I’m Ethan Brooks, a 44-year-old nursery owner in Ohio who has spent the last seven years learning that selling someone a tree is often the easy part. Helping them choose the right one takes a little more work. Most of what I know today comes from daily work at the nursery, conversations with customers, books, research, and plenty of talks with people who have spent far longer around plants than I have. Trees interest me for reasons beyond planting and care. I like the strange history behind certain species, the plants that fall in and out of favor, and the laws that can suddenly change what a nursery is allowed to sell. I started college but never finished my degree, so I do not present myself as a botanist or academic. I am a nursery owner who asks questions, checks his sources, and gets to see what customers struggle with every day.
I admit that the Bradford Pear sales ban annoyed me quite a bit at first, especially because I own a large plant nursery in Ohio. We had sold it for years. Customers regularly asked for it, and many came in with a photo of a tree they had seen in a…
