18
THE DAVEY BULLETIN
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July/August 2023
PERSEVERANCE
DAVEY NURSERY MARKS 60 YEARS OF GROWING TREES
This year marks the 60th anniversary since trees were first
planted on a farm in Wooster, Ohio, to mark the start of
tree-growing operations at the Davey Nursery.
Although the company bought the former 150 acres of
farmland in 1962, tree planting operations did not start
until 1963. The 1963 Davey Company Annual Report notes
Below: A Davey Nursery
employee at work in
the 1960s. In 1965,
then-Davey president
Alexander Smith called
the nursery one of many
"new twigs appearing
on the Davey tree."
Left: Long-time Davey Nursery
manager Barry Weidner surveys
the earliest trees planted at the
nursery in 1963, when Weidner
first became nursery manager.
He oversaw nursery operations
until his retirement in 1998.
that the nursery operations were viewed at the time as an
important part of the company's future. "The thousands of
trees being planted will grow into the much needed and
highly valued stock that is so often difficult and expensive
to obtain," the annual report states. The Davey Nursery is
managed by Rick Hanshaw, branch manager, Commercial
Landscape Services North and South operating group.
Left: This aerial image
shows some of the
many trees at the
Davey Nursery during
the 1980s.
Trees bloom at the Davey Nursery, which today has an
inventory of more than 90,000 trees over 325 acres.