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Bailey Nurseries - The Company Behind Easy Elegance® Roses

It’s no surprise that the new Easy Elegance® roses from Bailey Nurseries are strong growers. The company that introduced them is still strong and growing after a century in the business.

From the time that J.V. Bailey, a Minnesota farmer’s son, graduated from college in 1896 and rented his first parcel of agricultural land, the company has moved forward. Not content to simply sell his fresh produce at the St. Paul Farmer’s Market, Bailey arrived there early on market days to secure the best location for his stall. He was also the first to use an automobile to transport his produce. As his profits grew, Bailey invested in more agricultural land and diversified into selling flowers, ornamental shrubs and evergreens.

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In order to keep expanding, J.V. Bailey hired his first employees. The company weathered the Great Depression and World War II, and by the time J.V. Bailey died in 1943, his children, Vincent, Gordon and Beth were ready to assume control of the business. In 1950 the company hired its first salesman, and in 1956 the Baileys made the decision to focus exclusively on the wholesale side of the plant business.

Fiesta

In the 1960’s Bailey Nurseries continued to expand and improve its production facilities as Gordon’s sons, Gordon, Jr. and Rod, took over the operation. During the 1970’s and ‘80’s the company expanded geographically as well, acquiring farms in Yamhill and Sauvie Island, Oregon, and in Sunnyside, Washington; as well as Nord Farm, a new central propagation center in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.

When gardening boomed in the 1980’s and ‘90’s, Bailey Nurseries boomed along with it, playing host to the nationally syndicated television show Rebecca’s Garden, starring Minnesota gardening celebrity Rebecca Kolls. Rose breeding efforts began at the Yamhill, Oregon site in 1991, and took a leap forward with the hiring of breeder Ping Lim in 1992. Ping’s groundbreaking work in breeding a new generation of hardy, beautiful roses led to the development of the Easy Elegance® line. The company won its first All America Rose Selection award in 2002 for the rose ‘Love and Peace’™.

Bailey Nurseries, now one of the ten largest plant wholesalers in the country broke new ground in 2004 with the introduction of the ‘Endless Summer’® hydrangea. Now a best-seller, ‘Endless Summer’® flowers on both old and new wood, assuring the gardener of a nearly continuous show of either pink or blue blooms. The company plans more hydrangea introductions, including ‘Blushing Bride’™, a white-flowered offspring of ‘Endless Summer’®, with large flower heads that age to a delicate pink.

With a family tradition of horticultural innovation, philanthropy and forward momentum, it is only natural that Bailey Nurseries remains an industry leader. The average home gardeners may not know the Bailey name, but sooner or later he or she will almost certainly grow Bailey’s plants.

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