ever met,” John says. “I’ve never known him to be tired. I don’t think he sleeps at all. And his energy level, it influences everybody. It inspires us all to do a little more, you know, it just creeps into every fiber of everybody here.”

“He is a mentor to all of the folks in our propagation unit as well as those in the yard and field departments,” Dennis Hendrix says. “During the past recession, Alan’s guidance with cost control certainly helped keep MVF afloat during tough times.”

Rocky roads

Alan faced his most daunting challenge when the 2008 economic recession hit just one year after he purchased the nursery.

It was a stressful time. The three co-owners had borrowed heavily to purchase the business. Now, its sales had dried up as customers cut back on landscaping projects. But not only did the nursery survive when many others did not, Manor View Farm didn’t lay off a single worker.

“Alan was truly an inspirational, motivating force in holding everything together through a deep recession,” John says. “We kid him about being British and the ‘stiff upper lip,’ but it’s what got us through the really bad times.”

Alan says the survival was mainly due to prudent “belt-tightening and having one of the best teams in the green industry. A very supportive and understanding wife and family also helped.” Everyone took a pay reduction. The owners led by example, taking larger reductions than everyone else.

There was a silver lining of sorts. Manor View Farm was able to take the lessons learned from the recession and incorporate them into everyday business practices. In trying to cut costs and become more efficient, Alan and his team looked very hard at what they were doing and why they were doing it. They were able to reduce waste in several areas.

“We had to become very lean,” Alan says. “Winston Churchill once said, ‘You never waste a good recession.’ As we moved forward, we took advantage of what we learned during that period.”

In describing the mindset needed to endure a recession, Alan offers another quote often attributed to the WWII-era prime minister.

“‘If you’re going through hell, just keep going,’” he says. “You’ve got no choice, really. The alternative is not encouraging.”

It took nine years for sales to recover to pre-recession levels and today, Manor View Farm is doing well. The nursery celebrated 40 years in business in 2016.

Alan started a family in the U.S., as well. His wife, Kyle, is American and Alan’s son Colin grew up around the business. His other children — Ian, a civil engineer, and Megan, a supply chain management specialist — also worked at Manor View during summers and weekends, but decided other careers were more to their liking.

“For as long as I can remember my dad has always been involved with activities that I was involved in,” Colin says. “Whether it was helping drive a truck and trailer to all the Boy Scout camping trips or going to the local tennis court to help me practice for a few hours, he was always willing to spend time with me. More recently, it has been helping to learn the workings of the business and industry. We have started going to more industry events together so I can learn and meet more people.”

Forging connections

From a young age, Alan has been keen to get involved with industry associations. He learned useful skills and forged connections that helped him when he was just beginning his journey. And like those before him, Alan has taken up leadership roles and helped others along their paths.

“It was instilled in me from Tom Wood and Bill Flemer that if you take from the industry that you should give back to the industry,” Alan says. “To quote Sir Winston Churchill: ‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.’”

Alan has joined regional, national and international associations, including the Maryland Nursery, Landscape & Greenhouse Association, on which he served on the legislative committee. The MNLGA presented him with its Professional Achievement Award in 2014. At the national level, he served in several capacities for the American Nursery and Landscape Association, which was the precursor to AmericanHort. He served on the ANLA Standards Committee, as ANLA Senate representative for Maryland and a contributor to the ANLA New Ideas Session. He’s currently a board member for the Horticultural Research Institute.

Alan is a very active member of the International Plant Propagators’ Society’s Eastern Region. He has served on the board of directors and served as president in 2002. In 2000 he was elected a Fellow of IPPS — Eastern Region and received the organization’s highest honor, the Award of Merit, from Eastern Region IPPS in 2011.

The IPPS motto is ‘to seek and to share,’ and its members’ willingness to do just that is unique to the horticulture industry.

“I don’t know many industries where your major competitor can be one of your best friends,” Alan says. “There’s not many industries that will share information about what you do and how you do it.”

Even if it is proprietary information, the diversity of the industry means it’s not always easy for someone to copy exactly what you’re doing. They might be in a different part of country with a different climate, different soil, or use different media.

Alan’s time with IPPS provided him with unique opportunities. He suggests any young nursery professional should ask lots of questions and travel as much as possible.

