SNA announces 2015 award recipients

 

The SNA Awards Program began in 1956, when the late John B. Wight, Sr., suggested to the officers of the Southern Nursery Association that an award be offered annually to the person of their selection who, in their opinion, had contributed most to the advancement of the industry in the South and to the welfare of the Southern Nursery Association. This first award, considered a lifetime achievement award, was named the Slater Wight Memorial Award in memory of the late J. Slater Wight, brother of the late John B. Wight, Sr. Nomination. Selection is made by the SNA Board of Directors.

 

This year’s recipient of the Slater Wight Memorial Award is William J. “Bill” Boyd, Owner of Flower City Nursery, McMinnville, Tenn. Bill purchased the business from his father Joe Boyd in 1988. The business is truly his lifeblood. He began his career in horticulture at a very young age helping out at the nursery. He has been attending nursery meetings and conventions since he was about nine years old and has since devoted a large part of his life to nursery associations.

 

Boyd served on the Middle Tennessee Nursery Association board from 1979 – 1984 and as president in 1983. From 1985 – 1998 he served for the Tennessee Nursery & Landscape Association (TNLA). In 1991, TNLA honored him with the Young Nurseryman of the Year Award. This same year, the Southern Nursery Association (SNA) awarded him the David E. Laird, Jr. Memorial Award. He served on the SNA Trade Show Committee in 1994 and served on the SNA board from 2001 – 2007, serving as president in 2006. Once again he came to the call of duty and served on the SNA board to fill a vacant spot from 2008 – 2014. Bill is the only person to serve on the SNA board for thirteen years. Bill gives unselfishly in other ways to the association. He has moved the SNA office three times and continues to serve on the trade show move-in committee today.

 

Boyd has served on the McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce as a board member from 1994 – 2000. He has served on the Warren County Planning Commission and the Warren County Fair Board. He has also served on the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee.

 

Bill is a member of the First United Methodist Church and has served on several committees. He is currently on his fifth term as Chairman of the Trustees.

 

Established in 1974 by David E. Laird, Jr., in memory of his father, SNA Past President David E. Laird, Sr., this award is presented each year to recognize qualified young men and women for outstanding service in the field of environmental horticulture and to offer inspiration for others starting out in the field. The recipient must be 39 years of age or younger and must be a member of his/her state nursery association. Nominations are made by the State Associations within the SNA region with final selection by the SNA Board of Directors.

 

This year’s recipient of the David E. Laird, Sr. Memorial Award is Jeff Allegood, Old Courthouse Nursery, Warsaw, N.C.

 

Jeff was born and raised in Greenville, N.C. and has loved being outside for work and play since he was a child. He got his first job was working in the corn fields of eastern N.C. at 15 and he later did landscaping and retail nursery work in high school and during his early college years. He is a proud Wolfpack alumni and he received a BS in Forest Management from NCSU in 2000. He became interested in ornamental plant production towards the end of his time at NC State and has managed production at several container grown nurseries throughout Eastern NC. 

 

Allegood currently oversees operations and sales at Old Courthouse Nursery (www.oldcourthousenurserync.com), a 40 acre container grown nursery in Warsaw, NC. The nursery does in house propagation to feed its production of 1 to 25 gallon material. Most of their material goes to B&B and container growers for lining out fields and potting up to larger containers. As the market started to show some signs of improving in 2012, Allegood and his team at Old Courthouse began aggressively building inventory to position for the upcoming demand from other growers that they predicted would exist on the back side of the downturn. The timing and product mix fell into place as their customers finally started planting and potting again and Old Courthouse has prospered through the recent plant shortages by having plant material when others didn’t.

 

Allegood is an active member of the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association (NCNLA) and received the NCNLA Bill Wilder Outstanding Young Nursery Professional award in 2013. He is currently the president of the Johnston County Nursery Marketing Association (JCNMA) which is a cooperative marketing group of 24 nurseries located in and around the Johnston County area in central and eastern N.C. The group maintains a unified website (www.jocoplants.com) for all of its members with inventories, company descriptions and a JOCOpedia plant database. The JCNMA also puts on their own tradeshow, the JOCOPlants Show, in July of each year in Raleigh, NC, which Jeff helps to organize and manage.

  

Established by the SNA Board in 1992, the SNA Pinnacle Award is given to the individual within the allied industry who, in the opinion of the SNA Board, has contributed most to the advancement of the industry in the south and to the welfare of the Southern Nursery Association. This award is limited to SNA members. Nomination and selection of recipients is made by the SNA Board of Directors.

 

This year’s recipient of the SNA Pinnacle Award is Gene Brogdon of Nursery Supplies. Brogdon's family roots were in farming. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a BA in agricultural journalism. After serving 4 years in the US Navy as Quartermaster on the USS Buck, he did several tours of duty during Vietnam. After the navy he moved to the family farm and began a cattle operation. He worked as a vocational/agricultural teacher and served as the FFA Advisor.

 

Brogdon's career in the horticulture industry spans 34 years of working for Zarn, IEM, Lerio and Nursery Supplies.

