My 26 Years at Arbutus Grove Nursery

Some of my earliest memories of Arbutus Grove Nursery are from when I was a young child, coming to the nursery with my father, Ron Webb, as he worked on building greenhouses.

At the time, I couldn't have known how important this place would eventually become in my life. I was simply a kid following his dad around, watching people work and seeing greenhouses and crops take shape.

Looking back now, those experiences planted a seed of their own.

I grew up around the nursery, but eventually I was given the opportunity to become part of it myself.

I started working full time at Arbutus Grove alongside Hans Stoffelsma, the nursery's founder, on what was, at the time, the largest greenhouse Arbutus Grove had ever built.

Building Arbutus Grove Nursery

It was hard, hands-on work, and it gave me an appreciation for what it takes to build something from the ground up. We weren't just putting up a greenhouse. We were building infrastructure that would allow the nursery to grow millions more seedlings and continue expanding its role in reforestation.

When the greenhouse was completed, another opportunity came my way. I was offered the responsibility of managing the nursery's cold storage warehouse.

That became an important next step in my career. Cold storage might seem like a small part of growing seedlings, but anyone in the nursery industry understands how critical it is. Months of work go into producing a quality crop, and proper handling, storage and shipping are essential to making sure those seedlings arrive at their destination in the right physiological condition.

Managing cold storage taught me responsibility and gave me a much broader understanding of the entire production cycle.

I began seeing how every part of the nursery was connected—from sowing a seed to growing the crop, hardening it, lifting it, storing it and ultimately shipping it to the customer.

As the years went on, though, I found myself increasingly drawn to the growing side of the business.

Working alongside my father, Ron Webb, and Nathaniel Stoffelsma, I developed a real passion for understanding how to produce the best seedling possible. Growing trees is both a science and an art. Every crop and every seedlot can behave differently, and no two growing seasons are exactly the same.

There are countless decisions behind every successful crop—irrigation, nutrition, temperature, light, bud set, pest and disease management, hardening and timing. The more I learned, the more interested I became.

That curiosity has never gone away.

Over time, my responsibilities continued to grow. I moved into a management role, working with an experienced team of people who bring an incredible amount of knowledge and dedication to the nursery every day.

Today, part of my responsibility includes managing crops destined not only for British Columbia but throughout the Pacific Northwest.

That has given me the opportunity to work with customers across a large and diverse forestry region and to better understand the different challenges seedlings face once they leave our nursery.

Those relationships have become one of the most rewarding parts of my career.

Forestry is an industry built on long-term relationships. I've had the opportunity to get to know customers, foresters and other nursery professionals throughout the Pacific Northwest. Many of those relationships have developed over years of working together, solving problems and sharing the common goal of successfully establishing the next forest.

After 26 years working at Arbutus Grove Nursery, I've had the privilege of helping grow tens of millions of seedlings.

Our Nursery

When you're surrounded by that kind of production every day, it can be easy to think in terms of numbers—millions of seedlings grown, crops shipped, greenhouses filled and orders completed.

But behind every one of those seedlings is something much bigger.

It may be planted on Vancouver Island, somewhere in the BC Interior or across the border in Washington, Oregon, Idaho or Montana. If we do our job well, that seedling will establish itself and become part of a forest that will be there long after we're gone.

That perspective is one of the reasons I still enjoy coming to work every day.

After 26 years, I still look forward to walking through the nursery, walking crops and figuring out what we can do better. There is always another challenge, another crop and another opportunity to learn. I still get satisfaction from watching a seed germinate, grow into a healthy seedling and eventually leave our nursery ready to establish a new forest.

My connection to Arbutus Grove has also come full circle.

I now have a young family of my own, and one of the most fulfilling parts of this stage of my life is being able to involve them in something that has meant so much to me.

My Family

When I see my children around the nursery, I think back to being that young kid following my own father around while he built greenhouses and walked crops. He included me in his work and gave me an early connection to this industry without either of us knowing where it would eventually lead.

More than 26 years later, I have the opportunity to do the same thing with my family.

My son, hard at work.

I don't know what role, if any, the nursery will ultimately play in their lives. That's for them to decide. But I'm proud that they can see what we do, understand why it matters and experience some of the same things that shaped me.

Arbutus Grove Nursery has been a part of nearly my entire life. I've watched it grow, I've grown alongside it, and I've been fortunate to work with family, friends, an experienced team and customers from across the Pacific Northwest.

And after all these years, the purpose behind the work still motivates me.