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History of Southern Branch  

Our President, Eric Gunderson, graduated from Virginia Tech in 1979 with a degree in Nursery management/Landscape design.  Eric then worked for London Bridge Nursery as Nursery Manager until founding Southern Branch Nursery, Inc. in 1981.  We operated a retail garden center and landscape nursery on Battlefield Boulevard for a number of years before moving our operations to our current location on Benefit Road.  We now propagate and grow over 450 species of native plants.

Services we provide

Southern Branch Nursery, Inc. provides consultation, design, and installation services for wildlife habitat and wetlands conservation.  We prepare landscape design master plans for large and small garden areas.

We strive to use only the native straight species (as opposed to cultivars) of plants.  Cultivars are a vegetative clone of one another and have therefore lost their genetic diversity.  However, the straight species of a native plant has gone through the natural reproductive process.  Natural selection has deemed these plants to be healthy and more attractive to pollinators.  

Southern Branch Nursery grows native plants for sale to the public, to the landscape nursery trade and to nonprofit organizations.  We propagate native wetland plants and upland trees, shrubs, grasses and wildflower perennials from locally collected seed sources.  We grow native plants, including pollinator, host and nectar plants, freshwater and saltmarsh tolerant grasses and wildflowers, wetland and riparian buffer plants.  We do not use pesticides in our nursery; our aim is to support, never harm, the local fauna.

We install Best Management Practices (BMPs) for clients living on the local watersheds for soil conservation and stormwater control.  These include rain gardens, bioretention soil beds, and bioswales.  We also install wetland and upland restoration and conservation landscaping using native plants, including living shorelines, riparian buffers, wildlife corridors and pollinator gardens.  We help clients obtain required permits for implementation of restoration, erosion enhancement and habitat projects.

We plant trees, establish and enhance wildlife habitats, including butterfly gardens, wildflower meadows, woodland gardens, and songbird, hummingbird and bee habitats.

We remove invasive plant species and replace them with site appropriate native plants.

We deliver within Hampton Roads and to Northeast North Carolina.

Certifications

Our certifications include:

• Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional

• Virginia Certified Landscape Designers

• Virginia Certified Horticulturist

• Virginia Wildlife Habitat Designer

We are members of:

• Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association

• Virginia Native Plant Society

• Butterfly Society of Virginia

• VA Society of Landscape Designers

• Better Business Bureau

• Chesapeake Conservation Landscape Council

Meet our Staff