In 1948, Speer and Sons Nursery was started in Fairview, Oregon on ten acres of land by my father, Dan Speer and grandfather, Benjamin Speer. The main crops grown on this farm were fruit trees. In 1950 dad purchased a 27 acre farm in Springdale, Oregon. On this farm the main crops that were grown were fruit trees, shade trees, roses, and conifers.

Seven years later the nursery was moved to Corbet, Oregon where Dad purchased 40 acres along Gordon Creek. Dad was starting to do better financially because of the increased acreage, but experienced some very harsh winters because of the east wind coming out of the Columbia Gorge. Because of the harsh
winters Dad started looking for another farm that wasn't affected by the Gorge winds. In 1965 Dad purchased 178 acres in Hillsboro, Oregon. Of the 178 acres only 75 was plantable because of the
Tualitan River floodplain. On this farm the main crops grown were flowering and shade trees, which is what would become the crop that Dad decided he would specialize in from that time on.

Between 1972 and 1976 two more adjacent parcels of land were added to the original 178 acres to make a total of 375 acres. During this time of growth my brother Mike and I started to work full time at the Nursery. Mike was involved in sales, inventory, public relations, and employee benefits, while I was involved in production, with Dad overseeing the entire business

The Nursery business was seeing a period of growth through the late 70's and into the mid 1980's and with the addition of some good hardworking employees our production increased. Dad started to look for some new acreage because of our growth and found a 500 acre site between Woodburn and St. Paul,
Oregon that was a perfect setting for a Nursery application with good soil and an excellent water source. This farm was purchased in 1980 and we planted our first crop in 1981. There have been several construction phases since 1981 until 1993 that added warehouse space, office space, and cold storage.

We feel that this location will be all we will need for some time because the price of land has risen more than three times what it was in 1980 and the availability of land is almost nil. We plant about 75 acres of seedlings and cuttings every spring, so this gives us good crop rotation and the ability to rebuild our soil with cover crops. Our goal at this time is not to increase our production, but to improve our quality of the trees we grow and increase the percentage of trees that are marketable to our customers. We are trying very hard to meet the needs of our customers as well as we can. We welcome any input that you may have at anytime. Please feel free to call us.