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Contact: Scott McCaskey at Goldman and Associates Public Relations at 757-625-2518 or scott@goldmanandassociates.com, or Robin Rinaca or Nick Covatta at Eastern Shore Nursery of Virginia at 800-323-3008.
Eastern Shore Nursery Branching Out
Launches Hollybrook Orchards Brand
Keller, VA: Demand for traditional and new varieties of quality fruits, healthy eating and the heritage of growing at home are the roots for Eastern Shore Nursery of Virginia's Hollybrook Orchards brand of fruit trees, berries and nuts. From the Golden Delicious apple to the Russian goumi berry, Hollybrook Orchards out of the gate offers the broadest selection of fruit trees in the East.
"We have fruits your grandmother enjoyed to exotics from across the globe," says Robin Rinaca, general manager of Eastern Shore Nursery of Virginia. "Hollybrook Orchards offers 200 varieties of fruiting trees, plants and nuts. We grow from selected root stocks to produce very high quality, properly-sized trees that will provide the homeowner with fruit in the first year of planting."
Eastern Shore Nursery has been growing fruit trees for 12 years and now is bringing it all together under the Hollybrook Orchards brand. Proven favorites like McIntosh apples, Elberta peaches and Anjou pears are mainstays along with new varieties such as sweet cherries from the Cornell University breeding program, which are specifically developed for the Eastern climate. Rinaca says she's seeing a growing trend she calls "orchyarding," where people are planting their favorite fruit trees in small orchards in their yards.
"We have the heirlooms and the exciting new varieties and tastes that you can't get anywhere else," Rinaca says. "Every day we're discovering more and more fruits that have anti-oxidant and other health benefits, whether it's the blueberry or exotics like the goumi or wolfberry. Home fruit production ties directly into people wanting to learn and control what goes into their body. If you want to sell fruit trees that please your orchyarding customers, you really should be selling the Hollybrook Orchards brand."
To help their garden center customers better present and educate the buying public, Hollybrook Orchards will place special emphasis on labeling, point of purchase information and growing instructions, supported by a website that will provide even more details. The company has employed 15 artists to create botanical, Audubon-like images, complemented by extensive plant description, planting and care information. Pollination charts and laminated pocket-sized information supplements will be provided to garden center staff to help them better serve their customers.
"There will be nothing in the industry like the artwork for our labeling and support information," Rinaca emphasized. "We are committed to helping our customers provide the best fruiting trees and service in the business."
Bill Heptig is the buyer for Mahoney's Garden Centers in Winchester, Massachusetts.
"We welcome more labeling and product information," Heptig says. "It's especially helpful with fruit trees, where good pollination instruction makes growing much easier for the consumer."
Americans are becoming more aware of the benefits of eating foods that are good for us and its showing at garden centers.
"In the last two years I've seen a real increase in demand for apple and pear trees and also unusual fruits like the plumcot, colonnade and pineapple guava," says Sally Ann Ferry, nursery manager at Wentworth Nursery in Charlotte Hall, Maryland. "The timing of this new brand is very good."
Anthony Simerly, nursery manager of Gales Garden Center in Brunswick, Ohio, sees value in offering new types of fruit.
"New varieties are very good for driving customer interest," he says.
Eastern Shore Nursery, which is based in Keller, Virginia on Virginia's Eastern Shore, will begin shipping the Hollybrook Orchards brand in February, 2008. The wholesale nursery provides high quality, container-grown trees and shrubs to garden centers, re-wholesale nurseries and landscapers from North Carolina to Maine and west to St. Louis and Chicago. The company serves about half of the U.S. population, primarily in zones 5 and 6, and some markets in zone 7.
Terry Freed is a pomologist and a sales representative for Eastern Shore and Hollybrook Orchards.
"The Hollybrook Orchards brand gives us a lot more flexibility to offer all of the established varieties and to explore other new fruits so we can provide the largest selection to our garden center customers and the end user," Freed says.
Established in 1966, Eastern Shore Nursery chose the Hollybrook Orchards brand name based on local heritage. Part of Eastern Shore Nursery's growing acreage in Keller is located on the old Hollybrook Farm, circa 1800.
"Eastern Shore Nursery has a great reputation and people trust them," says Jon Shafer, buyer for Holdridge Home & Garden Showplace in Ledyard Center, Ct. "They have great product, and excellent service. You can always reach the person you need to speak with. It's only a matter of time before customers start asking for Hollybrook Orchards by name."
For more information about Eastern Shore Nursery and Hollybrook Orchards, visit:
www.esnursery.com.
Call Eastern Shore Nursery at 800-323-3088 or 757-787-4732.
Contact Scott McCaskey at Goldman & Associates Public Relations at: 757-625-2518 or at: scott@goldmanandassociates.com.