How Nature’s Way Farms Sells Quality With Heart

Dawn Wilson of Nature's Way Farms

Nature’s Way Farms owner Dawn Wilson has been growing tropicals and other landscape plants for 40 years. Photo courtesy of Nature’s Way Farms

Anyone who works at Nature’s Way Farms will tell you it has a big heart. Perhaps that’s due to owner Dawn Wilson’s philosophy. “Kindness brings good people. Good people are dedicated. Dedication brings passion. Passion brings quality, and quality makes consumers happy, which brings growth to our company,” she says.

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Wilson’s philosophy is a recipe for success. Celebrating its 40th year in business, Nature’s Way Farms, located in Miami, FL, is thriving. A 5-acre operation back in 1980 today sprawls across 300 acres. Supplying local businesses with nursery trees has turned into growing more than 400 varieties of plants, including flowering shrubs, climbing vines, groundcovers, woody ornamentals, landscape tropicals, and houseplants, to supply big box stores and other major retailers in Southern markets and beyond.

In 2016, Nature’s Way Farms accepted the Lawn and Garden Innovation Partner of the Year Award from Lowe’s Home Improvement. The Home Depot honored the company with its Supplier Partner of the Year Award for the Southwest Region for Live Goods two years running in 2018 and 2019. This year, Nature’s Way announced it received the National Women’s Business Enterprise Certification from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

Embed Quality in Your Company DNA

Although Nature’s Way is woman-owned, Wilson has never looked at her business from the perspective of a woman navigating through business challenges in what is sometimes a man’s world.

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“I don’t consider myself different because I am a woman,” she says. “I am just like any other business owner. I have run into challenges over the last 40 years, but I can’t recall a specific moment where I can say that the challenge presented itself because I am a woman. I think a hardworking, focused individual, man or woman, that surrounds themselves with great people can be successful.”

Wilson started down the path to business ownership when, while working as a physical education teacher, she landed a $25,000 landscaping job with the association that managed her condominium development. Later, when her father fell ill, she took a leave of absence from her job to run his tree farm. The deeper dive into growing cemented what Wilson knew all along — she loved growing plants. After that, she never looked back.

From the start, Wilson focused on quality at Nature’s Way Farms. Her team members will tell you she has a passion for quality, even the secret sauce for it. Wilson’s passion has trickled down to her team, to the point where quality is in the company’s DNA.

“I am very proud of the quality plants we grow at Nature’s Way,” she says. “It’s not always easy, and we don’t always accomplish our goal. When we do, it’s such a great feeling, and when we don’t, we start over again until we get it right. I believe that if you sell quality plants, the business will come to you.”

There is no space for mediocrity with the team at Nature’s Way Farms. If they can’t grow something to the best of their ability, they would rather not grow it. That’s where the company’s grower partners come in, and Wilson attributes part of the company’s growth to these vendor partners. Nature’s Way has a dedicated team that works with its grower-partner network to ensure the grower has a plan in place and understands Nature’s Way Farms quality standards. Every plant that arrives at Nature’s Way is inspected for quality to be sure it meets its standards.

Landscape plants grown at Nature's Way Farms

Every plant that arrives at Nature’s Way is inspected for quality to be sure it meets its standards.
Photo courtesy of Nature’s Way Farms

Surround Yourself With Great People

Second to a passion for quality is Wilson’s passion for her team. Google Nature’s Way Farms and “Nature’s Way – Growing Together” pops up in the search results. The Nature’s Way team embodies growing together. Whether it’s finding production solutions or handling the busy spring shipping season, it strives to work as one. While each member has their responsibilities, they work to embrace decision-making as a whole, which allows them to react to challenge and change with agility.

Take the extensive damage from Hurricane Irma that crippled South Florida growers in 2017, for example. With spring quickly approaching, the management team had its customers’ needs on its mind when it decided to not wait on insurance or salvage efforts. The team acted quickly to put shade cloth back up and salvage what plants it could. As a result, Nature’s Way was up and running seven days after the hurricane with potting lines operating and truckloads of plants being shipped out the door.