He has engaged himself in the industry and has served on the Georgia Green Industry Association board and president of sales and marketing division.  He was awarded the GGIA Staff Award of Excellence in 2013 for his many years of service, hard work and willingness to lend a hand. Gene has always actively worked to improve products, improve services and legislation that impacts the horticulture industry – and he has also served his customers well too. His storytelling and likeable personality brings a smile to everyone who knows him. He was voted “the wittiest” in high school. Is there any question why Gene Brogdon has been one of the best sales people in our industry?

 

Brogdon retired from Nursery Supplies on July 1 but plans to stay active in the industry through the Georgia Green Industry Association and SNA.

 

In 1969, an Award of Merit was created to honor those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to ornamental horticultural research and, more speci?cally, to SNA. In 1972, the SNA Board of Directors resolved that the Award of Merit would be renamed the Porter Henegar Memorial Award for Horticultural Research in memory of the late Porter Henegar, Past Executive Secretary of SNA (1959 - 1972), to commemorate his years of tireless effort and service to the SNA. The recipient is selected annually by fellow research workers for his/her concern and work toward improving the nursery industry.

 

The recipient of the 2015 Porter Henegar Memorial Award is Dr. Jim Robbins. For the past 17 years Dr. Robbins has been an extension specialist and Professor in commercial ornamentals at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. His role is to support all Green Industry businesses including garden centers, wholesale growers, and landscapers. His research program focuses primarily on nursery production related issues (e.g. automation, growing media, fertilizer, weed control) and woody plant evaluation. A hallmark of his academic career has been to work on issues that are driven by a need from the industry.

 

Dr. Robbins has a very unique blend of academic and nursery industry experience that allows him to be identified as a leader in nursery crop research and extension. Prior to working for the University of Arkansas, he spent 9 years in the ornamental industry with two different companies: Briggs Plant Propagators and IMC Vigoro. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor in the Horticulture Department at Kansas State University. His B.S. degree is in Ornamental Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Masters in Horticulture from the University of Georgia with Dr. Michael Dirr, and Ph.D is in Plant Physiology from the University of California-Davis. 

 

The Don Shadow Award of Excellence, named for the first recipient, Don O. Shadow, Shadow Nursery, Winchester, TN, is presented to an individual, corporation or organization that has provided exemplary service, leadership and generosity in the development, promotion and use of new and improved landscape plants. Recipients must demonstrate a sincere commitment to and passion for expanding knowledge and use of new and improved plants for the landscape. Nominations are accepted from attendees of the Southern Plant Conference and SNA Members. Nominees may be carried forward from one year to the next. Selection is made by the SNA Board of Directors.

 

The 2015 recipient of the Don Shadow Award of Excellence is Ted Stephens of Nurseries Caroliniana, North Augusta, S.C. Ted was born a plantsman. His sandbox served as his first propagation bed and he spent his allowance on plants and garden supplies. So there was no surprise when he received his BS and MS degrees in Ornamental Horticulture at Clemson University. From 1969-1972, he taught Horticulture in the Department of Golf Course and Landscape Operations at Lake City Community College, Lake City, Florida.

 

In 1973, he founded Nurseries Caroliniana, in North Augusta, S.C, a retail garden center focusing on offering rare and unusual plant material to the gardening public. In 1990, a wholesale division was begun to offer plants to other nurseries throughout the Southeast.

 

Stephens travels to Japan and other foreign countries on a regular basis to collect new plant selections for introduction to the American market. He is also introducing a number of his own selections which he has developed in selective breeding programs. Among these is Loropetalum ‘Carolina Moonlight’, which is a compact white flowering form of Chinese Fringe. Loropetalum ‘Carolina Midnight’; an upright deep burgundy foliage form with red flowers; Loropetalum ‘Garnet Fire’, Albizia julibrissin ‘Merlot Majik’, a deep burgundy colored leaf Mimosa; Ilex vomitoria ‘Carolina Ruby’ PP# 19266, a female, compact growing Yaupon Holly with one of the heaviest berry crops of any holly, and “Distylium myricoides ‘Spring Frost’ PPAF, a compact form with white spring new growth.”

 

Stephens has served as the president of the South Carolina Nursery & Landscape Association and has received its

“Outstanding Contribution to the Nursery Industry” award. He currently serves on the advisory board for the S.C

 Botanical Garden, Clemson, S.C and The Center for Applied Nursery Research, Dearing, Ga.

 

Nurseries Caroliniana has recently begun a mail order division, where many of their plants are shipped nationally and globally. They ship to other nurseries in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France and England, where they wish to add new cultivars of southern natives as well as other new selections from Nurseries Caroliniana to their offerings.

 

The SNA Board of Directors also honors individuals that have served this association and the nursery industry in various capacities throughout the years and have made outstanding contributions during their active participation in the Southern Nursery Association with honorary membership awards. This year, six (Gene Brogdon, James Harwell, Louis Hillenmeyer, III, Sherry Morris, Jeff Miller and Ed Porter) deserving industry members received SNA Honorary Member Awards. Each recipient has made outstanding contributions to the association and the industry during their active participation in the Southern Nursery Association.

 

For more on the Honorary Member Award winners, please click here.