Kerry’s Nursery Faces Foreclosure

Kerry's Bromeliads

An all-too-familiar story of a nursery business going under is playing out again. The South Florida Business Journal is reporting that Kerry’s Nursery, a large grower of bromeliads and orchids in Apopka, Fla., is being served with a foreclosure lawsuit by the Florida Federal Land Bank Association. Founder and managing member Kerry Herndon is also named in the suit. Herndon was unavailable for comment for this story.

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According to Brian Bandell, senior reporter for the South Florida Business Journal, the suit targets nearly 40 acres of land in Homestead, Fla., including two homes, and two parcels of land (53.7 and 36.4 acres) in Orange County, which include the nursery.

Kerry’s was founded in 1970 and is one of the largest orchid and bromeliad nurseries in the world. It was No. 21 on Greenhouse Grower’s 2012 Top 100 Growers list. The two facilities in southern and central Florida together comprise 2.8 million square feet of greenhouses that house 5 million orchids and 2 million bromeliads. Customers include Costco, Trader Joe’s, Publix, Home Depot, Krogers and Safeway.

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Avatar for Ray Ray says:

ouch, i hope this works out because of the many empoylees, that are there..many have been with him for alot of years…

Avatar for Stan Stan says:

Live by the sword (big box stores) die by the sword. Sad but just one more victim of PBS.

Avatar for Jeff Jeff says:

Terrific product, well grown. A shame that the big box stores may have contributed to this situation. When a product is devalued and becomes a commodity then the grower may be doomed. The wholesale prices become dictated by the purchaser and may not reflect the actual costs to produce the product. It was a top notch operation.

Avatar for Randall Randall says:

Put his faith in the big box stores……Sorry for them, but did themsleves in via pay by scan. Its no good for anyone.

Avatar for Tom Germano Tom Germano says:

Once you start "playing" with big boxes…you're done. Most of the top growers turned into thief's..ripping small US companies of propitiatory products and copy in China. Growers be aware of you suppliers like BFG….you will be next…

Avatar for Michiel Michiel says:

A message like that gives me goosebumps, this can be any of us, when does this stop? Kerry is a very well known and respected grower, business man and writer, recently buying up other companies to secure/maintain a foothold I am sure. I always enjoyed his column and valued his opinion.

Avatar for Steve Steve says:

As long as the boxes dictate prices our industry is going to see more operations go out of business. When will the madness end and a reasonable return on our investment be reality? As long as the big boys fail to stand up and say enough is enough, everyone looses

Avatar for ron ron says:

Que lastima..what a pity..He was one of the good guys

Avatar for Thomas Thomas says:

Quality is King in the industry. Too bad that Kerry did not embrace clone Orchids and continued to grow seed Orchids. You can no longer sell one spike three bloom Orchids, the market is demanding higher quality

Avatar for P. Lipscomb P. Lipscomb says:

The big boxes have certainly done their damage in some ways and in others made life simpler for customers. They, like Amazon has pushed a lot of mom and pops out the door who couldn’t, wouldn’t adapt. I hear people griping that the pandemic has caused people to close their doors well why is that when anither business down the street is doing great and figured out how to adapt to changing times. I saw one little restaurant for example — they didn’t have the money to knock a hole in the building for drive through and yet they knew they had to do something. They went and bought traffic cones, set up 2 lines and 2 people ran the line, taking orders sending them inside and bring the food out to the cars. Works beautiful. Another restaurant has sign —“going out of business, Covid has forced us to close our doors. Thank you for your patronage over the years.” They had a drive through window and dining room both. Explain that to me. I miss so many of the mom and pops or one store, one restaurant business — the non chains that have taken over the world. A few years ago I had to go to NY and was looking forward to seeing new stores, restaurants, etc — did see a few in the 4 states we went through. The world has been plasticized with all the chains. Whether clothes shopping, restaurants, home supplies, coffee and donut shops, hotels, etc — it looked the same as in my hometown. The buildings and decor barely changed from one state to the next.

You are right, the market does want better. I certainly wouldn’t want a 1 spike, 3 bloom orchid. I mean if it’s dying and it had more originally, but not one just blooming out. When it takes so little to sell higher quality plants, why would a vendor want to sell low quality. A few extra days of cooling — assume you are speaking of Phalaenopsis — and proper feeding the 6-8+ months prior will give you multiple spikes and flowers all the way down the spike. And if they would include a card on how to encourage branching, buyers would easily have phals in bloom for 6+months. Some customers just treat them as disposable plants, where others want to care for them and rebloom.

As it is even in my house I end up cutting the spike at 4-5 months because I’m done with it and I need it to go into root formation and new leaves. If the blooms still look great, which they usually do in a 71-72 degree home, I use the spike for cut flower until it gives up the ghost. I grow cattleyas, phals, and vandas. Cattleyas are my favorite

The Netherlands are growing super nice quality phals. They have worked hard to get respect with phals in particular. I haven’t seen anything in them growing other types commercially.

Avatar for Chris Gilcrest Chris Gilcrest says:

Moral of the story, large stores made millions of dollars usuing Pay per scan payment system, grower goes out of business. Another whore will dutifully line in Kerry's place for the box stores to bleed dry

Avatar for Quentin Quentin says:

Not only was Kerry a grower, he was a visionary. He was a leader in bringing new products to the US, and was a class act in all regards. One never knows the whole story on these situations, but things have to be bad for this to occur.

Avatar for Kimberley Kimberley says:

I work cash and carry here at Kerry's on Keene Rd.. Just to let everyone know that we are still here and holding on.

Avatar for M.I.S. M.I.S. says:

Kimberley – so glad you posted!! Know I've seen product in box stores, but you never know! Keep on growing – y'all are the best.