Contractor began its Family nursery in Denmar Trees series of articles. These ingrowing up. He gre depth features told the stories of took to make a livi three seminal names in the landbedding plants, veg ILCA Man of the Year — scape industry — Synnestvedt, to horticulture scho Fiore and Damgaard. and then I enlisted The Family Trees series conArmy Corps of Eng tinues in 2013 as we turn our could enlist or be d attention to the Orum family. An enlisted because yo Peter as child in his father’s nursery. ardent supporter and long-time choice. We built br ILCA member, Peter Orum is the bridges, built roads modern prototype of immigrant and did demolition success and industry integration. building and destro by Patrice Peltier His boundless energy and enthugood training that b siasm have propelled a fledgling very much. On my Little’s patronage was definitely company become one of thethat after the working two c Youtomight guess start of bigger things for Midwest someone who started a nursery in his biggest suppliers in the landscape the colonel, the chi Groundcovers. friend’s backyard and built it into a and multi-faceted nursery industries. regiment, said he h The way Orum remembers it, in industry powerhouse But the Midwest success story the fall of 1972, he mailed with a flierthem could be would have a lot of stories to tell. In advertising his groundcovers sevis not simplyallabout one man.ILCA’s mytocivilian life. It this—and other—regards, eral dozen landscape contractors, Man of the Year, Peter Orum, does not Many long-time employees have I wanted to get hoping to drum up a little business. disappoint. dedicated their professional the world. My fath “The only one who came out was After arriving from his native careers to contribute to its sucinInCanada, and I w Ralph Little,” Orum recalls. addiDenmark to work as a trainee at D. Hill tion to talking about groundcovers, cess.Nursery in Dundee, Illinois, the entredo something else. Little told Orum about ILCA and connection preneurial Orum and his wife, Irma, Much of what is written nursery suggested the $50 membership fee decided to start a ground cover nursery. hereTogether, is the summary recollecworked at D. Hill’s would be a good investment. “I was they propagated 12,000 ground tion covers of theunder individuals involved. before, desperate to sell groundcovers and toD. Hill had 30 glass sashes in the West survive, so I became a member,” Orum recalls. The Chicago Landscape Contractor haspropagator John Wilde. That That’s how I got in backyard of their friend, Little liked what he saw. “Pete had quality plant was 1969. attempted to verify and confirm, Imatedidn’t really know rial and obviously knew what he was doing,” Little explains. Today, that company, Midwest Groundcovers, produces but in some cases cannot offer coming over here t Until then, Little says there wasn’t a nursery that consistently more than 20 million plants—and they’re not just ground covconcrete evidence. If anyone was going to be t with wife Irmaquality and daughter Christa. provided ground covers. Little wanted to seeI Orum ers any more. In addition to more than 100 Peter varietiesOrum of ground succeed, so he often passed along cuttings from new plants. has been is purely plant propagator — covers,excluded, the companyitgrows more than 500 varieties of perenHe recalls a time when the enterprising Orum offered to nials and ornamental grasses, 250 species of native plants unintentional. This is not meant to be a scholarly work and is evergreens a year. I knew the basics, but the de prune a bed of Euonymus fortunei Thornapple planted and and more than 170 varieties of deciduous shrubs, broadleaf written solely for the enjoyment of our readers. trainee for a year. Their propagator, John Wilde maintained for a client. It was a good way of getting free cutevergreens, hardy shrub roses, conifers and vines. They also I offer hopetwoyou enjoy this view into the world of Midwest another job. Four months later he left and I bec tings, Little notes. branded planting systems (Midwest Solutions® and ® very was smartdifficult, and very business Little few months Groundcovers. It is fourth Family Trees feature and forwise,” the first Garden Artistry ), athe consumer-targeted ground cover brand about “Pete is very,That says. “He entered a market that wasn’t really being filled; he me, and be (Hocus Pocus Groundcovers™),and a local eco-type native the history and families that have helped shape the landscape I drove down to see him. He helped and his wife worked very, very hard, and they became very, plant brand (Natural Garden Natives®). industryOrum andexpanded ILCA. into other areas, too, creatingRR mentor in plant propagation. very successful.” Midwest
ILCA’s 2014 Man of the Year Peter Orum
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Trading and Midwest GROmaster. Since the days when Peter and Irma invested their last nickels to purchase five acres in The St. Charles, the company has grown to include five locations covering more than 500 acres. The companies employ a year-round staff of nearly 100 and seasonal staff of up to 200. “Most people don’t realize how incredibly hard Pete and his wife worked to build Midwest Groundcovers,” says Ralph Little, one of the founders of ILCA and retired owner of Thornapple Landscapes. Little had a birdseye view of the whole process. “Pete always claimed I was his first customer, but I’m not sure about that,” Little recalls. In point of fact, two years earlier the very first customer was Steve Hagg from John Johnson Landscape Company in Skokie. But Ralph 10
Along the way, Orum created relationships that continue
to this day. Landscape Contractor Paul Pedersen, a fellow Dane, was Orum’s first employee January 2013
at Midwest Groundcovers. “He only had enough money to pay me for six weeks,” recalls Pedersen who had worked as a propagator in Europe before meeting Orum at D. Hill Nursery. After that, Pedersen had to find other work to do. “That’s how I got into landscape contracting,” Pedersen recalls with a chuckle. About 20 years later, Orum and Pedersen started a nursery together, PP&O. Orum wanted a place where he could still do the hands-on work of growing plants, Pedersen explains. “He needed a place where he could sit on the tractor and philosophize. He’d be out there plowing the fields until midnight
The Landscape Contractor January 2015