{"id":86,"date":"2015-07-14T15:13:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T19:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/?p=86"},"modified":"2018-04-18T10:06:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T14:06:29","slug":"interview-series-american-pillar-nursery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/2015\/07\/interview-series-american-pillar-nursery\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview Series: American Pillar Nursery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story of American Pillar Nursery is one of romance, hope, and determination.\u00a0 Mavis Houser and her late husband John started their business in 2009 specializing in their patented \u2018American Pillar\u201d Arborvitae.\u00a0 Mavis and John met in 2004 at Woodstock First Baptist Church\u2019s Tuesday morning bible study when Mavis was 76 and John was 80.\u00a0 The two fell in love immediately and married less than a year later in 2005.\u00a0 Their arborvitae has achieved about as high acclaim as a nursery plant can achieve, being awarded the Proven Winner\u00ae recognition from the Spring Meadow Nursery.\u00a0 The American Pillar Nursery has customers from Georgia to Michigan.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.americanpillarnursery.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"Mrs.<\/a>
Mrs. Houser stands in front of a screen planting at American Pillar Nursery. The screen is approximately 7 years old.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About Mavis<\/strong><\/p>\n

How long have you been in Cherokee County?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I moved here about 17 years ago from Roswell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Favorite Music:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gospel and choir.\u00a0 I sing with the \u201cPebbles\u201d singing group with First Baptist of Woodstock.\u00a0 We will sing for people at nursing homes in the area.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Book you\u2019re currently reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I listen to tapes of history and mystery themed books.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Things you enjoy after work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and church services<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you get started?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John grew up on a farm in Illinois and worked his whole life as a nurseryman, grower, and landscape installer.\u00a0 When we married he had a small nursery off highway 20 and one day he visited the nursery after he had been away from it due to illness and noticed a sport of a \u2018Hetz Wintergreen\u2019 arborvitae that was uniquely different.\u00a0 John noticed the sport had qualities that made it unique from the parent plant in that it had more dense foliage and its spread was narrower.\u00a0 So at the age of 83 he set out to patent the plant as the \u2018American Pillar\u2019 arborvitae and we began our nursery\u00a0 to grow and sell our tree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most challenging part of your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Book work<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What do you enjoy most about your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To go back and see our trees growing and performing well.\u00a0 I love receiving feedback from our customers on how well the trees have done for them.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a>
Mrs. Houser displays the verdant foliage of their ‘American Pillar’ arborvitae. The tree makes an excellent screen and habitat for birds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*The interview series posts are strictly a way to connect with and promote local growers, producers and individuals involved in agriculture and natural resource endeavors.\u00a0 It does not imply endorsement of their products or services, nor criticism of similar firms not listed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of American Pillar Nursery is one of romance, hope, and determination.\u00a0 Mavis Houser and her late husband John started their business in 2009 specializing in their patented \u2018American Pillar\u201d Arborvitae.\u00a0 Mavis and John met in 2004 at Woodstock First Baptist Church\u2019s Tuesday morning bible study when Mavis was 76 and John was 80.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":85,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,45,25,24,29,6],"tags":[52,53],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cherokee-county","category-conifers","category-growers","category-local-business","category-nursery","category-trees","tag-arborvitae","tag-screening-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}