2008 Farwest Show - Visitors

2008 Farwest Show Nursery Tours

Meet future suppliers and see first-hand the quality plants they grow on the Farwest Show nursery tours.

The Farwest Show nursery tours showcase Oregon's quality and diverse plant material that will help increase sales for your business and satisfy your customers. If you want to learn what's new, what's available and alternatives to sold out favorites, these tours are for you. Please note: These tours are not production technique-oriented tours.

A diversity of plant material from liners to specimens, size of nursery and production types (container, bare root, pot-in-pot, B&B) will be featured on each tour so there's bound to be something for everyone. The tours are specifically designed for:

Growers looking for liner material;
Retailers interested in nurseries selling to independent garden centers
Landscape professionals, retailers, municipalities and others purchasing finished, landscape-ready and bare root product

Tour Logistics

Deluxe coach buses will transport you through nursery country. Knowledgeable tour hosts will keep you informed about Oregon, the nursery industry and what you're seeing along the way.

All tours leave the Oregon Convention Center promptly at 8 a.m. at the north entrance to the convention center (Holladay St.). Check-in begins at 7:15 a.m. All tours return to the convention center by 6 p.m. or earlier. The Wednesday tours will return in time for you to attend the keynote speaker program.

Tour Registration

Register by July 31 and the cost is $70 per person, including lunch, snacks and beverages. Registration after July 31 is $100 per person. Last day to register for a nursery tour is August 13. Each tour accommodates a maximum of 50 people and participation is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tuesday, August 19th

Tour 1 - The Glorious Gamut (August 19)

Grafted B&B and container-grown conifers; ornamental shade trees, including Japanese maples; natives; perennials; and unique fruits and ornamentals from around the world are the essence of this tour, which takes you to the beautiful mid-Willamette valley, a prime growing region in Oregon. You'll see everything from liners to landscape-ready material.

Champoeg Nursery Inc.
Evans Farms
Northwoods Nursery, Inc. (a retail garden center)
Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc. display gardens
The Stepping Stone Nursery USA Inc.
Yule Tree Farms' container operation

Tour 2 - Shining Stars Sold Out (August 19)

Head out to the Western edge of the Willamette Valley and visit nurseries specializing in serving the independent garden center and large caliper tree growers. A stop along the way will showcase Oregon's largest garden center—Al's Garden Center in Sherwood—where they will be trialing 2009 annuals for public feedback.

Wednesday, August 20

Tour 3: The Essential Experience (August 20)

Experience the breadth of Oregon's nursery industry with this tour. You'll visit a large caliper conifer and shade and flowering tree operation and a smaller family-owned nursery specializing in grafted conifers, Japanese maples, and topiaries, among other things. You'll also enjoy the Oregon Garden where members of the Oregon chapter of the American Conifer Society will showcase the unique—and expanding—conifer garden. A multi-generational family farm that has created a successful retail/greenhouse growing operation will also be experienced.

Tour 4: Horticultural Heaven (August 20)

Specialty nurseries abound in Oregon. This tour introduces you to several in the mid-Willamette Valley. From hydrangeas to to small stature grafted conifers, ground covers and herbs to hardy fuchsias, you're in for a treat. This tour also showcases one of Oregon's multi-faceted, one-stop shop nurseries so be prepared to see large and small nurseries offering liners to landscape-ready material on this tour.

Tour 5: Nursery Nuances Sold Out (August 20)

Wind your way through nursery country east of Portland in the shadow of Mt. Hood. Trees and conifers predominate but diversity abounds as well. You'll visit some of the largest and more established growers that ship across North America, a nursery specializing in recovering really large material for re-sale throughout the Western U.S., and a small grower specializing in trees for today's patios and smaller yards.