HILA Class of 2025: Bill Dewar's leadership transformed Dewar Nurseries into a top grower

Bill Dewar is humble.

He doesn’t necessarily enjoy the spotlight and believes everyone else around him is more deserving than him of a leadership award.

“I might be the glue,” he says, “but I’m not the wheel that makes it happen. It’s everyone else here. The crew we’ve built. The people who’ve bought into the program that makes us succeed. There are a lot of names that are as deserving [of this award] as someone like me.”

But this is precisely why the president and second-generation co-owner of Dewar Nurseries in Apopka, Florida, is the perfect choice for a 2025 Horticultural Industries Leadership Award (HILA).

Undoubtedly, Dewar is the very definition of a servant leader. While managing the growth and operation of Dewar Nurseries for the last 30-plus years, he prioritized the needs of its team members. As the nursery’s leader, Dewar has fostered a collaborative spirit where everyone thrives. And through that, he shunned autocracy and embraced an environment of trust and mutual respect.

“My father has absolutely no ego and tends to stay out of the spotlight,” says daughter Patricia Dewar, who is part of the third generation to be involved with the family business. “He sees everything as a team effort instead of something that he’s solely responsible for. He’s a very humble man. I don’t think he realizes the contributions he’s made to our business and also to the industry at large.”

“He prefers to share his success,” adds daughter Kimberly Dewar, the nurseries’ chief marketing officer. “He’s talked about how other people should have gotten the award — like his father or our mom. He’s always willing to share any achievements he receives.”

However, what many people may not appreciate is Dewar’s deep passion for the horticulture industry.

“It’s a tough industry,” Patricia Dewar says. “And my father would tell us growing up that if we didn’t love it, then we shouldn’t go into it. Because he believes you have to love what you do, and he really loves this industry as a whole. And he’s known from a very early age that this is where his destiny was. His whole life’s purpose has been to build [the nursery] and to bring his team members along and up as the business succeeds.”

He just sees the business as a big extended family.” Kimberly Dewar, chief marketing officer, Dewar Nurseries

A nursery life

Even from a young age, Dewar desired to be involved in the family business. While his father and nursery founder, Alexander, was indifferent, his mother, Elizabeth, hoped he’d choose a career similar to his siblings: one who runs a construction company and the other an executive at a Gainesville hospital system. But for better or worse, Dewar’s heart remained planted in the nursery his father had purchased in 1963.

“Because I have some very successful siblings, you could say I might be the failure of the family,” he says jokingly. “But if I look deep down inside, this is always what I wanted to do.”

What drew Dewar to the family nursery was the profound satisfaction and unique gratification he got from witnessing the transformation of plants from seed to their finished state.

“It’s unlike anything in life,” he says. “It’s not totally unique, but it’s pretty special.”

A 1982 graduate of Stetson University, Dewar earned business degrees in marketing and management. While always working in the family business in some capacity in his youth, running crews and managing production, he didn’t go full-time until after college. At that time, he began to co-manage the business with his father, who is still active in the business at 93.

At that time, his father shifted to managing the nursery’s business end while Bill oversaw operations, which was his first love. Both roles complemented the Dewars’ personal and professional strengths. Dewar says he always appreciated his father’s flexibility in their partnership and the significant responsibility and freedom he was given to make his own decisions on the operations side, even if those ambitions could get him into trouble.

For example, cultivating Easter lilies in Florida presents a significant challenge, with the warm temperatures making it difficult to time the crop for Easter bloom. Dewar wanted to spray Fascination, a PGR that helps prevent leaf yellowing and delays flower senescence while improving the plants’ overall shelf life and marketability.

“Ohio State came out with recommendations on spraying for Easter lilies,” he says. “But those were northern recommendations. And I had done a test with it the year before and knew things that [the chemical] could do that could be counterproductive to what I was trying to get.

“So, I sprayed anyway, bypassing multiple years of trialing [this chemical at the nursery],” he adds. “It turned out to be a million-dollar mistake.”

Dewar’s Easter lilies crop ended up being 40 inches tall and “tree-like,” far from the results he intended. The aftermath of that disaster led to a pivotal conversation with his father. And it’s what his father said — and profoundly, what he didn’t say — that had a long-lasting influence on Dewar’s management and leadership philosophy.

