Bailey Nurseries provides the finishing touch of a Habitat home

Bailey Nurseries is a long standing and influential member of the Twin Cities gardening and horticulture community. They also donate thousands of dollars in planting materials every year to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.

Bailey Nurseries was founded by John Vincent Bailey, who attended the University of Minnesota’s Agricultural School in 1892. After his graduation in 1896, Bailey began buying tracks of land and planting produce on them. Despite initial struggles, he began to succeed when St. Paul introduced a farmer’s market in the downtown area. Driven by his success at the farmer’s market, Bailey decided to diversify from produce and began growing flowers, shrubs and trees. His new products became very desirable because of their high quality and good breeding.

Bailey Nurseries has since been handed down through four generations of the family. The company now mainly focuses on producing wholesale flower, as well as maintaining shrub and tree nurseries, and they are still recognized in the industry for their high quality products. Greenhouse Grower recognizes them as number 80 of the Top 100 Growers in the USA.

After each Habitat Home is completed and the family has moved in, habitat volunteers and Master Gardeners join with the homeowner to plant a variety of Minnesota native plant species throughout the property. Each property has between thirty and sixty plantings on it, all planted by the homeowner with help from some volunteers under the guidance of Master Gardeners, with all the plants being donated by Bailey Nurseries. Baileys Nurseries has provided the landscaping plant stock at no cost for each home built by Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity for the last fifteen years.

By Terry Barnes