April 1, 2009  If you are interested in buying bare root nursery stock - maybe you could post your interest as a comment here on Realneo and we could carpool or Pick Up for you.  It is about 50 miles to Perry.   (I telephoned to confirm that Mr. Hines is working  this year- 2009 -  too!)   jeffb  Note: below is a re- post from spring 2008

Secors Nursery

(440) 259-3487

4940 N Ridge Rd

Secor’s Nursery in Perry, Ohio specializes in bare root fruit trees.  Bare root means what it says:  the trees are propagated by digging them out of the soil in the fall after they have reached dormancy.   The saplings are brought into an unheated barn and stacking upright in rows according to their species.  The roots of all the saplings are covered with moist sawdust.  And then the lights are turned out and the barn shut up. 

Winter freezes everything in the barn, but the frost only goes down into the sawdust about an inch.  Sawdust is a good insulator.

That’s it ‘til spring (now) when Emmet Hines opens Secor’s up for a burst of business.

Secor’s was started in 1926.   And I think Mr. Hines has worked at Secors all his adult years.  Mr. Hines knows a lot about fruit trees.  

Pears, for example, are single sex.   If you intend to have fruit on your pear trees you need to either buy a male and a female or be sure there are male pear trees within a few miles of where you will plant your female.  Mr. Hines knows all about bees too – and is concerned with the recent collapse of bee colonies from “disappearance”.    Mr. Hines is of the belief that the bees navigation is being disrupted by cell phone electromagnetic interference. 

Secors has more than fruit trees for sale – as many plants can be propagated by bare root.  Root tubers of  horseradish, asparagus, rhubarb are available – the rhubarb tubers are spectacular - with dark hairy bulbs, red stubby stems, and yellow crumpled leaf foliage already pushing out of them in their storage crate.

Here’s a trick of Mr. Hines to keep the deer and rabbits out of your rhubarb patch.  Plant the rhubarb in the bottom of a large bucket or barrel (drain holes in the bottom of course).  Cover the top of the barrel with a coarse grate or screen.  The rhubarb stalks will head up to the light – but no uninvited quests can get in to take the stems before you make your rhubarb-strawberry pie!

Mr. Hines is going to retire soon, and  right now is the season for planting!     

Go to Secor's, the temple of unique horticultural knowledge in Perry – it’s very cool!