Nursery Industry

Oregon’s nursery industry is older than the state itself and began during the great westward migration of pioneers in the mid-1800s. Twelve years before statehood, Henderson Luelling and ten members of his family traveled across the country from Iowa, a journey that often took four arduous months to complete. They arrived in Oregon in 1847 with a wagonload of over 500 young plants, trees and seeds, which had been carefully tended and watered on their journey. The family settled in what is now the city of Milwaukie. A year later, William Meek, a neighbor of the Luelling’s in Iowa, brought another 20 varieties of grafted trees to Oregon and the two men formed Luelling and Meek Nursery, the first nursery of grafted plant material on the Pacific Coast. Within a few years they had over 60 varieties of trees that sold for between $1 and $1.50 each.

Today, Oregon’s wholesale nursery industry boasts nearly $900 million in annual sales. Roughly 75 percent of those sales are to customers outside the state, creating an expanding source of “new money” for Oregon’s economy and making Oregon the largest exporter of nursery stock in the nation. The Northeastern seaboard and Mid-Atlantic States are the largest purchasers of plants grown in Oregon, followed closely by the upper Midwest.

Oregon nurseries account for just slightly more than one percent of all agricultural land in Oregon, yet produce more than 20 percent of all agricultural sales, according to the 2002 Oregon Agricultural Statistics Service. The nursery industry is also the leader among Oregon agriculture sectors in total payroll and full-time workers, employing more than 20,000 total workers in 2002.

Other Resources
Oregon Association of Nurseries - thegardener.oan.org.