(Photo credit: Donaldson’s Greenhouse)
I had the pleasure of interviewing one of PlantRight’s founding members, Nicholas Staddon, who is still a steadfast PlantRight supporter and member of the Plant List and Steering Committees today. Nicholas’ “day job” is serving as the Company Spokesperson for Everde Growers, “Growing Plants for Life.” He also responds to the title “The Plantsman.” He lives up to his title with an illustrious and accomplished career in the horticultural industry from his first nursery job in New Mexico to his decades long stint with Monrovia, to his time with Mountain Wholesale Growers in Arizona and his work as an independent consultant. It wasn’t always plants for Nicholas, however, his story begins with the sea.
As a young man Nicholas worked as an Air Force falconer to help clear the sea birds from the runways where the planes landed and took off. Nicholas reports that he and his fellow falconers did their jobs so well that they “worked [themselves] out of a job.” One job led to another and he found himself sailing the oceans as a deckhand. He met the love of his life when his ship docked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and they kept in contact as he sailed around the world. He was even thinking of getting his skipper’s license when the opportunity to work inland came to him. One of his shipmates offered him a job at his nursery in New Mexico. After clarifying that ‘nursery’ referred to a plant growing operation and not child care, as he in fact mistook it to mean, Nicholas agreed to go ashore and start a new life in the horticulture world.
Well, it was all downhill from there, and over the years, Nicholas earned his name and place in the industry and never looked back. He was working for Monrovia when he was approached by the folks from Sustainable Conservation about “having a seat at the table” in a work group they were forming to address the issue of invasive plants. This work group, later known as the California Horticulture Invasives Prevention committee (Cal-HIP), was where the idea for PlantRight was born and nurtured into existence. Cal-HIP brought together stakeholders from conservation and the nursery industry who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to communicate with and understand each other.
The group embarked on a new mission of understanding the problem of invasive plants, invasive plant pathways, and potential ways forward to eliminate invasive species from horticulture. According to Nicholas, these conversations opened up the doors for Monrovia to change how they approached plant introductions and resulted in establishing a screening system to prevent the importation of invasive plants into California. These were just the beginnings of the PlantRight partnerships and collaborations that have led to the success PlantRight has had today. If it wasn’t for Cal-HIP members like Nicholas being open to having that initial conversation, PlantRight might never have taken off the ground. It is also thanks to Cal-HIP members that PlantRight continues to soar today!
Thanks Nicholas!