FRESNO, Calif. — Nursery owner Jon Reelhorn joked that he never had an ag class until attending Fresno State University on a baseball scholarship.

The ag classes were “intimating,” he said. “Learning about the dairy program was scary to a Stockton city boy. Where do I need to stick my arm?

“The students in the row crop and orchard management classes grew up on the farm and knew all the answers to the professor’s questions, which was also very intimidating,” he said.

Ultimately, he found that ornamental horticulture and landscaping were interesting and didn’t have the “problems” of the other classes.

He followed that path of study and has owned Belmont Nursery in Fresno, Calif., since 2001.

One thing he knew about picking a major was that he didn’t want to sit at a desk and be a business major, “so I chose agriculture.”

Ironically, now he sits at a desk and wishes he had taken more business classes, he said.

His nursery supplies trees, shrubs and flowering plants to garden centers, landscape professionals, municipalities and homeowners in central and northern California.

It measures 30 acres, 10 of which are open to the public as a retail garden center. Compared to many nurseries nationwide, it is small, but compared to many nurseries in California, it is mid-sized, he said.

“Our signature plant is a shade tree, the Keith Davey Pistache,” Reelhorn said. “It is a non-fruiting, male (seedless) with vivid orange and red fall leaf color, even in our hot valley temps. It’s widely planted and works great in most of California.”

Edibles are another significant part of the nursery’s sales: fruit trees, berries, grapes and even artichokes.

The nursery also ships roses and other flowering plants throughout the region and to the Pacific Northwest for Easter and Mother’s Day because they bloom early, he said.

The nursery is one of two licensed growers of David Austin English Roses in the state, and it grows the Sunset Plant Selection, which are specially selected for their adaptation to the western climate.

“We like these plants because they like our growing conditions,” he said.

The plants that are hardest to raise are the ones that don’t survive the hot summers, he said.

“Actually, California native plants are very difficult grow in pots, especially if they are native to a higher elevation or to the coast,” he said. “It’s difficult to mimic their native environment, and they are not forgiving of hot or wet soil.”

Reelhorn has a fun fact about one of the nursery’s unique plants:

A Chaste Tree (Vitex) has beautiful blue flowers in mid-summer and brightens a yard when many plants are bloomed out. It is exceptionally drought tolerant and has an intriguing branch structure when it gets old —gnarly and twisted — so it makes a fine specimen with uplighting for a hot, dry spot.

The interesting part, he said, is it will grow in the desert or in a flood. The Vitex tree is adaptable and will grow in dry conditions or soggy conditions, he said.

Reelhorn also has some tongue-in-cheek advice about when to plant a tree: “Ten years ago — because your tree would have been quite nice and nearly mature right now!”