pine hill northern michigan
Traverse City plant nursery landscapingnorthern michigan nursery

Staff Picks

Deb Emmons | Ralph Naples | Carol Rennis | Amber Ackerman | Julie Smedley | Amy Hersha | Alana Haley | Ruth Chapin

Traverse City Staff Bios

Click here to read some of Jeanine's Gardening Tips...

Deb Emmons
Back to Top

Queen of the Veggie and Herb Greenhouse #2. Orders merchandise for the garden center. Need something? She can hook you up!

Annuals

Shrubs

Trees

Perennials

Ralph Naples
Back to Top

Nursery Founder, plant master and answer man. Knows it all. Always pay close attention to what he has to say!

Trees

Grasses

Shrubs

Perennials

Underused Plants

Carol Rennis
Back to Top

Queen of Containers and Annual Expert! She’s actually an expert every day. Not just annually.

Annuals

Shrubs (she’s an old fashioned girl)

Trees

Amber Ackerman
Back to Top

Our very own Little Miss Sunshine! Really. She’s always sunny! Things burst into bloom when she walks by.

Trees

Shrub

Annual

Perennial

Julie Smedley
Back to Top

Queen of Perennials. Does that make her a perennial Queen? And master of Annual Greenhouse #3

Annuals

Perennials

Shrubs

Trees

Amy Hersha
Back to Top

Keeps us in cats who keep us free of chipmunks! And it’s rumored she’s the most meticulous weeder in all of northern MI!

Trees

Shrubs

Perennials

Annuals

Alana Haley
Back to Top

Jill of all trades and flower sniffer. Administrates, advertises, plans events…we think she may have Attention Deficit Disorder.

Perennials

Shrubs

Trees

Annuals

Bulbs

Vines

Herbs

Ruth Chapin
Back to Top

Perennials

Annuals

Shrubs

Trees

Traverse City Staff Bios
Back to Top

Diane ‘NOAH’ Albrecht

Diane is our official liquid refreshment
provider (a.k.a. she waters the plants) and weather watcher.  She has been
an organic gardener for 20 years and loves the native plants and the
wildlife they attract.  You will usually find her at the end of a hose,
tending to her many children (of the plant world) or extolling the benefits
of gardening with natives of using cottonseed meal to cure all ills in the
plant world.

Jeanine Rubert

J9 for short, is co-owner of Pine Hill Nursery and Pine
Hill Village Gardens.  She has lived and gardened in Northern Michigan for
over 30 years.  She is the voice of Pine Hill on the radio and frequent
speaker at garden clubs.  She is alternately known as the Gardening Diva,
Goddess of Horticulture, and until the title was stolen by Melissa,
Perennial Queen.  Jeanine has been a Michigan Certified Nurseryman for over
15 years.

 

 

Kim Lewis

Kim has been with Pine Hill on and off for about 17 years.
She started out on coop in high school and worked for 16 years at Pine Hill
Nursery.  She left to pursue other interests, but much to our delight,
after 12 years of pursuing, is back at Village Gardens.  She is the
resident comic relief and is fond of reminding me that she can sell
anything that isn’t nailed down.  (That’s where my pine hill sweatshirt
went!)  She also holds the title for fastest transplanter alive.  Kim can
usually be found in the nursery cleaning and organizing and then selling
everything she just cleaned and organized.


Kim Glew

Kim is the newest addition to the Pine Hill Family.  This is
her second season and she has carved out a niche for herself here.  Kim is
always calm and focused a much needed trait in this business, especially in
May!  She started out as a good customer and turned into a good staff
member.  She is a Master Gardener and has been a serious hobbyist for 30
years.  She and her husband ran a wholesale greenhouse for 3 years.  Kim
worked in visual display for 4 years and loves creating visually pleasing
garden designs.

 

Linda Veliquette

Linda started working at Pine Hill in 1998 and
transferred to Village Gardens when we opened in October of 2000.  She is
our resident sunshine and is always ready with a smile and encouraging
word.  Linda is a Master Gardener and Michigan Certified Nurseryman.  Her
specialty is perennial grasses and making up new words for thingys and
whatchamacallits.  She loves helping customers with their gardening
questions, designing container gardens and solving pest problems.  Linda is
the go to person for just about everything in the nursery and can always
solve the problem of where to put what Jeanine just ordered.

 

Marie Groombridge

Marie has been working at Pine Hill for 3 years and
keeps all of our karma’s functioning smoothly.  Hers is the smiling face
you are most likely to see behind the counter, but we are letting her
spread her wings a little more each year.  Actually we got tired of
hearing, “I didn’t know we had that!”  and decided she needed to get
out more.  Marie is a Master Gardener and Michigan Certified Nurseryman.
When she is not behind the counter, you can find her out in the nursery
communing with the shrubs and perennials and singing a happy tune.



Melissa Blumerick

The Perennial Queen. (A title she usurped from
Jeanine)  She loves, loves, loves perennials and can usually be found
pulling her custom fitted red wagon stocked with everything she needs to
sell, plant, deadhead, fertilize,  weed, or divide perennials.  Melissa
also loves antiquing and finds the coolest containers for her second love,
container gardening.  Her motto is “Think outside the pot”.  Melissa is
a Master Gardener, Michigan Certified Nurseryman and 9 year Pine Hill
Village Garden veteran.

 

Ron Belic

Ron is the lone (but not lonely) male in our otherwise all
female staff.  Tough job but someone has to do it!  I think he puts up with
us for the chocolate cake, doughnuts and brownies!  He is a true jack of
all trades and all around Renaissance man.  Ron is a graduate of MSU and
NMC with degrees in Landscape and Nursery and Associates of Applied
Science.  He is a Michigan Certified Nurseryman & Master Gardener.  He has
been designing and installing beautiful landscapes for Pine Hill since
2002.

 


shrubs trees nursery