McCorkle Nurseries

What McCorkle Nurseries does

McCorkle Nurseries, Inc. is a full-service wholesale and retail plant grower founded in 1942 and headquartered in Dearing, Georgia. The company operates a 1,182-acre growing facility that produces more than 6 million plants per year across woody ornamentals, reblooming shrubs, perennials, evergreens, vines, and edibles. Its product portfolio is anchored by two proprietary brands — Gardener's Confidence, a brand of plants bred for superior foliage, form, blooms, and disease resistance, and Echo Blooms, a sub-brand of reblooming hydrangeas, jasmine, gardenia, and azaleas — and is supplemented by an unusually deep roster of licensed partner programs including Encore Azaleas, Endless Summer Hydrangeas, Proven Winners, Proven Winners Color Choice, Southern Living, Knock Out, First Editions, NewGen, Drift, Better Boxwood, and Bushel and Berry. Distribution is regional, covering the Southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States and reaching more than 1,800 wholesale and landscape-professional customers.

Underlying operations include a 17-pond water reclamation system that supplies 4 million gallons of treated and filtered recycled water per day at peak season (and can be injected with liquid fertilizer), an Integrated Pest Management program that monitors total plant health while minimizing chemical use, and autonomous plant-spacing robots that adjust container spacing for optimal growing conditions. McCorkle was the first North American nursery shrub grower to receive the MPS-A sustainability certification from More Profitable Sustainability.

Commercially, McCorkle generates revenue through one-time plant sales across wholesale nursery accounts (garden centers, retail nurseries), enterprise landscaping professionals served through its wholly-owned MNI Direct e-commerce portal, and direct retail. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed; availability lists distributed via PDF, Excel, and MNI Direct, combined with a dedicated in-house field sales team, form the go-to-market motion. The company is privately held, family-owned across generations, and operates with 101-250 employees.

Name

McCorkle Nurseries

Legal name

McCorkle Nurseries, Inc.

Website

https://mccorklenurseries.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1942

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

McCorkle Nurseries is a private, family-owned wholesale and retail plant grower operating a 1,182-acre facility in Dearing, Georgia, producing more than 6 million plants per year for over 1,800 nursery and landscaping customers across the Southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States, anchored by proprietary Gardener's Confidence and Echo Blooms brands.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Dearing

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Operations, Supply Chain, Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Plant Wholesale: Growing and selling over 6 million plants annually to wholesale customers including nursery businesses and landscaping professionals across southeastern and mid-Atlantic states.
2. Plant Retail: Direct sales of plants to retail customers through nursery operations.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

McCorkle Nurseries is a full-service plant grower producing over 6 million plants annually from its 1,182-acre growing operations in Dearing, Georgia. The company grows, markets, and distributes ornamental plants including woody ornamentals, reblooming shrubs, perennials, evergreens, vines, and edibles to wholesale nursery businesses, retail nurseries, and landscaping professionals across the southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. Its product portfolio is anchored by two proprietary brands — Gardener's Confidence and Echo Blooms — and includes licensed programs from major branded plant partners.

Product overview

McCorkle Nurseries is a full-service plant grower operating 1,182 acres with over 6 million plants produced annually. The company operates as a unified nursery business serving retail, wholesale, and landscaping professionals across the Southeastern United States. Its product portfolio centers on two proprietary brands: Gardener's Confidence® (a premium plant brand bred for superior performance, foliage, blooms, and disease resistance) and Echo Blooms® (a reblooming plants series featuring hydrangeas, jasmine, gardenia, and azaleas). The core product offerings span eight categories—woody ornamentals, reblooming shrubs, perennials, evergreens, vines, and edibles—all grown and distributed through their wholesale operations to over 1,800 customers in southeastern and mid-Atlantic states.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Gardener's Confidence: Plant brand bred for top performance with varieties evaluated for superior foliage, form, blooms, and disease resistance
• Echo Blooms

Products and services

• Gardener's Confidence Plant Brand

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Encore AzaleascoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMcCorkle grows and markets Encore Azaleas, a branded reblooming azalea program, as part of their product offerings to retail and wholesale customers.
• Endless Summer HydrangeascoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow and distribute Endless Summer Hydrangeas, a popular reblooming hydrangea brand, to customers in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic regions.
• Proven WinnerscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorProven Winners is a major branded plant program that McCorkle grows and distributes as part of their product portfolio.
• Southern LivingcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMcCorkle grows Southern Living branded plants, leveraging the Southern Living brand recognition for plants suited to southern gardens.
• Knock OutcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow and market Knock Out roses and related plants, distributing through McCorkle's wholesale and retail channels.
• First EditionsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow First Editions branded plants for distribution.
• NewGenminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow and distribute NewGen branded plant varieties.
• DriftminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow Drift branded groundcover roses for distribution.
• Better BoxwoodminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow and distribute Better Boxwood branded ornamental shrubs.
• Bushel and BerryminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow Bushel and Berry branded edible plants including blueberries.
• Proven Winners Color ChoicecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership to grow and distribute Proven Winners Color Choice branded shrubs.
• GCC (Gardener's Confidence)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorOwn proprietary brand operated through the partnership network.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Star Roses and Plants (Conard-Pyle): Pennsylvania-based grower and introducer of the Knock Out rose family. Comparable in branded shrub programs (Knock Out, Drift) and wholesale-to-landscape distribution that overlaps with McCorkle's branded shrub portfolio.
• Monrovia Nursery: One of the largest wholesale ornamental shrub and perennial growers in North America with a strong proprietary plant brand portfolio. Directly comparable in product mix, brand-led marketing, and national wholesale distribution to landscape professionals and retailers.
• Bailey Nurseries: Large Minnesota-based wholesale nursery producing shrubs, trees, and branded plant programs including Endless Summer and First Editions. Comparable in scale, branded-program partnerships, and broad woody ornamental product range.
• Greenleaf Nursery Company: Oklahoma-based wholesale nursery with multiple growing locations across the Sunbelt producing container shrubs and ornamentals at large scale. Comparable in woody ornamental production, regional wholesale channels, and Sunbelt customer overlap.
• Spring Meadow Nursery: Michigan-based grower that propagates and liners Proven Winners Color Choice shrubs. Comparable as a wholesale liner/container grower selling branded shrub programs to nursery retailers and landscapers.
• Prides Corner Farms: Connecticut-based wholesale grower of container-grown nursery stock, including branded programs such as Proven Winners and Knock Out. Comparable in product breadth, wholesale go-to-market, and branded partnership model.

Emerging players

• J. Berry Nursery: Texas-based grower specializing in proprietary branded ornamental shrubs such as the Hollywood Hibiscus line. Comparable in proprietary-brand strategy but smaller scale; relevant as a branded-program competitor in the reblooming shrub category.

Regional players

• Flowerwood Nurseries: Alabama-based wholesale nursery operating multiple growing facilities across the Southeastern U.S. Highly comparable product mix (shrubs, ornamentals, branded programs) and direct geographic overlap with McCorkle's customer base.
• Loma Vista Nursery: Kansas-based wholesale container nursery producing shrubs, perennials, and ornamentals for the Midwest and South. Comparable in product mix and customer segments, with some geographic overlap into McCorkle's mid-Atlantic footprint.
• Hackney Nursery: Florida-based wholesale container nursery serving the Southeastern U.S. Overlapping product portfolio of woody ornamentals and shrubs and overlapping regional customer base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/mccorklenursery

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about McCorkle Nurseries