Marketing Director Marta Maria Garcia, who joined the company a year ago, was tasked with launching the company’s new branding strategy with a collection of bromeliads, blooming tropical plants, and other shrubs. This type of undertaking can typically take as much as a year or more to execute.

“I was impressed with how quickly the department heads worked together toward a common goal,” she says. “We started the process in October, and the product landed in the stores by January 1. We couldn’t have taken advantage of the opportunity if the team hadn’t moved so quickly.”

And that’s not all that happened in Garcia’s first year. In addition to a new brand launch, the company rebranded two other collections and developed a new website geared toward consumer education.

Nature’s Way Farms does not buy into the one-size-fits-all way of thinking with its brands and programs, which have contributed to some of the company’s substantial growth. While the company has its standard core programs, its team doesn’t get complacent. It is constantly on the search for the new and different, always trying to outdo itself and take a pulse on what the consumer needs.

“We listen to the consumer,” says Vice President of Sales and Marketing Bea Garces. “They give us the answers. We listen to what they want and navigate a strategy that works for the grower, customer, and consumer.”

Lead by Example

Garces found her way into the horticulture industry in 1993 after a stint as a journalist. She met her husband, Jose Garces, in the industry and now both work at Nature’s Way Farms. From the first, Garces says it was easy to see the future growth potential of the company because the foundation for success was already laid.

“Dawn was looking for a team, and her openness to adding on new team members has brought on change,” Garces says. “Dawn always tells me ‘Bea, don’t forget I am only as good as my team.’ Our team here has a reciprocal relationship with Dawn. She wants to keep it together and growing together.

Wilson accomplishes that through leading by example, showing up every day to work alongside her team. And her team loves her for it. She also never forgets that Nature’s Way Farms isn’t a one-woman show.

“There are some team members that are catalysts for growth, others that keep us grounded, and those that bring creativity and inspiration,” Wilson says. “Everyone has their place here at Nature’s Way Farms. Having the delicate balance of knowing when to push and when to pull is critical. I have great team members at Nature’s Way but together we are unstoppable!”

Wilson says she believes in hard work, focus, and dedication. When she sees those qualities in others, she doesn’t hesitate to give them opportunities to grow in their careers.

Take Head Grower Percy Llosa, for example. He started at Nature’s Way nine years ago as a shipping supervisor, knowing next to nothing about the process of growing plants. After a few years, Wilson invited him to start growing plants with her. She coached and trained him and taught him everything she knew.

“Dawn has given me opportunities that I don’t think anyone else would have given me in my life,” Llosa says. “If you show Dawn that you put as much passion as she does into what you are doing, she is the type of person that will give you her heart and everything she can give you. That’s what Nature’s Way Farms is to me. It is Dawn’s heart.”


What Does It Take to Earn Women-Owned Status?

Earning certification from the highly respected Women’s Business Enterprise National Council was no small feat for Nature’s Way Farms. The rigorous process involved providing thousands of documents for review and included an extensive interview and site visit with a WBENC investigator. Businesses certified by WBENC must be at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman or women. Once certified, they can use the women-owned logo to promote their business and have access to the collective knowledge of a growing network of women-owned businesses. Learn more about the certification process at wbenc.org.


This Isn’t Your Typical Team

Wilson has another team that she feels passionate about, one with four legs. Situated amidst the acres of plants on Nature’s Way Farms is an onsite animal foster operation that cares for rescued puppies and homeless cats and dogs. Wilson works with other agencies to provide veterinarian care and interview prospective adoptees for the animals in her care. She has even paid for animals to be transported or bussed across the country to make sure they went to good homes. Employees are encouraged and regularly called upon, to provide some love and nurturing to help prepare the animals for their new homes.

Dawn Wilson of Nature's Way Farms with puppies

Photo courtesy of Nature’s Way Farms

“I love animals and enjoy rescuing and fostering dogs and cats,” Wilson says. “It is very important to me to make sure they have a good home after they have been rescued.”

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