Horticulture is worth $8.6 billion a year

Landscaping, tree farms, nurseries, lawns

North Carolina's booming horticulture sector is driven largely by landscaping and lawn care.

The total spent on such services in the state was $8.6 billion in 2005, according to a study issued Tuesday.

The General Assembly provided $150,000 for the study to help understand the horticulture industry's diversity and importance to the state economy. The study, the first to quantify the industry, could yield clues about the best ways to boost economic development, sponsors said.

The horticultural industry includes plant nurseries, florists, arborists, landscapers and irrigation that thrive amid rapid growth and development.

Golf courses and institutional clients are big customers, but residential homes account for two-thirds of the spending on these types of services. A typical homeowner spends $838 a year on grass care, shrubs and other plants, the study showed.

Horticulture, as measured by state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services study, is not to be confused with agriculture, which includes crops, vegetables and wineries, which were not part of the study. Even so, horticulture's contribution to the state economy is significant when put alongside the state's $14 billion tourism industry.

Horticulture covers about 152,000 people working nearly 185,000 acres in North Carolina. Most of the land is devoted to Christmas-tree farming and golf courses.

The Raleigh Country Club and Treyburn Country Club in Durham each have 22 employees -- about one-fourth of total staff -- dedicated to landscaping, groundskeeping and related outdoor work. People join country clubs for the golf course, said Mike Shoun, director of agronomy at both courses. "The quality of the grass would probably be the number one reason" for selecting a golf course, he said.

Plant Delights Nursery employs 45 at peak season and has 11 acres in production, including a six-acre botanical garden. The nursery specializes in unusual plants, ships worldwide and employs breeding researchers. As hardware stores sell common plants, the demand for exotics has fueled double-digit growth at Plant Delights in recent years. The nursery answers the need by sponsoring expeditions to the Far East in search of new cultivars.

"The box stores came in and sold plants as a loss-leader," said owner Tony Avent. "Our niche is cool plants, weird plants."