Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2025 print edition of Nursery Management under the headline “AmericanHort Nursery and Landscape Tour.”
After a several-year hiatus, the AmericanHort Nursery and Landscape Tour returned in 2025. The two-day tour made seven stops around Baltimore, Maryland, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Attendees saw how different types of green industry operations find success through automation, innovative production practices and more.
Babikow Nursery
left: At Babikow Nursery, workers place perennial and annual labels on plants as they’re pulling the order before it’s put on the rack.
Above: Fall annual production is huge at Babikow. Jennifer Goles handles annual sales at Babikow, and she says they grow about 1.7 million pansies in fall. About 75% are sold wholesale to landscapers and the rest to retailers. It’s more profitable than growing in spring, because they don’t have to heat the houses.
The Perennial Farm
Above: Alex DeJong shared his experience using a DJI drone sprayer at The Perennial Farm and how he worked it into the nursery’s existing IPM strategy. Watch for more in the February issue of Nursery Management.
Left: We also learned about the company’s foray into direct-to-consumer shipping with The Perennial Farm Marketplace.
Manor View Farm
Above: Manor View Farm uses Burro Robotics’ Cortador attachment on its Burro Grande to mow between rows. Jones likes that the machines can run at night or in rain. Long-term, he thinks it’s a better option than having his workers mow, preferring to save them for other tasks.
Editor's note: To learn more about Burro Robotics, watch this replay of Nursery Management magazine's December 2025 free online live event, "Betting big on Burro: Kawahara Nurseries' roadmap for scaling to a 12-robot fleet."
Above: Andrew Ristvey, extension specialist at The University of Maryland, partnered with Manor View Farm to set up a weather station at the nursery. The goal is to measure how much water trees are getting and contrast that with how fast they grow. Get to know Andrew here.
Above: Colin Jones explains Manor View Farm’s journey as early adopters of RFID technology at its 100-acre nursery and re-wholesale yard.
Raemelton Farms
Above: Angela Burke propagates interesting varieties like Ram’s Horn willow.
Left: Steve Black uses Ultrastake Fiberglass Treestakes for multiple rotations at Raemelton Farms.
Right: Steve Black likes the Pazzaglia tree spade for his 2- to 4-inch caliper trees, because of the way “it cuts a perfect hemisphere” around the root ball.
Ruppert Landscape & Nurseries
Left: Battery charging station for power equipment at Ruppert Landscape, a commercial landscaper with 52 locations and 3,000 employees.
Right: Ruppert Nurseries began by growing 8 acres to supply the landscape market. Now it is a 900-acre tree farm known for its ability to handle trees up to 16-inch caliper.
Foxborough Nursery
Foxborough Nursery maintains 700 acres of field production.
Brad Thompson says any success he has at Foxborough Nursery is due to lessons learned from previous failures.
Foxborough Nursery uses color-coded wire baskets to match tree spade sizes.
Explore the December 2025 Issue
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