Don Powell, Garland Nursery, Corvallis
“Garland Nursery has 6 acres of
retail sales area and the barn from earlier generations
serves as the Garden Center and gift area. We try to
stock everything from annuals to trees, lawn seed to
pesticides and some tools, as well. The hayloft is used
for storage with both exterior and interior staircases.
The cow milking and horse stall area is the gift shop.”
Our farm at 5470 NE Hwy 20 has been
in the same family since October 31, 1903 when the deed
was filed by P.J. Schmidt and Dorothea Schmidt. The same
piece of property’s deed was filed by William A. and
Corlie Schmidt on February 27, 1911. Their only child,
Garland Schmidt Powell inherited the farm in 1966 upon
the death of her mother. Upon Garland’s death in 1973,
her only child Donald W. Powell and wife Sandra J.
Powell inherited the farm and still live there with two
of their three children, in separate residences.
From 1903 until 1937 it was totally
farmed for filberts, grain, prunes, hay, cattle and
horses were also part of the farm. It was essential for
Corlie and William Schmidt to obtain a nursery license
in April 1937 as they were importing Turkish Filberts to
use as understock for grafting purposes. They also had
to have a name for the nursery, so they named it Garland
Nursery for their only child. Gradually a small nursery
developed while they were still farming the acreage.
Garland had left for the Oregon
Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) to
obtain a degree in Botany and then went on to receive
her Master’s degree. While in college she met the love
of her life, Lee A. Powell, who had a degree in
education. Together they started their teaching
experience in Bay City, Oregon. Next they returned to
Philomath where Lee was a coach and principal of
Philomath High School. Garland taught botany at Oregon
State for 12 years and co-authored a book with Helen
Gilkey on Native Plants of Oregon. The next teaching
positions were in Myrtle Point and LaGrande.
Upon the death of William Schmidt
in 1944, Lee and Garland returned to operate the farm
with Garland’s mother. They began to grow chrysanthemum
cuttings and had an extensive catalog and mail order
business. Even today we have requests for the catalog
that doesn’t now exist. Gradually plants were added to
the nursery for retail sales…rhododendrons, azaleas,
camellias, trees and needled evergreens. Soon overhead
structures were needed to protect the plants. In the
late fifties Corlie Schmidt sold some acres to U.S.D.A.
leaving 21.3 acres for the retail nursery.
Lee Powell died from cancer in 1951
at the age of 48. Lee and Garland’s only son, Donald, a
sophomore at Corvallis High School, farmed the acreage
after the death of his father. He attended Oregon State
College graduating in 1958 with a degree in Landscape
Construction. Upon graduation he went into a nursery,
design and landscape business in Gig Harbor, Washington,
with three classmates.
Donald married Sandra Nichols in
Gig Harbor in 1961 after her graduation from Washington
State College with a degree in Home
Economics/Education. Don continued his landscape
business and Sandra taught Jr. High Home Economics in
Port Orchard, Wa. In the summer of 1962, Donald and
Sandra moved to Corvallis to help operate the nursery,
which was growing, as was the Corvallis community. They
lived one mile from the nursery for two years then built
and moved to the nursery and farm property. She passed
away in 1966 at 95 years of age and Garland inherited
the property.
They have three children, Brenda
born in 1962, Lee in 1964, and Erica in 1970. All three
attended Oregon State University. Brenda graduated in
1985 with a degree in Horticulture. Lee graduated in
1988 with a degree in Landscape Architecture after
transferring to Louisiana State University when OSU
dropped its Landscape Architecture program. He is a
registered Landscape Architect in Oregon. Erica decided
to be a travel agent, a profession she held for 10
years.
In 1995, all of the 5th
generation was back working at Garland Nursery and two
currently live on the property. There are two girls in
the 6th generation. Cali is 16 and Maddy is
13. Both live on the property and work part time in the
summer watering, weeding, and mowing.
Garland Nursery has 6 acres of
retail sales area and the barn from earlier generations
serves as the Garden Center and gift area. We try to
stock everything from annuals to trees, lawn seed to
pesticides and some tools, as well. The hayloft is used
for storage with both exterior and interior staircases.
The cow milking and horse stall area is the gift shop.
We are well established and will celebrate our 72nd
anniversary in April 2009. From the earlier acres of
farm land with several crops, the fifth and sixth
generations are now using the 21.3 acres for one of the
largest destination retail nurseries in Oregon. With
twelve hoop house structures for winter protection and
under cover shopping and for storage of hardgoods and
backstock plants and protection we are able to operate
year round and provide income for four families and
12-20 employees.
Don Powell has served on the Benton
County Park Board, the Benton County Zoning Committee
and in the Oregon Association of Nurseries in many
capacities. Some of the awards received over the years
include the Voice of Industry Award, Retailer of the
Year, Pacific Coast Nurseryman of the Year. Garland
Nursery received Oregon State University’s Family
Business Department’s Family-owned Business of the Year
award. Don also served on the Oregon Department of
Agriculture, Plant Division Board and on the Oregon
Nurserymen’s Garden Foundation Board for 10 years where
he was instrumental in developing the master plan for
the Oregon Garden in Silverton.
In 2007, Garland Nursery and Farm
was awarded the Century Farm status at the Oregon State
Fair. |
Warning: include(../includes/150logosm.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/syscp/webs/aglink/oregonfresh/oregon150/garlandnursery.php on line 173
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '../includes/150logosm.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear') in /home/syscp/webs/aglink/oregonfresh/oregon150/garlandnursery.php on line 173
These are authentic stories from real
farmers. Any editorial content does not
necessarily reflect the beliefs of the Agri-Business
Council of Oregon or our members.
|
