HANSEN, Idaho — Walt Coiner was a sixth-generation row-crop farmer in south-central Idaho when he decided he wanted to branch out and do something different.

That something different became Hollyberry Nursery.

He had started his farm from scratch, clearing out sagebrush, but found it impossible to relax for 9 months of the year. So he sold the farm in 1995 and bought 100 acres in the area to grow trees, shrubs and ornamentals — starting from scratch again.

“We’ve always been farmers,” Coiner said. “This is just a different type of farming.”

But there was a learning curve in trading the plow for pruning shears.

Today the operation — owned by Coiner and his wife, Holly — grows 350 varieties of trees and shrubs numbering into the hundreds of thousands.

Native stock

The nursery does a lot of trials, but it mostly grows standard maples, shade trees, fruit trees, conifers, shrubs and perennials. Most of its customers are bigger wholesale nurseries in Utah and Idaho, with some in Wyoming and Colorado. It also supplies some local nurseries in the region.

It’s a native nursery that grows varieties suited to the Intermountain West, Coiner said.

“Our stuff is hardy, and we stand behind our product. We guarantee it,” he said.

The nursery plants in the spring with bare root stock purchased from suppliers in Oregon, northern Idaho, Minnesota and Washington.

“We try to buy the best quality product we can. We start with a good product; we end with a good product,” he said.

The growing medium is composted forest products and bark, which is brought in by the semi load.

Small footprint

The trees and shrubs aren’t available for sale for more than a year. Most of the stock is grown above ground, some in large grow bags and others in pots. Some of the bigger conifer and deciduous trees are planted in the ground.

“It’s a small footprint for a large nursery,” he said.

The formula for success is good soil, the right fertilizer and the sun, he said.

Repotting and trimming takes place all summer, and work continues until Thanksgiving.

Location is also a factor — the climate in south-central Idaho lends itself to no disease and few pests.

“It makes it really easy to stay away from using harmful chemicals,” he said.

The nursery supplies wholesalers with 2-inch to 5-inch caliper trees and 2-foot to 10-foot shrubs.

On the river

Kip and Colleen Wilkins run the day-to-day operations, and they do a really good job, he said.

“I am thrilled with Kip and Colleen,” they are both pillars of the community, he said.

Hollyberry’s 100 acres includes a couple of miles of canyon-front property on the Snake River.

“It’s a pretty special spot out here,” he said.

The nursery operation doesn’t encompass the full 100 acres. There are also corn and alfalfa crops, a popular corn maze and a park-like area for hosting weddings and other events.

“We don’t want to be a big nursery, we just want to do a good job,” he said.

They keep getting better at it, innovating and bringing in new varieties all the time, he said.

The nursery delivers high-quality products and good customer service and has been successful, shipping all over the Intermountain West, he said.

Hollyberry Nursery

Location: Hansen, Idaho

Acres: 100

Products: Trees, shrubs, perennials

Employees: 10 to 20, depending on the season

Associations: Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association and the Twin Falls County Tree Board

Nursery operators: Kip and Colleen Wilkins