Oglesby Plants: Liner Pioneers

Oglesby Plants: Liner Pioneers


 
 

Young Plant Possibilities

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“The young plant division is built around the idea that not everyone wants to wean plants from tissue culture,” Oglesby President Gary Hennen says. “We offer plants already grown, already greenhouse hardened and it makes customers’ lives much easier.”
Since Oglesby started selling liners in 1978, the young plant division has leaped ahead, becoming the company’s largest component. More than 150,000 square feet of greenhouse space is dedicated to converting microcuttings to stage IV young plants.
To help meet their uncompromising quality standards, Oglesby’s facilities employ a mix of advanced technology. Poly and polycarbonate greenhouses are computer climate-controlled and equipped with rolling European-style benches, cooling pads and Nexus shade and heat-retention systems.
“Oglesby has maintained a very high bar on quality through the long history of the company,” Dagen says. “People rely on us to deliver the highest quality possible on our young plant liners.”

Tissue Culture Technology

That unwavering commitment to quality transcends all aspects of Oglesby, none more so than the company’s tissue culture laboratory. It’s enabled them to take a small experimental laboratory to a world-leading production and research facility serving customers in every corner of the globe.
“Our plants are exceptionally clean, and we’re constantly fine-tuning and developing new products,” Dagen says. “With more than 30 years of experience in plant tissue culture, we’ve touched and worked with many plant genera.”
With plant importation laws ever tightening, Oglesby immediately saw the potential in commercial tissue culture and capitalized on it. The operation never looked back, and it now produces more than 150 varieties. 
 

Breeding Excellence

Oglesby is constantly looking ahead, too. The company’s vision most recently took Oglesby into breeding. In the two decades since Oglesby’s plant development program launched, it has become a gold standard in breeding of tropicals and foliage plants.
Renowned plantsman Jim Georgusis was instrumental in the program’s formative years and recently returned as nursery production manager. Legendary breeder and researcher Marian Osiecki keeps a steady stream of innovative plant material coming.
Focusing on spathiphyllum and anthurium but also working with about 20 additional genera, the program has introduced nearly 60 varieties. The popular spathiphyllum ‘Sensation,’ seen in countless commercial entryways and atriums around the country, originated at Oglesby.

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On the Horizon

So what is the next frontier? “We’re going to be doing different plant material but not forgetting our core tropical business roots,” Dagen says. “People want to be surrounded by plants in the office, home and outdoors.”
With that in mind, diversification has come naturally to Oglesby. It is expanding its fledgling perennial and shrub programs, looking toward outdoor living for future growth.
“When you look at garden centers and box stores, you see more and more space allocated to porch and container gardening,” Dagen says, “so we look to be part of that market that’s more dynamic and expanding.”

The addition of new markets doesn’t mean Oglesby is abandoning the markets on which the company was built. Foliage will still be a strong focus.  

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