March 20, 2010
at
C. E. Weldon Public Library
100 Main Street
Martin, Tennessee 38237
9:00am
“Conifers: Maximize Your Garden’s Potential”
James Wick, Peach Grove Nursery, Martin, TN
10:00am
“Landscape by Virgin’s”
Chris Virgin, Virgin’s Nursery, Union City, TN
11:00am
“Annual and Vegetable Potting Plants"
Mike Biggs, Biggs Greenhouses, Greenfield, TN
Nursery displays outside,
weather permitting by:
Biggs Greenhouses
Peach Grove Nursery
Virgin’s Nursery
Zimm’s Nursery
Dutch Garden Center
8:30a.m. – 12:00 noon
Admission Free
Door prizes by Robbins Nursery and Martin Beautiful
James Wick
9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
“Conifers: Maximize Your Garden’s Potential”
James Wick is the nursery manager for Morris Nursery in Jackson, TN.
He is a 1998 graduate of UTM with a BS in agriculture emphasis in ornamental horticultural sciences.
He has worked in the nursery industry for 16 years and owns Peach Grove Nursery in Martin, TN. His nursery specializes in rare and unusual plant material with emphasis on conifers. Other collections which he grows on ten acres include daylilies, iris, and spring bulbs.
To visit his gardens and nursery in Martin, contact Mr. Wick at peachgrovenursery[at]yahoo[dot]com.
Chris Virgin
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
“Landscape by Virgin’s”
Chris Virgin grew up in Union City working at Virgin’s Nursery. He graduated from the University of Tennessee
Knoxville (Bachelors of Architecture) and from the Louisiana State University (Masters of Landscape Architecture). He moved to Texas in 1997 and worked with MESA Design Group for four years as a Landscape Architect and with Corrigan for one year as an Architect.
As one of the owners of Virgin’s Nursery Inc., Chris is actively involved in the daily business operations as well as Landscape Architecture Design and Implementation. Virgin’s is the largest and only Landscape Architecture firm in Northwest Tennessee.
Mike Biggs
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
“Annual & Vegetable Potting Plants"
Thirty years ago we began potting petunias on our kitchen table here at our home. Mike was teaching fulltime, for 27 years, in Greenfield. After retiring, he taught math classes at UTM for about 5 years. Mike’s “landscaping” business began in the early 70’s when he began disking gardens with his Ford tractor during the summer months. This lead in to his work in seeding the lawns at new homes in the area. Homeowners then asked Mike to plant shrubs. The Biggs Nursery opened in 1980 in downtown Greenfield with one greenhouse and a large shadehouse stocked with shrubs and trees.
After a few seasons there, the business moved north of Greenfield where it is presently located. The Biggs family also operated a pick-your-own strawberry patch in that location for about 7 years.
As the demand grew larger for more annuals such as petunias, geraniums, begonias, etc., the business decided to abandon the landscaping and concentrate on growing more annuals. Biggs Nursery changed its name to Biggs Greenhouses, Inc. about 3 years ago. All of Mike’s sons were raised working in the business.
Now the middle son, Jake, remains with the business. He and Mike work hand in hand during the seasonal crops of fall mums, pansies, Christmas poinsettias, spring annuals, and the summer job of planting the pansies and mums for fall and tending the poinsettia crop from August to December. When customers phone to see if we’ve gotten the geraniums in, Mike says, “I always have to correct them that we don’t get the finished plants in, we grow them right here”.
