Driver Brothers was originally started by my father and his brother in the late 70's.  It originated in town (Staunton, VA) as a small independent garden center.  By the early 80's they were expanding into a wholesale operation and with that was a need for more room.  My grandfather sold them a piece of the original farm (purchased and moved to in the 1850's, yes, my family has lived and farmed this land for a long time) where they built a gutter connect greenhouse. Material was sourced from various places mostly within the local community, i.e. pipe from an old turkey house, to build the structure in increments.

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In 1984, the greenhouse that had been built to that point collapsed due to a snow storm that brought a very large amount of snow even for that time when snow and cold was the norm during the winter.  I often think about that event to remind myself that brief periods of hardships can be overcome.

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As a child I spent a lot of time here working... not on my choosing mind you... but I do believe it taught me the work ethic that I have today and for that I am grateful.  I did say many a day however that I was never going to work here when I grew up and clearly that didn't pan out but honestly I couldn't be happier.

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After finishing college and spending time as a high school physics teacher, I went to work for my dad.  Not necessarily at that point to run the greenhouse someday but more as an in between.  While trying to figure out what I wanted to do I became more and more involved with day to day greenhouse operations and really began taking a leading role with planning and production.

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By 2010 my dad was looking at retirement and I was looking at taking over the operation.  My dad retired in 2014 and I became chief executive officer of the operation.  We have certainly had some ups and downs along the way.  For anyone who has been in the industry over the last decade knows that the covid years were outstanding seasons.  Unfortunately for us, covid was followed by a fire in March of '23 that principally shut down our operation.  We lost 90% of our spring crop which terminated sales for that season.  We rebuilt the greenhouse structure over that summer with the hopes of having a spring in '24.  In the Fall of '23 my cousin (my dad's brothers' son) approached us with an offer to buy the operation which we while operating we worked through and out the details. However, by the Fall of '24 it was clear that this was not going to be a plausible purchase and at that point it was decided to shut down the operation.    

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So, what has happened over the last year and a half?  We have continued to dabble in the greenhouse business primarily on the retail side.  It has been low stress and a good break from what can seem like the crazy of trying to produce on a big enough scale to wholesale.  However, at the end of this past spring we decided we were ready to get back into growing for wholesale customers.  While we are not filling the greenhouse to the capacity, we once did; we will be offering a large selection of plants.  These will consist of perennials, to annuals, to hanging containers and some planters.

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This is where our master availability comes into play.  Please take some time over the next week or so to look over.  Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions.  Currently, the best way to reach us is via email.  We do have a phone line but so much of the time it is difficult to get to as it seems to ring just when you are reaching the greatest distance from the valve to cut off the water.  

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We are excited to work with each of you again this season.  So many of you have been with us through the thick and thin and we can never show our true gratitude for that loyalty.  Many of you I have already heard from asking about product and you have no idea how happy that makes me.