“He knew my intention was to improve things, but the execution was flawed. All he said was, ‘Son, don’t you think we could have done another test?” Dewar recollects. “This understated response, lacking any anger, was far more impactful than a reprimand. I almost wished he had yelled.”

Dewar says his youthful impetuousness, although well intended, led to a costly mistake. What truly impacted him, though, was his father did not chastise him for that error. This leniency and forgiveness profoundly shaped his approach to dealing with those he manages.

“It’s a lesson that has really stuck with me over the years,” he says. “I tell people, you think you’ve made a mistake … I’ve made the biggest one you could ever make.

“As far as the company, that lesson has definitely stuck with me,” he says. “I don’t try to accelerate things that can’t be accelerated anymore.”

In addition to his father’s honesty and integrity, Dewar has been influenced by his commitment to fiscal responsibility and customer service.

“He taught me that I’m there to serve the customer, not vice versa,” he says. “And most important in that is the need to listen. If they’re not happy — and sometimes there are going to be rough spots — but we need to have a servant’s heart. In the end, that’s what’s going to make you different from your competitors.”

By the late 1990s, Dewar and his father began to devise a succession plan. However, succession won’t be truly complete until both parents have passed. And Dewar says he’s comfortable with that plan. In the meantime, his daughters have taken active roles in the nursery in preparation for succeeding him in the business one day.

“Both of my daughters have earned their business degrees and intend to take over the business at some point,” he says. “So, that goes a long way toward strengthening [the nursery’s] future.”

Today, the Dewar family is a powerhouse in the U.S. plant industry, emerging from its roots as a small family business into one of the country’s top wholesale nursery growers, supplying major retailers across more than 20 states. The nursery grows a diverse range of floral and edible plants but has distinguished itself as the largest potted rose grower in the U.S. Under Bill Dewar’s guidance, the company has grown by nearly 350%.

One big family

Dewar’s faith and relationship with God play a role in his personal and professional philosophy. As a result, the nursery has cultivated a strong sense of family and community over the years, with some of its 495 employees working for decades within the business.

“Our dad is big on open communication,” says Kim Dewar. “And with the family environment here, he’s willing to hear everyone out. He just sees the business as a big extended family.”

Patricia Dewar agrees and emphasizes that family is a cornerstone of their business, a practice she believes is somewhat rare, even within their industry.

“I don’t think there are many businesses where you have a direct line of communication — an open door — whenever you want to speak to the owner of the business,” she adds. “He’s definitely fostered that and the feeling that you can come and ask him anything about any issues you’re having.”

Outside the nursery, Dewar is active in his church and has been involved in mission work to Costa Rica and Mexico. In addition, Dewar has devoted his attention to setting up schools, drinking wells and even churches in other countries.

“That has been an amazing experience,” Dewar says of his mission work. “When you visit countries that have so much less than what we have, that [experience] makes you a little less self-centered, and you realize there’s a lot of need everywhere.”

Dewar is an active supporter of the Hope CommUnity Center, an organization dedicated to empowering Central Florida’s immigrant and working poor communities, and the Farmworker Association of Florida, a grassroots non-profit working for social and environmental justice for farmworkers. He’s also involved with the University of Florida, where his daughters graduated, and in fundraising for the school’s endowment.

According to his daughters, Dewar has an immense heart and makes it a priority to devote his time, attention or resources to those in need, whether they’re family, his employees, his clients or complete strangers.

“You definitely see it in his involvement with charitable organizations,” Patricia Dewar says. “Anytime he comes across someone or a group in need, he helps out in any way possible … and he does it anonymously. He says that way, he knows he’s giving for the right reasons. It’s not for the accolades. It’s just the act of giving.”

It took a few years in the nursery business for Dewar to fully realize family is what’s most important in life. And this is the legacy he wants to leave to the next generation at Dewar Nurseries.

“I want people to see that passion and have those same desires for success,” he says. “This company, to me, is just an extended family, and we’re a successful company because we have a lot of people who believe they’re a part of this great big family.”

Watch a video of Bill from the Horticultural Industries Leadership Awards at Cultivate'25 here.