A Budding Passion

It wasn’t her fault. The plant was a gift. Nevertheless, it was dying. 

It was up to Lauren Gregory ’19 to save it. 

With delicate and deliberate care in the spring of 2016, Gregory began the revival process. Slowly but surely, the plant began to reflect the love and effort put in by Gregory. Before long, it was thriving. 

“It was one of those things, while simple, that was a coming-of-age experience. My grandpa was a sweet corn farmer that sold to local stores. My grandparents and parents all had gardens growing up. When I brought that plant back from the dead, I realized I had a knack for it, too,” Gregory said, a grower working at Saunders Brothers Farm in Piney River, Virginia.

Her hometown of New Kent, Virginia, nestled between Richmond and Williamsburg, is small. Gregory began her collegiate experience as a first-generation student at Thomas Nelson Community College in nearby Williamsburg before transferring to Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. 

At Virginia Tech, Gregory wanted to truly understand the symbiotic relationship between plants, so she joined the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences while also choosing a minor in entomology – both areas that she uses daily in her career.

When Gregory initially toured Virginia Tech, she was introduced to the horticulture program by Alex Niemiera, a professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. Who she met and what she saw were magnificent.

“I met Holly Scoggins who further inspired me. Everything I saw – the professors, the facilities, the Hahn Horticulture Garden – it just pulled me in,” Gregory said. “I had great mentors and leaders to look up to and had fantastic hands-on learning opportunities.”

Those experiences came to a head when she began working at the Hahn Horticulture Garden as a student grower. There, she was able to put knowledge into actions every time Gregory went into work. 

“One of my favorite things was pruning. There’s an art to getting plants the way you want them to look in landscaping,” Gregory said. “But we also had to map the high-traffic areas of the garden and map the areas based on light and soil compaction. I put the science portion of my education into practice.”

In college, Gregory saw how the soil interacts with the plants and how they pull nutrients from the soil. She saw how the soil layers, compaction, and oxygenation in the soil changes – and what makes those processes happen.

“I’m at a container nursery now, so we only really work with soilless media,” she said. “But my classes at Virginia Tech changed how I approach this. I’m always looking at the outcome – how we can get the plants to be exactly where they need to be once at their final destination in the ground.”

At Saunders Brothers, Gregory was a part of the team that helped the Saunders family earn national recognition as Southeastern Farmer of the Year.

“It’s been a privilege to work for Saunders Brothers and to be a small part of their success,” Gregory said. “I’ve learned so much while I’ve been here and had the support needed to grow both personally and professionally.”

At the farm, Gregory is a section grower in the woody portion of the nursery, specifically the grower of deciduous evergreen flowering shrubs and trees. In this role, she monitors the plants to make sure they’re growing on the right timeline, checks for quality, pests – where her entomology minor comes in handy, planting, temperature protection, and much more.

“The process is just as important as getting to the finish line for us,” Gregory said. “A decision that we make in week eight will impact the plant in week 16. It’s imperative that we put the care and time in to ensure these plants are enjoyed for ages to come.”