Spring in the nursery is a flurry of activity. Each fall, following the plant sale, we place orders with nurseries for liners (small plants) that we can grow on for planting in the arboretum and selling at our sales. These plants may arrive bareroot, with soil on the roots, or containerized. Beginning in March and continuing through early June, liners arrive from around the country and are potted by staff and volunteers to grow on for our sales. Opening the packages is a little like Christmas morning, even though we know what the boxes contain. Due to the high volume of sales in 2025, we have increased our nursery orders, doubling the number of plants we will have in the nursery and increasing the diversity of plants available for sale.
Over the winter plants are stored in our hoop houses, which are covered with plastic and maintained just above freezing. We must monitor temperatures inside the overwintering houses, so the plants do not leaf out too early in the season and acclimate them to outdoor temperatures and light levels before they are sold. The overwintering film is removed as the final step in acclimating the plants. We inspect our plants for insects and disease and put price tags on the plants. This helps us determine which plants are worth including in the sale. We always have some plants that do not overwinter. We make every effort to sell plants that have signs of strong growth and health.
In addition, the greenhouse is being filled with young tree seedlings from seeds that were collected in the arboretum in the fall. Most of the seeds go through a stratification period to prepare them for growth in the spring by either placing them in flats outdoors or in bags filled with moist peatmoss. Some of these seedlings will be grown on to be sold at plant sales, some will be used as rootstock for grafting and grafting workshops, and some will be donated for arbor day celebrations.
Look for our plants at Plant Discovery Day, May 9.
--Paul Snyder, Operations Manager snyder1062@osu.edu