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CapitalPress.com
Friday, August 12, 2022
ALPHA NURSERY
Building a legacy: ‘It’s very much a family operation’
By MOLLY CRUSE
Capital Press
SALEM, Ore. — Doug Zielinski
has spent his entire life on the same
lush 150 acres in Salem, Ore. Doug
is a fourth-generation farmer but
shortly after taking over his family’s
farm in 1978, he decided to pursue
his dream of owning a nursery.
“I wanted to be diversified,” he
said. “I went to Oregon State and
decided that the nursery thing was
interesting and exciting.”
But for Doug, owning a nurs-
ery was far more than just an excit-
ing new venture. “Really I wanted
to have good, full-time employees.
And I couldn’t do that on the farm
side. The crops we’re raising were
just seasonal. So this way we could
bring on good, full-time people. And
so it just evolved from there.”
And the people are at the heart of
Alpha Nursery.
Many of the employees at Alpha
Nursery have been at business for
Molly Cruse/Capital Press
From left to right are Doug Zielinski, Josh Zielinski, RJ Tancredi and
Sal Vega of Alpha Nursery.
over a decade. Sal Vega, one of the
growers, has been at the nursery for
16 years, while RJ Tancredi, the gen-
eral manager, has been working at
the nursery for 43 years. “He’s been
with me from the start,” said Doug,
speaking of RJ. “It’s very much a
family operation.”
For Doug, family is the future of
the nursery. Josh Zielinski, Doug’s
son, is the next generation of Alpha
Nursery. Like Doug, Josh grew up
on the property but initially had
plans to move away from the nurs-
ery and the business all together.
“Growing up, our parents were
working a lot more than our friends’
parents,” said Josh. “So I thought,
‘Well, maybe there’s something else
I should do.’ But they’re success-
ful and they’re happy. So just seeing
that coupled with the fact that this is
a pretty rewarding way to earn a liv-
ing. It’s unlike anything else. We’re
making stuff out of nothing here.”
Josh left the nursery to attend
Pepperdine University in California,
where he studied business and Span-
ish. But after a few years of work-
ing in California, he felt like some-
thing was missing and he returned
home to work at the nursery along-
side his dad.
“I actually kind of resonate with
our product,” he said. “I used to work
for a (clothing company) in Califor-
nia, and I just felt like we’re making
T-shirts, this stuff doesn’t matter at
all. It doesn’t do anything for any-
one other than cover your back. But
plants make the world a better place,
simply put.”
Today, Alpha Nursery produces a
variety of plants, ranging from Japa-
nese maples to landscape shrubs.
“At first we started growing what
I would call just like landscape sta-
ples for the Northwest. And has
evolved to cover kind of your gen-
eral North American landscape pal-
ette,” said Josh.
As far as their plans for the future,
both Doug and Josh agree that they
want to keep up with the growing
trends in the nursery industry and
hopefully keep the nursery within the
family.
“Josh has children, he has a
daughter, and she might be the one
in charge of something,” said Doug.
“She’s not afraid to jump right out
there, tell me to get the weeds over
there and then pick them and bring
them to grandma. So there’s genera-
tional Zielinskis, it’s a way off, but we
do have that to maybe look forward
to. And I’ll tell them the same thing I
told (Josh), it’s here if you want it but
you have to want to do it.”
For Josh, one of the most excit-
ing things has been seeing how the
industry has shifted over the last few
years. “(Gardening) brings a lot of joy
to people’s lives,” he said. “The pan-
demic basically created a whole new
generation of gardeners.”