Southern Nursery Association Elects New Officers, President

Jennifer Zurko

Officers of the Southern Nursery Association (SNA) who will serve for the 2015-2016 term were elected during the 117th annual meeting held at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta during SNA 2015. The election, open to all active SNA members, determines representation from the four geographic regions of the association:

Chapter 1 | Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia
Chapter 2 | Florida, Georgia and South Carolina
Chapter 3 | Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee
Chapter 4 | Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas

Michael Hobbs of Warren County Nursery in McMinnville, Tennessee, was elected president, succeeding Richard May of May Nursery in Havana, Florida. A third generation nurseryman, Michael has been active in the industry for more than 40 years. Founded by his father and mother, Leslie and Frances Hobbs in 1950, Warren County Nursery is a wholesale, field growing operation with greenhouses for liner production. It offers a complete line of bareroot seedlings, cuttings, liners, vines, wildflowers, fruit and nut trees, balled and burlap shrubs, shade trees, ornamentals and evergreens. Warren County Nursery has more than 400 acres in production, and over the past 60 years has become recognized as a supplier of native plants used in wetlands and reforestation plantings.

The complete slate of 2014-2015 officers is as follows:

• Michael Hobbs, President
• Dusty Knight, Vice President/Treasurer/Director Chapter 4, Plantation Tree Company, Selma, Alabama
• Norman Cole, III, Director Chapter 1, Cole Nurseries, Pipestem, West Virginia
• Joseph Napoli, Director Chapter 2, Athens Wholesale Nursery, Athens, Georgia
• Rickey Minton, Director Chapter 3, Triangle Nursery, McMinnville, Tennessee
• Richard May, Immediate Past President GT