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August 18, 2017 CapitalPress.com 7 Nursery grows from interest in palms By ALIYA HALL Capital Press Aliya Hall/Capital Press Jim and Eveling Parsons are the owners of Oregon Palm Nursery. seeds online from outside the country, because there weren’t many palm seed producers in the U.S. at that time. “I read how to germinate and grow them, and got a pretty good success rate. But I think I bought more than I needed; I had way too many and thought, What am I going to do with these?” He said. Parsons began contacting local nurseries, but they had little interest. That was when he decided he needed a bigger property. “I brought my plants with me and ramped it up more. People now call me and make appointments. We don’t have regular business hours because I still teach. I’m on vacation right now, which works out pretty good because spring and summer are my best selling months,” Parsons said. About 90 percent of its inventory is cold-hardy exot- ics, plants that can withstand a wet and cooler climate. The nursery’s most common palms are Chinese Windmill and ARBORVITAE TREES Hard to Find Sizes WE HAVE THEM! (Min. order of 10) Conifer Kingdom 6450 Brush Creek Dr. NE, Silverton, OR info@coniferkingdom.com 503.874.4123 N17-3/#T3D Waggie. However, it also sells Mediterranean and other rare palms, along with succulents, cacti and bamboo. The biggest challenge Parsons has is producing the and working with the general public. Just meeting new peo- ple and helping them beautify their landscape and make their home beautiful. Just that per- sonal touch with homeowners is rewarding, I think.” Parsons said. Your best pick is FarmSeller.com By planting heavily rooted trees. At Holden Wholesale we establish our trees in 2 Gallon containers because more roots make bigger stronger trees. Mycorrhizal inoculation makes our trees more resistant to root rot and increases nutrient uptake by 50% promoting a faster growing and healthier plant. • Tissue Culture • Mound Layered Varieties in production are Dorris, Eta, Felis, Gamma, Jefferson, McDonald, Theta, Tonda di Giffoni, Wepster, Yamhill, and York. Supplies are limited so we encourage ordering a year in advance of planting. 10374 Hazelgreen Road NE Silverton, Oregon 97381 (503) 873-5940 FAX (503) 873-8726 holdenwholesale@frontier.com More than 1080 rural property listings from over 70 rural property professionals. • Ag Businesses • Hobby Farms • Berries • Large & Small Acreage • Livestock • Nursery/ Greenhouse • Crops • Dairies • Farm Properties • Orchards & Vineyards • Ranch Properties • Recreational / Resort • Rural Residential • Timber Buyers can search by type, price, location, acreage, bedrooms, baths, crops, livestock, water, irrigation and more. BROKERS: for more information contact your FarmSeller sales rep today 800-882-6789 N17-1/#7 WOODBURN, Ore.— Jim Parsons said he is asked all the time how he got into the palm tree business. “When I first started show- ing at farmers’ markets, peo- ple who didn’t understand that palms could grow here looked at me like I was crazy,” he said. “Now I have people calling me, especially in the warmer months. So, it seems to be going more mainstream.” Parsons, who is the health teacher at Woodburn Middle School, calls his family-owned business, Oregon Palm Nurs- ery, a good “side-hustle.” “I lived overseas and my first couple of teaching jobs were in tropical places. The first one was Guam and the sec- ond was Honduras. I learned to love palm trees and tropical plants,” he said. “They’re just so beautiful and majestic, and they’re an icon by themselves. Someone who doesn’t like them, I just don’t understand. They evoke a relaxed feeling for me, a peaceful relaxation when I see them.” When he moved back to Oregon in 1999, Parsons saw a Chinese Windmill Palm in a Portland nursery with a tag saying it was hardy to low temperatures, and that sparked his research into growing palm trees. “I looked up some other information about cold palms and thought, Wow, that’s amazing,” he said. Parsons bought his first palms, especially the Waggie palm. “The Chinese Windmill will grow one foot of trunk on average a year, but the Wag- gie grows six inches, if lucky, a year. The first five years are painfully slow,” he said. The nursery is getting more customers from Northeast Portland because homeown- ers there have bigger lots and gardens, and have been fixing them up this year, he said. Par- sons also sells to hotels and restaurants with Cuban, Mex- ican or Asian themes that want to make their business more attractive and inviting. “We’re trying to focus more on the private homeowner, farmseller@capitalpress.com www.farmseller.com N17-4/#13
