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Who is ANLA?
The American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA), organized in 1876, is the national trade association of the nursery and landscape industry. ANLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. This support enables them to operate more effectively and to provide the public with quality plants, landscape design and installations, and related products and services.
ANLA membership is made up of nearly 2,200 firms who grow and retail plants of all types, and design and install landscapes for residential and commercial customers. The association is headquartered in Washington, DC.
As community-based small businesses, owners and principals are deeply involved in their communities, as employers, taxpayers, and leaders.
Who Are ANLA Members?
Like the nursery and landscape industry at large, most ANLA members are small, family-owned businesses that grow nursery and greenhouse plants, sell lawn and garden products, design/install/care for landscapes, and sell supplies to the industry. Typical members include growers, garden center retailers, horticultural distributors, landscape professionals, and suppliers to the industry. A number of firms are engaged in more than one of these operations.
How Does ANLA Serve Its Members?
ANLA serves firms who grow, sell, or use plants. Its purpose is to advocate the industry's interests before government, and provide members with unique business knowledge essential to long term growth and profitability.
Member services include:
- Representing members' interests before Congress and federal regulatory agencies;
- Increasing public awareness and appreciation of the industry and its products;
- Offering professional education through seminars and publications;
- Providing opportunities for peer networking at association meetings;
- Supporting and encouraging industry research to foster the environmentally-sensitive production, sale, and use of high-quality plants that can thrive in a variety of settings.
In addition to serving the needs of the entire nursery and landscape industry, ANLA provides specialized benefits for retail garden center, landscape firms, horticultural distributors, and wholesale growers. ANLA also administers the National Association of Plant Patent Owners, which represents the foremost plant breeders.
How Does ANLA Serve the Public?
Eighty-five million U.S. households spent $39.6 billion at retail lawn and garden outlets in 2002, according to The National Gardening Association, while over 24.7 million households spent $28.9 billion on professional landscape, lawn, and tree care services. In total, Americans spent $68.5 billion improving landscaping at their homes in 2002.
Through membership in ANLA, members are able to operate more effectively and to provide the public with quality plants, landscape design and installations, and related products and services.
Besides promoting professional development, ANLA works to foster plant standards that enable buyers and sellers to better communicate and, ultimately, create a more consistent means of comparison for consumers. ANLA also works to maintain plant availability and consumer choice by advocating a system of reasonable and scientifically-sound pest and disease safeguards for interstate plant shipments. The association has long been a leader in the area of plant protection, and was responsible for initiating the commercial plant quarantine system-designed to protect U.S. plants from dangerous, costly infestations.
ANLA and its members are also advocates for environmental enhancement through plants and landscaping. For example, the association led the famed "Victory Garden" program during World War II and was a recognized leader in the Johnson administration's Highway Beautification Program. Since then, ANLA has worked with many public and private institutions to support programs to improve communities and benefit the environment. These include the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Rotary International, Weekly Reader, MADD, American Forests, National Association of State Foresters, and American Public Power Association.
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