It is a farm where each year 14 million plants are raised without soil, every plant growing in its own container. Yet this farm runs 60 tractors, employs more than 400 workers, and has an irrigation pumping capacity of 10 million gallons of water a day. Carolina Nurseries, in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, grows retail-ready flowering plants and ornamentals for the landscape and home garden market. It is part of the booming horticultural industry that now makes up 11 percent of U.S. agricultural production. During the peak marketing season in spring and early summer, 50,000 to 60,000 plants leave Carolina Nurseries every day in semi-trailers, headed for garden centers and chain outlets throughout two-thirds of the U.S.

Carolina Nurseries President J. Guy and his wife, Linda Urdman-Guy, right, reveal new flowers in their test plots that may become part of the nursery’s wholesale offerings in the future.

The farm grows nearly 2,000 different varieties of perennials, ornamentals, and trees. Half of those varieties are being wholesaled at any given time. The other half are new or different varieties that will be available in a year or two.

“In this business we are always looking a few years down the road, trying to determine what the market will be then,” said J. Guy, President and co-owner of Carolina Nurseries. “We look for trends in what is selling. For instance, we know people want plants that are trouble-free, and we try to find new varieties that don’t require a lot of care.”

Guy’s wife, Linda Urdman-Guy, a botanist, is responsible for new product development. She travels the world to locate plant varieties that may never have been seen before in America, and brings them back to conduct research trials. Her work has taken her to China, South Korea, and South America in search of what in the future may be grown by the thousands at Carolina Nurseries.

The entire area of the farm where plants are growing, about 700 acres counting roads, has been leveled and equipped with an underground drainage system that takes all excess irrigation water back to the lakes.

Plants and trees in containers are arranged in beds on 320 acres of this farm. An additional 2,500-acre watershed collects water into 80 acres of lakes, which in turn supply all water used on the farm. It is the farm’s only source of irrigation water since underground water in this area cannot be used on plants.

It is J. Guy’s firm belief that this type of automation is the key to future success in his labor-intensive business. With the soil-mixer up and running, he has turned his attention to an automatic pot separator. This machine takes stacked plant containers, pulls them apart and places them evenly spaced on a conveyor, ready to be filled.

In some cases, a robotic transplanter may be used to fill the containers. When working at its optimum, this new machine is able to place up to 80 plants a minute into one- and two-gallon containers, along with the soil media.

More than 100 acres of the farm are under shade for growing plants such as hostas. Large trees form some of the shade, but more than 50 acres are covered by a heavy woven cloth that effectively shuts out 50 percent of the sunlight.

Much of the shade cloth is over flat-top frame structures that seem to form an endless tent. Some of the cloth is over smaller hoop shade houses.

But with the farm’s proximity to the Atlantic coast, Guy said it’s inevitable that a hurricane will come their way sooner or later. So every time a hurricane threatens, the farm’s entire work force is called off its normal duties, and everyone pitches in to roll back the shade cloth and secure it from the winds, a task that takes two to three days.

“It’s a lot of time lost from plant care when we pull all that shade cloth off,” Guy said. “But it’s worth it. Our loss would be tremendous if we didn’t do it and one of those storms hit. So the next time there’s a hurricane headed our way, we’ll be prepared for it even if it turns away.” In a tall tree almost within sight of the growing plants, a pair of bald eagles decided to build a nest. Their presence in the tree has effectively removed about 33 acres from any use other than as watershed. Federal law requires that no development occur within 300 yards of the eagles’ roost and that no human activity occur within 750 yards during times when the birds are nesting. Guy smiles at the imposed restrictions placed on them by the eagles. “We’re honored they chose our land,” he said. “It confirms our commitment to the environment. We have invested a lot of money to assure that our water and woodlands are clean. I think the amount of wildlife on our land proves it.”

While some ornamental plants grow best in natural shade, top photo, others, such as the daylilies, bottom photo, require all the sun they can get.

Workers are always on the lookout for wildlife. A drive around the perimeter of the farm could easily give one the impression it is actually a wildlife refuge. Deer dart across the gravel road. In shallow areas of the lakes, egrets and great blue herons are in abundance.

Approaching the water’s edge of one lake, an alligator, purported to be 12-feet long (who measured it?), rests a few feet offshore, looking like a gnarled old submarine that has just surfaced.

The farm is in a constant state of activity with hundreds of workers tending to millions of plants, scores of tractors pulling loads of plants for shipment, orders being filled, and new plantings being put into beds.

To keep it all running efficiently, the farm is organized into five areas of responsibility: Farm Operations assigns people to each task as needed, Technical Services keeps trucks, tractors, pumps and watering equipment running. Guiding the day-to-day care of plants is a team of horticulturists, each one responsible for the growth and health of all plants in a 40-acre area. The Marketing Department takes orders and moves the plants to retail outlets. The fifth area is Management, which guides the overall direction of the company.

The Leyland Cypress, a popular evergreen, is one plant in need of frequent individual care. During the two years of its growth in the nursery, each plant is handled at least 14 times for rooting, setting out in beds, pruning, spacing, repotting and tagging. In addition, it is watered every other day. Roses require even more work.

While plants won’t blow over in these underground pots, wind can sometimes break the trunks of young trees. So in windy weather, these plants must be pulled from the in-ground containers and temporarily placed on their sides.

It may be difficult for growers of conventional row crops to imagine a farm that utilizes hundreds of workers, where 60 tractors are kept busy every day, and where every plant, of the millions growing there, must be given individual care. But as long as North Americans keep up their love affair with landscaping, horticulture will continue to be an important part of agriculture.