By Dirk Coburn, Horticultural Specialist at Weston Nurseries

It’s like parenting.  Each customer is our favorite customer.  But we have a special affection in our hearts when we hear a customer say “I have learned something new!”

At Weston Nurseries, we know well the thrill of learning about plants, horticulture, garden design, and landscape maintenance.  We know this from our own home gardens, lawns, trees, and shrubs.  And we also know it from the many ways in which we pursue advanced study in our field.

Every year several Weston Nurseries employees attend Green School – a 7-week intensive program in botany, entymology, weed science, plant disease study, horticulture, turf science, pruning, and more taught by faculty from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Our employees traditionally finish that program in the top 10% of their class.  Many have passed the Mass. Certified Horticulturist test offered by the Mass. Nursery and Landscape Association.  Weston Nurseries employees have run educational programs for Mass. Horticultural Society and for the Master Gardeners organization.  Our Garden Centers are full of the definitive reference works on trees and shrubs, on perennials, on plant diseases, on beneficial and harmful insects, on garden remedies, and more.

If we sometimes talk your ear off with this knowledge, it is because we love plants, we love learning new things about plants, and we love it when we hear an excited voice say “I have learned something new!”  So if there is something you always wanted to know about plants, ask us.  Chances are that we know answer or that we know where to find it.