Van Berkum Nursery was started in 1987 by Leslie and Peter van Berkum in an old gravel pit in Chester NH. Peter had studied horticulture at UNH, did internships and study in the Netherlands, and has worked in and been growing plants his entire work life. Leslie was a teacher and musician who was skilled at communicating ideas to others. Their original theme was growing plants for groundcover and massing with a focus on natives and shade plants. The current popularity of perennials had barely started yet, so Leslie, along with potting plants and taking care of young kids all day, put her education background to work teaching landscapers and garden centers about perennials. Peter continued working at Lake Street Garden Center in Salem as a grower for the first few years, while potting and growing plants at the home nursery in the evenings (and nights sometimes) and weekends. They also became active in professional associations, meeting other like-minded plant people and worked to advocate for the use of perennials, and especially natives.
Having experienced some growth in their first 2 years in Chester they were able to buy property in Deerfield, NH, and moved there in the fall of 1989, having spent that summer building a house and building the property out as a nursery. Around this time, they started taking on employees to grow enough plants to meet the growing demand. As the nursery grew, they expanded into a full line of sun perennials and continued to grow their offerings of native plants. Also growing unusual perennials and Wicked Rugged plants that thrived in our New England climate. And they developed a educational catalog that became a standard for perennial education.
Over the next 30 years they developed their wholesale market to cover the 4 northern New England states, bought 3 neighboring properties, built a shop which evolved into an office, a quarter acre propagation greenhouse, 20 freestanding greenhouse, and support buildings Among other recognition, they were awarded the Family Business of the Year by the Small Business Development Center and the Grower of the Year Award by the Perennial Plant Association.
Perhaps the accomplishment that they are most proud of is building up a wonderful staff of people who shared their goals and enthusiasm for growing great plants and giving great service. By the time they sold the nursery, the staff had grown to 40 people. Among them was John Gedraitis, a talented young man that Peter and Leslie felt very comfortable with. John rose to general manager and ended up buying the nursery. They are very much enjoying watching him refine the processes and taking their passion to a higher level. They remain the nursery’s biggest fans.