Back then, Peter would fill both the car and the trailer with plants and drive hundreds of miles to make deliveries. Now, a fleet of trucks is needed to deliver plants from the company's St. Charles, Ill., headquarters to customers throughout the Midwest.

Peter is recognized throughout the nursery world as a man of action and someone who never passes up an opportunity. For creating a multimillion-dollar company from scratch and for being an influential leader to an entire industry, Peter Orum has been named 2001 NMPRO Nursery Grower of the Year.

Truly an opportunist, Peter came to the United States from Denmark in 1965 to learn about horticulture and to explore America. He met Irma at a Chicago club, married her in 1967 and the two have become lifelong companions and business partners. From the beginning, Peter was in charge of the growing side of the business and Irma handled the administrative side. Longtime friend Charlie Parkerson of Lancaster Farms in Suffolk, Va., said the pair's relationship is remarkable.

"He and Irma are a team all the way through. It's amazing how they've worked together all these years," Parkerson said. "Their relationship and the love they have for one another transcends everything. They're a real model that young people in this business need to see."

By taking chances and seeing potential for expansion, the Orums have taken the company far beyond where they could have imagined. Now they produce a wide array of crops in addition to groundcovers and have established two sister companies: a landscape supply business named Midwest Trading and an irrigation equipment supplier named Midwest GROmaster.

Delivering an idea

One of the first opportunities seized by the company came with one of its first customers.

"When we started Midwest Groundcovers, deliveries weren't a common practice for nurseries. I had a no-delivery policy, too," Peter said. "One day I'd driven to dozens of places with samples and I hadn't sold a thing. Finally, at the last stop, the person said he wanted 10 cases of pachysandra.

"He said, 'When can you have it here?' I said, 'Tomorrow.' We've been delivering ever since."

Midwest Groundcovers' delivery fleet now has two semi tractor-trailers, four 24-foot trucks and five vans. The company ships within a radius of 500 miles and about 55 percent of Midwest Groundcovers' total sales are shipped.

The company began expanding beyond just groundcover production in the '70s and the Orums expanded product lines rapidly in the '80s and '90s. Now roughly one-third of sales are groundcovers, one-third perennials and one-third woodies including trees, shrubs and vines.

Peter began production in a friend's West Chicago backyard, and the first 5 acres purchased by the company were along Illinois Route 25 near St. Charles. In the early '70s, another 14 acres were purchased farther north on the highway and that space gradually expanded to 160 acres and is now the company's headquarters and distribution center.

In 1986 the company bought 210 acres in Glenn, Mich., along the coast of Lake Michigan, and just this year purchased 250 more acres about 20 miles west of St. Charles.

Landscape supplies

Midwest Trading began as a sister company almost by accident.

"We started it reluctantly in 1981 when customers kept asking to buy peat and other products we were using around the nursery," Peter said.

Now Midwest Trading has annual sales of $8 million-$10 million per year. The company also sells a line of six types of container media called Midwest Grower's Mix, which has been available since 1994.

After Midwest Trading was founded, several growers visiting the nursery began mentioning they were impressed with the company's irrigation systems. They wondered if they could have Midwest Groundcovers personnel set up similar systems at their companies. Midwest GROmaster was born in 1986 and now supplies everything from flood benches to mist systems to automated fertilizer injector/pH controllers. "I wasn't so hesitant this time," Peter said. "We had the people with the expertise, so it made perfect sense."

Industry leader

Above everything, Peter is known as a leader among his peers. Along with many regional and state industry groups, he's very active in both American Nursery & Landscape Association and International Plant Propagators' Society.

"He's quite a person," Parkerson said. "He's willing to give and share either of himself or his resources. I don't think there's a selfish bone in his body. The IPPS motto is 'To seek and to share,' and he's done nothing but that."

Through his committee work, his methodical manner and orderliness have become obvious to other members of the industry, said Jim Zangger with Greenleaf Nursery in Park Hill, Okla.

"He's very down to earth and has a very calm way of thinking. He knows how to express himself in a very clear fashion," Zangger said. "He has a very cut-to-the-chase style that I respect. He knows how to get to the center of a problem and has the ability to express himself no matter what type of group he's in front of."

Peter has reached a point in his career that he's scaling back his duties at Midwest Groundcovers. Gary Knosher started with the company in 1978 as assistant propagator and on Jan. 1 was named president and chief operating officer.

"Peter is still very much the leader," Knosher said. "When he enters a meeting he immediately becomes the leader whether he wants to be or not.

"He's involved in the things that interest him or he feels will have a large impact on the company. He's a delegator and has a clear direction of which way he wants his company to go."

Tesselaar varieties

Peter has retained a dual citizenship between Denmark and the United States and spends about a month each year in Europe. It was during one of these trips that he came across a large opportunity for his company.

While visiting with Danish friends, he was shown some plant samples from an Australian breeder named Anthony Tesselaar. At the time, Tesselaar was selling material in Europe, but hadn't tried to enter the U.S. market.

Peter contacted him in 1995. Knowing that Peter specialized in groundcovers, Tesselaar was very excited to talk to him about a new low-growing rose he'd developed named Flower Carpet Pink.

Midwest Groundcovers became the first of now 10 registered U.S. growers of Tesselaar materials. Since reaching this country, millions of Flower Carpet and Dream series roses have been sold as well as a variegated canna trademarked Tropicanna. "Developing the Tesselaar relationship was very fortunate for our company," Peter said. "Some of the Flower Carpet varieties are better than others, but Flower Carpet Pink is very good. Also, their latest release Flower Carpet Coral looks very promising.

While selecting his own plants has never been a priority for Peter, this could be his next great opportunity. He now has a low-growing cotoneaster selection under evaluation, which could be named and marketed in the next few years.

And if Peter's record for successful business ventures holds true, it should be one great cultivar.

- Todd Davis