Ever wonder what happens to a plant before it makes its way to your local garden center?
Recently, the Chelsea Garden Center team got a rare behind-the-scenes look at exactly that on a field trip to Overdevest Nurseries in southern New Jersey.
Overdevest is a third-generation family-owned wholesale grower selling only to independent garden centers. This immaculate, sprawling 290-acre farm is where many of the trees, shrubs, and perennials found at Chelsea get their start. Visiting the nursery gave our team a chance to see these plants long before they arrive on our bench tables and to learn more about the people, practices, and growing techniques behind them. These plants are grown with science, correct horticultural practices and with love. We are sharing this background information with you because it is critical to understand the scope and complexity of the finished plants we stock and purvey. Click here to view Overdevest’s video library filled with plant profiles and care tips.
David Austin Trial Rose Garden
Our visit began in the two acre, Overdevest David Austin trial rose garden, where classic favorites grow alongside newer varieties currently being evaluated.
Seeing the roses, growing in a garden setting rather than a nursery pot, was a great reminder of just how different a plant can look once it has had the space and time to mature.
From there, we climbed aboard a wagon for a tour of the nursery’s hoop houses and growing ranges.
Seeing the Growing Process Up Close
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 Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which reduces pest and disease management practices, are the norm.
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 saw specialized machinery used to prune plants uniformly, helping maintain consistent growth across large quantities of plants.
Overdevest grows many of our potted trees utilizing a system known as pot-in-pot. Pot-in-pot is an 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 to work its magic. 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. On this trip, we packed a lot into a twelve-hour day: visiting three growers and covering more than three hundred miles round trip. For our team, field trips like this are about more than getting out of the garden center for the day. They’re an important part of continuing to learn 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.
It also gives us a better understanding of what makes a quality nursery plant and what to look for when selecting plants for you, our customers.
The next time you pick up a tree, shrub, or perennial at Chelsea that was grown at Overdevest, you’ll know there’s a whole lot more behind that pot than meets the eye.
From 290 acres of growing fields to your garden, there’s a story behind every plant.
