Elverson man’s dream is growing

Elverson marketing executive turns a passion into a unique venture

ELVERSON >> “Find a job doing something you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

One person who is making that saying come true for himself is Robert Flanigan, a digital marketing executive who is turning a longtime passion into a new business venture.

Don’t be misled, Flanigan is working very hard to get his new venture — Brandywinetrees.com — off the ground.

Brandywinetrees.com is an online-only, wholesale tree nursery that provides trees to horticulture professionals — landscapers, landscape architects, municipalities, arboretums and parks commissions.

He officially launched the sales portion of his business in September.

Flanigan is currently cultivating about 12,000 trees on his Chester County property. The trees range in age from 1 to 6 years old and are anywhere from about 18-inches to nine or 10 feet in height.

“We grow 120 varieties of unique, rare and hard-to-find trees,” Flanigan said. “This includes native trees that grow

“It’s always been in my blood — in my heart. I have wanted to grow trees since I was a teenager. Trees are a gift of life.” – Robert Flanigan, owner, brandywinetrees.com

in this area naturally, as well as some trees of Asian origin that are pretty special, pretty rare that tree collectors or anyone that appreciates a beautiful tree might enjoy.”

Flanigan said his method for growing trees focuses on getting the trees established with a healthy and fibrous root system. He achieves that by a process known as “air-root pruning.”

Unlike other growers, Brandywinetrees.com does not plant its trees in the ground and then dig them up when they are ready to sell, according to Flanigan.

“We start them in special air root pruning pots, manufactured by Rootmaker,” he said. “What happens is — the root

PHOTOS BY PETE BANNAN — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Robert Flanigan has started an online and wholesale tree nursery — Brandywinetrees.com. He has 120 varieties of trees including these Moon Magnolias, one of which is flowering.

Robert Flanigan shows proper root growth in one of his trees at Brandywinetrees.com. Flanigan practices air root pruning, which encourages health and strong root growth.

A Franklinia alatamaha, commonly called Franklin tree, at Brandywinetrees.com.