CapitalPress.com
August 19, 2016
Nursery celebrates 70th anniversary
By JANAE SARGENT
Capital Press
Janae Sargent/Capital Press
Veronica Lopez and Anna Moralez plant cuttings made from har-
vested trees in one of the greenhouses at High Forest Farm.
with Jeff Lafrenz, the market-
ing manager. Both found their
way to J. Frank Schmidt un-
expectedly and stayed for the
supportive environment.
Lafrenz, who has been with
the company 30 years, said
the creative freedom he has
is as close as it gets to being
self-employed but with a lot of
support from the company.
The company is owned and
Janae Sargent/Capital Press
Sam Barkley, J. Frank
Schmidt’s grandson, treats
tough seed before planting it
so that it is able to more easily
germinate and grow.
operated by J. Frank Schmidt
III, a third-generation nurs-
eryman. His father, J. Frank
Schmidt Jr., started the compa-
ny in 1946 after growing up on
his father’s nursery.
J. Frank Schmidt Jr. saw
a need for trees of consistent
quality, form and survivability
and began cloning and intro-
ducing new trees. The nursery
has introduced more than 70
trademarked cultivars.
The nursery’s best-known
tree, the Redpoint Maple, took
17 years to develop.
Thirty years ago, Schmidt
also started selecting trees for
heat and drought tolerance.
“Developing trees is a long
process that takes a lot of pa-
tience, dedication and vision,”
Buley said. “Frank Jr. had a lot
of vision for the future.”
To clone and introduce a
new tree, up to 2,000 seed-
lings are planted and the best
ones are grown out for sev-
eral years. They are then sent
to evaluation trials in various
regions around the United
States.
Introducing and grow-
ing trees has become such a
large operation that produc-
tion had to be split among
five smaller farms across the
property.
In the irst stage of the
growing process, cuttings are
made to reproduce trees at
High Forest Farms, what Bu-
ley calls the “nursery of the
nursery.”
Manager Celina Villaseñor
said her team makes more than
30,000 cuttings per day at the
farm.
Eva Alvarez has been on
the cutting team for 18 years.
Her husband and son also
work at Schmidt.
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
Mike Omeg .................... Outside director
Corporate oficer
John Perry
Chief operating oficer
Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Entire contents copyright © 2016
EO Media Group
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J. Frank Schmidt & Son
Co. celebrates its 70th anniver-
sary this year — and the 50th
anniversary of its introduction
of the Redpoint Maple tree.
The 2,500-acre wholesale
nursery in Boring, Ore., sells
more than 500 varieties of
trees and has become one of
the nation’s largest wholesale
nurseries with one of the lead-
ing tree introduction programs.
Even with such a large op-
eration, Nancy Buley, the nurs-
ery’s communications director,
said a high standard of respect
for employees and treatment
remains a cornerstone of the
company’s success.
Buley considers herself a
“tree journalist,” and has been
with Schmidt for 26 years —
making her one of many em-
ployees who have made the
nursery a home.
She handles marketing
and communications outreach
Capital Press
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