Terra Nova Founder Dan Heims Recognized for Plant Breeding Innovation
April 3, 2020 
Dan Heims. Photo: David E. Steele/The Martha Stewart Show
The American Horticultural Society recently named Dan Heims, president of Canby, OR-based plant breeder Terra Nova Nurseries, as the 2020 recipient of its Luther Burbank Award. The award recognizes extraordinary achievement in the field of plant breeding.
Over the course of his career, Heims has been a major leader and influencer in ornamental plant breeding. He got his start in horticulture selling house plants and then running a landscape design business, before launching Terra Nova Nurseries out of his own home in 1992. Over the past 28 years, the company has introduced more than 1,000 plants to horticulture, and Heims is known in particular for his groundbreaking work creating selections of herbaceous perennials such as coral bells (Heuchera spp.), foamflowers (Tiarella spp.), and coneflowers (Echinacea spp.). Heims also is an accomplished horticultural communicator who has published two books and dozens of articles in print and online media. He routinely gives talks on plant- and horticultural-related topics to professional and amateur audiences around the world.
“I’m most proud of our team here at Terra Nova,” Heims told Greenhouse Grower. “Each potential new plant goes through several rounds of trial and error, and when you look at the number of plants we’ve developed, nobody in the world has done that.”
Heims also credits the growers who have evaluated Terra Nova’s offerings in their own environments.
“The more work the grower puts into the plants, the stronger they become,” Heims says. “It’s a complicated process, but the end result is so fulfilling.”
Subscribe to eNewsletter
