About Briggs Plant Propagators

Briggs Plant Propagators has a long and storied past. The nursery was formed in 1912 by Orson Briggs as a fruit and vegetable farm serving the local Olympia, WA area. When Orson's son Bruce returned from WWII, he began changing the business. First he began to focus on ornamental plants – he particularly liked rhododendrons.

As the story goes, at one time Bruce was growing over 700 varieties of rhodies! Bruce's stated goal was to see that everyone in the world had at least one rhododendron in their yard. He was constantly looking for new varieties and in the process he crossed paths with numerous plant breeders and plant hunters.

In the early 1960's, with the help of people at Washington State University, he began exploring alternative methods to propagate woody ornamental plants. He was personally responsible for pioneering micro-propagation (cloning) of ericaceous plants. His first lab was in his kitchen and soon thereafter a separate building was constructed to house this fledgling production process. By the 1980's the process was refined and Briggs began to sell starter plants (liners) to the nursery industry worldwide.

All rights reserved throughout the world. Copyright 2010 Briggs Plant Propagators, LLC, P.O. Box 658, Elma, WA 98541. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process,  nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private use without prior permission from Briggs Plant Propagators, LLC.