Ever wonder what happens to a plant before it makes its way to Chelsea?

Recently, our buying team packed into a van for an intensive, 12-hour, 360-mile round trip to visit three of our core growers. Our first stop was Overdevest Nurseries in southern New Jersey—an immaculate, sprawling 290-acre grower that supplies many of our signature plants.

We went behind the scenes to audit their growing practices, study their horticultural science, and bring that expert knowledge back to you. Here is what we discovered.

Overdevest is a third-generation family-owned wholesale grower selling only to independent garden centers. We are sharing this background information with you because it is important to understand the scope and complexity of the finished plants we stock. Click here to view Overdevest’s video library filled with plant profiles and care tips.

David Austin Trial Rose Garden

Our tour began in the dedicated two acre Overdevest David Austin trial rose gardens, where classic favorites grow alongside newer varieties currently being evaluated. Since we are in the same zone, this applies to our own DA rose offerings.

Seeing the roses, growing in a garden setting rather than a nursery pot, offered a stark reminder of just how dramatically a plant transforms once it has the space and time to mature.

Why it matters: Testing these varieties in real-world soil ensures that the roses we select for you are resilient, vigorous, and grown to last.

Boarding a nursery wagon we toured miles of hoop houses and growing ranges.

Seeing the Growing Process Up Close

Integrated Pest Management (IPM): One of the most interesting parts of the visit was seeing just how much goes into producing a healthy, consistent nursery plant. A clean facility and IPM, which reduces pest and disease management practices, are the norm.

Precision Pruning: The hoop houses were filled with crops at all different stages of growth, offering a glimpse into the long process that occurs before a plant is ready for the garden center. Overdevest will prune every plant in a hoop house which allows for greater spacing and multiple bloom cycles. We witnessed specialized machinery used to prune plants uniformly, helping maintain consistent growth across large quantities of plants.

The Pot-In Pot System: Overdevest grows many of our potted trees utilizing a system known as pot-in-pot. This innovative growing system where a large pot is sunk into the ground to hold the actual tree, which is grown in a container that is one size smaller. This keeps the trees upright during high winds and storms and allows perfect spacing for drip irrigation. The drip irrigation is designed to provide efficient watering while encouraging strong, healthy root systems. Also, container grown trees can be planted anytime of the year because their roots are intact.

It’s the kind of infrastructure that’s easy to overlook when you’re standing in front of a finished plant at the garden center, but seeing our future trees laid out in concentric rows provides us a much better appreciation for everything that happens behind the scenes.

Additionally, this grower has achieved the highest sustainability achievement through its growing practices. Overdevest has built a series of collection ponds, invested heavily in pumping and purification equipment over the years. What does this all mean? All the irrigation water is recaptured through drainage pipes and collecting pools, then purified before being recycled. This helps prevent depleting the aquifer and, most of all, it helps promote a healthier plant.

Where New Plants Get Their Start

The tour also included the Overdevest trial gardens, where new plant varieties are grown and evaluated alongside established favorites.

Trial gardens are an important part of the nursery industry. They give growers the opportunity to observe how different varieties perform over time and compare characteristics like growth habit, flowering, vigor, and overall garden performance.

Seeing these mature plants gives you a completely different perspective. When you’re used to seeing a plant in a nursery pot, it can be hard to imagine what it might become. Walking through a mature trial garden makes the plants’ potential much easier to see and gives us some new favorites to keep an eye out for!

Why Visiting Growers Matters

We are always striving to learn and improve. For our team, covering over 360 miles in a single day isn’t just about sourcing inventory, it’s about continuing our education and learning about the plants we sell.

Getting to see how our plants are grown, speaking directly with the people producing them, and understanding the systems and techniques used throughout the growing process gives our team a deeper knowledge that we can bring back to Chelsea and impart to you, our customers.

The next time you pick up an Overdevest-grown tree, shrub, or perennial at Chelsea, you’ll know exactly how much science, care and dedication went into the finished product. Again, we encourage you to visit their YouTube channel. Our colleague, David, provides brief, concise tutorial videos. Worth a peek…

From 290 acres of growing fields to your garden, there’s a story behind every plant.