“Meeting nursery people from around the world certainly influences your thought process and your views of the industry, because you have a wider perspective of how the industry works,” he says.

He has served on the IPPS International Board for 12 years and as chairman for the past four years. He’ll retire from the International Board this year. As part of the International Board, he was recently invited to speak at conferences in China and India promoting the formation of new IPPS regions. His son Colin says the 2019 IPPS International Tour may have been the first time he ever took any time off in May — let alone a two-week trip to Australia.

John says the time Alan spends working for the good of the industry, outside of what he does for Manor View Farm, has helped benefit the company.

“He is known nationally and internationally,” John says. “I’ll joke with him. When he travels he gets to go to New Zealand, Australia and India. When I travel, I get to go to Tennessee, North Carolina and Oregon.”

Education of both customers and team members is important to Alan and the annual Manor View Education Seminar, now in its 20th year, has allowed him to bring many unique international and national speakers to Maryland for the first time.

“We had a feeling that if we can educate our customers, the benefit to Manor View is that they buy more plant material, and the right plant material,” Alan says. “By understanding what to buy, how to design and how to handle plant material, their customers will be happier because there won’t be so many failures. Everybody wins through education.”

The American Landscape Institute is another interesting educational initiative that aims to provide leadership and training to the next generation of horticultural professionals. Two years ago, a group of landscape and nursery companies based in the Baltimore, Maryland, area created this concept to help find a local solution to solving the skilled labor shortage.

Alan joined ALI as its vice president because he saw the idea's potential as a “learn to earn” program. The apprentice-like structure allows students to work four days a week, then attend community college classes for one day a week. In May, the Maryland Department of Education gave ALI an award for cooperation between education and industry.

Alan has encouraged some of Manor View’s younger people to serve on the board of local associations.

“It does take time away from the business, but the industry needs to speak with a sound, solid voice, particularly when it comes to political issues,” he says.

Playing politics

Immigration reform is the most significant political issue for nurseries, because without an actual labor force the industry would be in severe trouble.

Alan has worked closely with Craig Regelbrugge, AmericanHort’s senior vice president of public policy and government relations, for nearly 30 years on the issue.

“We’ve long encouraged every horticulture industry business to take the time to make political outreach and education part of their business model,” Craig says. “Alan has done this, and doubled down, literally, both in Maryland where Manor View Farm is located, and across the border where he resides in Pennsylvania.”

One of the first political fundraisers Alan attended was for the late Arlen Specter, U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania. During introductions, the famously quick-witted senator asked, “Do I detect an accent from the Empire?”

“He had no idea if I was English, South African or from Australia or New Zealand and he didn’t want to embarrass himself,” Alan says.

After Alan explained that he was from England and that he had just become a citizen a few months before, Specter added, “You mean you are at this meeting and you didn’t vote for me at the last election?” Alan replied he did not, then held up his check and said “But I have one of these.” The senator replied, “Well, you’re welcome at this table anytime.”

Craig considers Alan a friend as well as a powerful advocate in the realm of federal and state politics and policies.

“His ‘accent of the Empire’ can be a conversational door-opener, and being an immigrant himself lends personal perspective and a story regarding the important contribution immigrants and temporary workers make in our society,” Craig says. “He is credible, diligent and persistent, taking the long view about winning the support of a politician, rather than writing someone off after one difficult meeting. Truly, one who walks the walk!”

Alan encourages nurserymen to participate in congressional visits or organized fly-ins because it helps them understand why resolving an issue like immigration takes so long.

“We’ve had some congressmen visit our nursery so we can explain to them the importance of our Mexican and Hispanic workers, help them understand what it’s like for them to go through the visa process, and some of the issues they face while they wait for their visas,” he says. “It certainly helps getting to know those people, because then you gain easier access to them.”

In the last two years, many of Manor View’s landscape customers did not receive the workforce they were expecting. Many of them come to Alan for answers about H-2B, because even though he’s only been a U.S. citizen since 2005, the dual citizen knows American politics better than most.

“Not a lot of people take the time to do the industry work,” John says. “He’s a good person and a great leader and a tireless worker for the industry. We certainly would not be where we are without Alan.”

Although challenged by labor, weather and the economy, Alan sees a bright future for Manor View Farm. He also feels fortunate to work in an industry he enjoys.

“If you’re passionate about what you do every day, life is much more enjoyable,” he says.