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CapitalPress.com
August 21, 2015
Employees own this unique operation
Heather Smith Thomas/For the Capital Press
Employees maneuver a quaking aspen at lebb Landscape Nurs-
ery. The company headquarters and office are in Ketchum, Idaho.
KETCHUM, Idaho — Doug
Webb came to the Wood River
Valley to ski and never left. In
addition to enjoying the slopes,
he started Webb Landscape
Nursery.
Upon retirement in 2001
he placed the business into the
hands of his dedicated employ-
ees.
“We have an ESOP (Em-
ployee Stock Ownership Plan),”
said Mark Palmer, current CEO.
Many of the employees have
been with the company a long
time. Palmer was the nursery
director for many years.
The company headquarters
and office — the hub for land-
scaping and maintenance opera-
tions around the Sun Valley area
— are in Ketchum.
“We also have a garden cen-
ter there, another garden center
satellite store in Hailey, and a
big nursery (50 acres of tree pro-
Webb Landscape
Nursery
In business: Since 1972
Owners: Employee-owned
Locations: Ketchum, Bellevue
and Twin Falls, Idaho
Website: www.webbland.com/
duction) south of Bellevue,” he
said.
The company also has work
crews who take care of custom-
ers’ properties.
“We grow the plants, install
them and maintain them, so it’s
a three-pronged service. Three
years ago we also acquired a
location in Twin Falls, Idaho
— 5 acres and a garden center,”
Palmer said.
“The business just kept
growing as we followed de-
mand. If people ask for some-
thing we try to fill those needs.
The market changes from year
to year,” he said.
“We grow trees that do well
in zones 3 and 4. We grow as-
pen from seed, but also have
everything from crab apples to
maples, spruce, pine and fir.”
Aspen trees have been a con-
sistent seller, but it wasn’t easy
when Webb first started growing
them from seed.
“Back in the ’70s people
just collected the trees, going
out into the countryside to dig
out a small tree in one of those
big stands (all connected by
the roots), and shipped them
to nurseries like ours. But we
found that growing them from
seed worked a lot better for us,”
Palmer said. “We collect seed
from different areas to maintain
better genetics, rather than just
using one source.”
The company also has a
large inventory of flowers, with
four greenhouses at its nursery
in Bellevue, three greenhous-
es in the garden center in Twin
Falls and a small greenhouse in
Ketchum.
“We grow our own hanging
baskets and decorative planters,
and some one-gallon perennial
containers. We stock our green-
houses with flowers and vegeta-
bles and also have many shrubs
and trees,” he said.
Webb Nursery provides all
the bulk material for garden-
ing and landscaping, including
mulch, barks and ground covers.
“We sell decorative rock and
pavers, and provide full-service
landscaping,” Palmer said.
Whether people are interest-
ed in flowers, vegetable gardens,
trees or shrubs, these nursery
centers have whatever they are
looking for, and the tools to do
it.
The business employs a
large crew.
“Last year at our peak season
in summer we had 185 people.
Summer help often includes
high school and college stu-
dents. We’ve had some students
who have gotten their degree in
horticulture and come back to
work for us. We have several
people on staff with horticulture
degrees or landscape architec-
ture degrees,” Palmer said.
The company stays busy in
the winter.
“We do snow removal in
winter and sell Christmas trees
at our garden centers. We do
Christmas lighting, hang gar-
lands and set up trees and dec-
orate them if people want us to.
It’s a fun time for us,” he said.
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By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS