What an incredible year it’s been for the live-plant greenhouse production team! So many exciting things have happened, it’s hard to believe we packed them all into just one year. Here are a few highlights from 2024:
- Increased production space by nearly 50% with the addition of two new greenhouses.
- Improved temperature control and ventilation systems in our existing greenhouses.
- Installed new waterlines and automated watering systems to enhance plant care.
- Expanded the delivery fleet to two trucks (named Bumble Bee and Butterfly), shortening order-to-delivery times.
- Developed new shipping and packaging systems, improving retail fulfillment efficiency.
- Designed and installed holding pools to improve the quality of wetland/emergent species.
Collectively, these improvements have propelled us to our best year yet and raised the bar even higher for 2025.
Even though the growing season is finished, there isn’t much time to rest. As the days get shorter and temperatures drop, our focus shifts from growing and delivering native plants to preparing for winter and getting ready for 2025. There are several important projects that keep us busy throughout the fall and winter.
Getting Plants Ready for Winter
Each year, we maintain a sizable overwintered inventory of native plants to meet late spring and early summer demand. This year, we plan to overwinter more than a quarter-million plugs! These plants need a little help preparing for winter. We start by moving any remaining plants from inside the greenhouse to our outdoor inventory area, allowing them to acclimate to cooler temperatures. Next, we trim and remove expired foliage from most species to reduce the risk of disease. We also slow down our watering schedules, as the plants need significantly less water while transitioning into dormancy. Finally, we hope for a nice blanket of snow to insulate and protect them from harsh winter conditions.
Winterizing the Greenhouses
One of the major fall projects at our facility is winterizing the greenhouses. Once all the plants have been moved outside to their winter homes, we start with a deep clean. We remove any leftover plant material, debris, and growing soil, followed by disinfecting the greenhouses to prevent any lingering disease. After that, we blow out the water lines to prevent frozen pipes. Finally, we perform a thorough inspection of the irrigation, ventilation, and heating systems, completing any required maintenance. This ensures the greenhouses are ready to start growing plants again by early February!
Filling Trays
Starting in November, we begin preparing the seed and plug trays we’ll use for the 2025 growing season. We have specialized growing soil delivered in bulk, and with the help of a tray-filling machine, we get to work. Empty trays are fed into the machine, which sifts the soil, fills the trays, and brushes away the excess, sending out perfectly filled trays. We stack these trays into towers on pallets and prepare them for storage so they’re ready to go when we need them early next year. Over a few weeks, we’ll fill roughly 30,000 trays—it’s a big job!
Seeding and Stratifying
Shortly after the new year, the real fun begins! January and February are when our seeding and stratification process takes place. We grow over 150 unique species each year, and nearly all of them start as seeds. Using a variety of methods—vacuum seeders, seeding wands, and even hand-seeding—we seed thousands of trays. Once seeded, many of the trays undergo cold stratification, a process where seeds are exposed to moisture and cold temperatures. This mimics Minnesota’s winter and helps improve germination rates when the seeds are warmed up in the greenhouses in February and March.
Maintenance and Improvement Projects
With our focus primarily on growing and delivering plants from March through October, the winter months (November through February) provide the perfect time for maintenance and improvement projects. During this period, we tackle everything from greenhouse and grounds improvements to vehicle maintenance, construction projects, and updates to our website and retail shop—and much more!
As we wrap up another successful year, we’re already looking forward to what’s ahead in 2025. The fall and winter months may be busy with preparation and maintenance, but they set the stage for a strong start to the next growing season. With our dedicated team and ongoing improvements, we’re excited to continue our mission to Heal the earth. Thank you for joining us on the journey—we can’t wait to see what next year brings!