Successful landscapes do not begin when plants arrive on-site — they begin years earlier through planning, coordination, and procurement. One of the most important tools in delivering high-quality landscape projects is contract growing.

At Clean Scapes, contract growing has become one of our standard practices and is utilized on the majority of our projects. As commercial landscape projects continue to grow in scale and complexity, early plant procurement is no longer optional — it is essential to ensuring quality, consistency, and long-term project success.

What Is Contract Growing?

Contract growing is the process of reserving and cultivating plant material with nursery partners specifically for a future project. Rather than relying solely on what happens to be available on the open market at the time of installation, contract growing allows project teams to proactively secure trees and plants months — and often years — in advance.

This process allows our team to pre-select plant material that aligns with the project’s design intent, quality expectations, and scheduling requirements.
In many cases, contract growing is especially important when:
• Designers specify rare or hard-to-find plant species
• Projects require unusually large quantities of material
• Plant material must meet strict aesthetic or uniformity standards
• Construction schedules extend over multiple years

Without advance procurement planning, these types of projects can quickly face availability challenges, substitutions, delays, or inconsistencies in plant quality.

Ensuring Availability and Consistency

One of the greatest advantages of contract growing is predictability.

Commercial landscape projects often require hundreds — or even thousands — of trees and plants that must all meet specific size, form, and quality requirements. Procuring this volume of material at the end of a project can be difficult, particularly in today’s market where supply chain disruptions, weather events, and increasing demand can impact nursery availability.

By securing material early through contract growing, we are better able to ensure:
• Plant availability at the right time
• Consistent sizing and appearance
• Improved plant quality
• Reduced risk of substitutions
• Better alignment with the original design vision

This is particularly valuable on large campuses, parks, mixed-use developments, streetscapes, and public projects where visual consistency and long-term performance are critical.

Building Strong Nursery Partnerships

Successful contract growing depends heavily on relationships and communication. Over the years, our team has built strong partnerships with hundreds of tree and plant nurseries throughout the region and across the country.

These relationships allow us to source a wide variety of plant material while maintaining a strong focus on quality and project-specific needs. In many cases, our teams are actively involved in tagging and inspecting material during the growing process to ensure plants continue to develop according to project expectations.

Working closely with trusted nursery partners also gives us the flexibility to respond to evolving project schedules and changing site conditions while maintaining continuity in plant quality.

More Than Procurement

Plant procurement is about much more than simply purchasing trees and shrubs. It is a long-term coordination effort that requires an understanding of horticulture, scheduling, logistics, installation sequencing, and regional growing conditions.

Contract growing allows project teams to think proactively rather than reactively. It creates opportunities to secure better material, preserve design intent, and reduce uncertainty during construction.

At Clean Scapes, we view plant procurement as a critical part of the construction process — not a last-minute task. Through early planning, strong nursery partnerships, and extensive contract growing experience, we help ensure our projects are built with the quality plant material needed to thrive for years to come.