Arbor Valley Nursery

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Rooted In Family

The seeds for Arbor Valley Nursery were sown with Roy and Dave Edmundson well before they opened in 1980. Roy, a Colorado land-man, had always admired farmers, their values, and the relationship they had with the land. Dave grew up sharing his father’s interest in plants, and, when it was his turn to choose a path, Dave majored in Horticulture at Colorado State University. After graduation in 1971, Dave dug deep into the industry and learned all he could by working with some of the best nurseries, farms, and garden centers in the region. During his time with these organizations, Dave began to see a need within the market for locally grown trees which could thrive in the Colorado climate to support the demand from landscape professionals and wholesale distributors. Roy, understanding the opportunity and trusting in his son’s knowledge and expertise, funded Dave’s vision, and together they founded Arbor Valley Nursery.

Arbor Valley Nursery began to evolve as Dave responded to the requests of his customers to include additional services and products. In addition to locally grown trees, Arbor Valley Nursery slowly began to branch into shrub and perennial production, as well as become a hub of distribution for trees and plants for out-of-state partners and other growers serving the Colorado region. As the nursery moved closer to becoming the landscapers’ one-stop-shop, Dave shaped Arbor Valley Nursery into the region’s leading strategic low-cost provider known for a broad product line and strong delivery and service performance. The business was growing well and expansion was needed to handle the extra demands of the market. So, in early 2006, Dave leveraged his success, took a financial risk, and Henkel Farm on the edge of Lochbuie was purchased and prepared for additional growth. Unfortunately, before the first trees would bud, the local and world economies as well as Dave’s own health would take dramatic turns for the worse.

The first signs of the Great Recession started in late 2006 and early 2007 when housing prices began to fall. Henkel Farm was just beginning to germinate as the full weight of the Recession began to impact Colorado. By the first quarter of 2008, the US economy was shriveling; jobs were being lost at rates not seen since the 1920s. While foreclosures were intensifying to historic levels, new construction projects and the demand for plant material were continuing to tumble dramatically. The long cycle of the Recession was intensified by a glut of plant material in the market with growers scrambling to push their plants out of the fields before the plants were no longer sellable. This infusion of material with the declining demand sent consumer prices to historic lows; hitting the low-cost providers the hardest as traditionally high-end brands were entering into the low-cost market destroying what little margins remained. In addition, Dave’s own health began to wane, and in 2010 Arbor Valley Nursery’s founder and leader passed away leaving his son Matt to lead a struggling but determined team to persevere through the trials of the Recession.

While Matt has a heart for plants, he also has a head for efficiencies and economics, and Arbor Valley needed both his head and his heart in order to take root and truly bloom. With the recession as a catalyst, Matt quickly shifted the organization to emphasize quality and service, while maintaining a competitive price for the Arbor Valley products and pushing Just In Time (JIT) delivery for our customers. The new vision was grafted to the old roots of Arbor Valley in order to rejuvenate the organization while maintaining the core of what Dave and Roy had founded.

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