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.
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.