ALL ABOUT SPECIALTY TROPICALS
Family First, Quality Always
Specialty Tropicals began as the intersection of two things, Steve's passion for plants (actually, for all living things, but more about that later) and our desire to provide for our family while also being able to work together closely as a family. Steve is the "ringleader", spending most days in the greenhouse pulling and shipping orders, propagating plants, and caring for the collection. Kristi, his wife, is the creative force behind many of our efforts, as well as helping with whatever needs doing in the greenhouses. Our sons work alongside us and help provide moral support, entertainment and, occasionally, manual labor. Sawyer, 13, is
an amazing fellow, thriving with high-functioning autism and teaching his parents so much! Cooper, 9, was born with Down Syndrome and is a tremendous blessing to our family, full of laughter and mischief and love. Together, we navigate the challenges of family life, including homeschooling, therapies, and the more usual stuff that every family does. We love to travel, and the boys have been experienced international flyers for years now.
As Christian believers, we strive to conduct our family lives and business according to some essential principles: to be fair, honest, and generous with others; to provide service with kindness, and to
"go the extra mile" to help in any way we can.
Our goal is to delight every customer, and to equip every customer to succeed with the plants we sell, so they can bring you as much joy as they give us.
Steve is a biologist by training, a pastor by vocation, and a lifelong hands-in-the-dirt gardener. He grew up at the apron tails of his parents, grandparents, and a great-grandma who were all passionate about gardening.
When Steve was a young child, his dad did something that would change the course of Steve's life: on a trip to a local second-hand store, his father invested a few dollars to buy a stack of 1950s-era National Geographic magazines. Two articles in those old NatGeos especially captured Steve's interest, one on the Nepenthes (tropical carnivorous pitcher plants) of Borneo, and the other on the history of mankind's passion for collecting and breeding orchids. Half a century later, here we are!
We hope you enjoy browsing our carefully chosen offerings, and we would love to hear from you about what you collect, what you're hoping to find, or any other aspect of gardening, or our life as a family!
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Down Syndrome
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Our Team.
Meet the Specialty Tropicals Gang:
Steve (Dad)
Plant-Nerd-in-Chief
Steve is the "ring leader" of the
Hawkins Family Circus, the founder of
Specialty Tropicals, and a lifelong plant-nerd, thanks to lots of family members who taught him to love plants and working the soil from a young age. In addition to leading the team at ST, he's also lead pastor of a local church and a trained biologist and wildlife educator who loves teaching people about science and nature.
Steve will happily speak with you in English, German, Spanish (or a few other languages) for your convenience.
Steve says every plant is his favorite, but the carnivores, especially Nepenthes, are his biggest passion.
Kristi (Mom)
Sales & Communications
Steve is the "ring leader" of the
Hawkins Family Circus, the founder of
Specialty Tropicals, and a lifelong plant-nerd, thanks to lots of family members who taught him to love plants and working the soil from a young age. In addition to leading the team at ST, he's also lead pastor of a local church and a trained biologist and wildlife educator who loves teaching people about science and nature.
Steve will happily speak with you in English, German, Spanish (or a few other languages) for your convenience.
Steve says every plant is his favorite, but the carnivores, especially Nepenthes, are his biggest passion.
Sawyer
Scientist-in-Training
Sawyer is an amazing, science-loving, kind, energetic teen who helps out around the nursery (as well as his mom's business), takes great care of his family, and proves that autism is a super-power! He can quote more scientific names from memory than most PhDs, and is fascinated by everything in nature (much like his dad!)
Cooper
Customer Relations Specialist
Cooper loves people and loves helping his family and our customers. He is often right at Dad's side, riding around the farm, helping in the greenhouses, or running errands. He makes it his mission to personally greet every visitor to our nursery, and he often helps select and pack orders. His favorite things are robots and cartoons, and he rocks a little "extra something" genetically, making Down Syndrome look great!
Käthe
Head of Security
As senior Schnauzer, Käthe is likely to be the first voice you hear on arriving to our little farm. She patrols for everything from bears to squirrels, and enthusiastically notifies us of their presence. Since we live in the rural Southern Appalachians, she's never at a loss for something to bark at! She also helps Gus in his mission to keep us all entertained.
Gus
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Gus is a youngster still, but what he lacks in job experience, he makes up for in enthusiasm! He'll announce your arrival, and often welcome you with a wag of his tail and a not-so-subtle request for a head scratchin'.
How Does Our Garden Grow?
Depending on the plant, some of our catalog offerings begin life as seeds
(in this case, ones collected from our own Alocasia odora)
Other start as explants from tissue culture flasks (though most
gardeners never see them, this is how the vast majority of houseplants
begin their lives, grown on non-soil medium under controlled conditions
in a lab!) Your local garden center probably never handles TC plantlets,
because they require a lot of fussy care and space to grow them out, but
they're a great way for us to keep costs down while bringing you rare,
exceptional offerings, by purchasing bulk lots of tiny plants and introducing
them to soil and pots to begin their journey toward your collection. It's tedious, slow work, but it gives us an edge on typical nurseries and allows us
access to hard-to-find plants not typically available on the general market.
Many varieties arrive in our greenhouses as baby plants, called "plugs" in the industry, which are generally tissue-cultured plants that have made it to the next stage. Depending on variety, it may take 1-3 seasons for us to grow these into plants ready to go out to our customers.
Another way many of our plants begin life is as cuttings, taken
from our stock plants. This type of vegetative propagation allows us to create clones (exact genetic duplicates) of rare or desirable parent plants. While it takes time and effort to grow plants this way, it also ensures consistent quality.
