Why Choose White House Natives?

At White House Natives, we pride ourselves in being dedicated stewards of the land and not just a tree grower. As a smaller specialty grower solely invested in natives, we can be nimble and focus all our efforts into creating an exceptional end product by being hands on in every phase. We have developed a unique multifaceted approach to growing B&B natives that believe brings value to our clients.

• Selecting proper fields and soils to promote vigorous growth and a solid rootball.
• Preparing soils with proper tillage equipment to enhance the growing environment.
• Testing our soils twice a year with professional agronomist consultation allowing us to customize the mix, timing, and rates of nutrition for both bed preparation and production fields.
• Incorporating  seasonal cover crops throughout the nursery to replenish organic matter and maintain overall soil structure.
• Touring our liner-growing partners annually to select the most vigorous and consistent liners that will make the best trees.
• Hand planting all liners by an experienced crew that checks and corrects for proper root growth and planting depth while keeping all trees on six-foot centers.
• Drip-irrigating each new liner from the day it is planted through its entire life cycle at the nursery to reduce stress and grow a healthier tree while eliminating wasteful water usage.
• Staking and tieing each tree by hand immediately after planting to promote a straight trunk and strong central leader.
• Pruning and tieing each tree by hand 2-3 per year to encourage a central leader, uniform branching height, and balanced heads consistent with the natural characteristics and desired look the species.
• Seeding grass on 15-foot-wide “drive” roads and clover on 12-foot-wide “spacing” rows to provide a solid working base, cover exposed soil, and add organic matter back into the soil with the added bonus of nitrogen from the clover that leads to less mowing.
• Weeds kept in check to reduce competition for nutrients and water by hand spraying in narrow bands.
• Insects monitored daily with IPM practices and using historical data and indicator plants to prevent outbreaks and treat pests that are above the threshold.  Fortunately, with our 100% native plant mix we have a very few insect pests, many can be tolerated or treated with a targeted approach with minimal pesticides.
• Hand-tagging each plant for sale before each selling season.   We promote the uniform spacing of plants at a young age by selling every other tree first, giving the remaining trees twice the space they need to grow on without competing for sunlight.
• Color-coding each tree prior to digging to identify its size, species, and customer. Trunks are also wrapped to protect the trees during the digging and shipping process.
• Digging trees with mechanical spades on skid steer loaders.  Unlike many growers, we use experienced, professional diggers for our large (1,000+ trees) stock orders.  This allows the WHN team to focus on special orders, hauling out, and loading trucks.
• Post-harvesting holes are filled in and cover crops of buckwheat, rye and radishes are planted for a year prior to replanting to allow nutrient replenishment.  Then the cycle starts all over again.

Learn more about WHN in the video below (3m 5s).