A Bower & Branch “plant whisperer”
courtesy of bower & branch

Regions of bloom

Bower & Branch grows a new way to supply trees, plants and shrubs

by KATIE COLEMAN

When you think about beautifully landscaped yards and mature trees reaching toward the sky, you don’t think about technology, do you? Don Eaton, CEO and founder of Costco Next supplier Bower & Branch, wants to change that.

Bower & Branch works with 17 growing locations in nine regions across the United States, so all it takes is the click of a mouse or a tap on your phone for the company to ship full-grown trees, shrubs and flowering plants fresh from a grower’s lot to your home.

Speaking with the Connection from his Pennsylvania headquarters, Eaton explains how his company is changing the landscape of landscaping. “I came up with the idea for Bower & Branch in 2012 because I realized family growers across the country have no central hub,” he says. As someone who ran a family nursery for 35 years, Eaton says he knew the future of landscaping wasn’t possible unless somebody brought the industry together.

“So, I came up with [a] model that represents growers and benefits everybody,” he explains.

Eaton says part of what makes his model successful is its regionality: “People that engage with us through Costco Next receive plant selections based on logistics, compliance with [their state’s] Department of Agriculture regulations—which differ state by state on how you can move live plants—and what is appropriate to grow depending on the area you live in, because what people use to landscape in the Pacific Northwest is different from Boston or Orlando, Florida.” (See this month’s cover story on zone gardening for more information.)

Why full-grown items? Why not just plant saplings or smaller trees and wait for them to grow? The answer, according to Eaton, is simple: “We believe that 90% of a plant’s success comes from a grower, and we can guarantee with confidence that our growers are the best. All we have to do is teach [people] to water their plants, then just get out of the way and they will grow.”

While Bower & Branch won’t choose the plants for you, they offer consultants, or “plant whisperers,” at no additional cost, who will dedicate time and resources to help plan your yard.

“Trees have a bigger purpose,” Eaton says. “I used to leave the office and go out in the crops to reduce stress. People need that more today than any other time in [our] culture, as we’ve moved away from agriculture. The thing that excites us most is people moving back into gardening and understanding the value of that outdoor space. It’s incredible.”