Today we’d like to introduce you to Reinhart ELBOECK.
Hi Reinhart, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Handpicked Nursery started from a genuine love for plants, nature, and creating spaces where people can connect with the outdoors. What began as a nursery business has grown into something much larger: a 25-acre destination built for the community to enjoy.
Over the years, we’ve worked hard to create more than just a place to buy plants. Our nursery now includes nature trails, an exercise trail, a harvest trail, and a petting zoo with animals for families and visitors to enjoy. We wanted to build an experience where people of all ages could walk, explore, learn, relax, and make memories surrounded by nature.
As we’ve grown, we’ve continued adding new ways for the community to gather. With our beer and wine license and movie theater, Handpicked Nursery has become a place where people can spend the day, attend events, enjoy time with family and friends, and experience the nursery in a unique way.
Today, Handpicked Nursery is built on passion, community, and connection. We’re proud to offer healthy, thoughtfully selected plants, but we’re even prouder to have created a welcoming space where nature, family, education, and entertainment come together.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not always been a smooth road. Like many small businesses, we’ve had to grow through a lot of challenges, learning experiences, and unexpected obstacles along the way.
One of the biggest struggles has been building something this unique from the ground up. Creating a 25-acre nursery and community destination takes a lot of time, planning, investment, and patience. It’s not just about growing plants — it’s about maintaining the land, designing trails, caring for animals, managing licenses, creating family-friendly experiences, and making sure every part of the property feels welcoming and safe.
We’ve also had to learn how to balance the different parts of the business. Between the nursery, the nature trail, exercise trail, harvest trail, petting zoo, beer and wine license, and movie theater, there are many moving pieces. Each addition has brought its own challenges, but also its own reward.
There have been hard days, long hours, and moments where we had to figure things out as we went. But every struggle has helped shape Handpicked Nursery into what it is today. The challenges made us more creative, more resilient, and even more committed to building a place the community can enjoy.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Hand Picked Nursery?
Handpicked Nursery is more than a nursery — it is a 25-acre outdoor experience created for the community. At our heart, we specialize in offering healthy, thoughtfully selected plants, but what makes us different is the environment we have built around them.
We are known for creating a place where people can shop for plants, enjoy nature, spend time with family, and make a full experience out of their visit. Our property includes a nature trail, exercise trail, harvest trail, petting zoo, movie theater, and gathering spaces where guests can relax and connect. With our beer and wine license, we are also able to offer a unique setting for events and community experiences.
What sets Handpicked Nursery apart is that we are not just focused on selling plants. We are focused on creating memories. We want people to feel welcome, inspired, and connected to nature when they visit. Whether someone is coming to find the right plant for their home, walk the trails, bring their children to see the animals, enjoy a movie, or attend an event, we want every visit to feel special.
Brand-wise, we are most proud of the fact that Handpicked Nursery has grown into a place people associate with community, nature, family, and experience. Our name reflects what we care about: thoughtful selection, personal attention, and creating something meaningful. Everything we offer is built around that idea — from the plants we choose to the trails we maintain and the experiences we create.
We want readers to know that Handpicked Nursery is a destination for anyone who loves plants, the outdoors, family-friendly experiences, and unique community spaces. We are proud to offer quality plants, beautiful grounds, animal encounters, walking trails, entertainment, and a welcoming atmosphere all in one place. Our goal is to continue growing as a brand that brings people closer to nature and closer to each other.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Risk has played a big role in our journey, but we have always tried to look at risk as something that should be thoughtful, intentional, and connected to a larger purpose. We do not believe in taking risks just for the sake of it. For us, the biggest risks have been the ones that came from believing in a vision before we knew exactly how everything would work out.
Creating Handpicked Nursery as a 25-acre community destination was definitely a major risk. It would have been much simpler to operate as a traditional nursery, but we wanted to build something more meaningful. Adding nature trails, an exercise trail, a harvest trail, a petting zoo, a movie theater, and spaces where people can gather required a lot of investment, planning, patience, and faith.
Each new part of the business brought its own risk. Caring for animals, maintaining trails, creating entertainment experiences, and getting licensed for beer and wine all required us to step into new areas and learn along the way. There were no guarantees that people would understand the vision right away, but we believed the community needed a place where plants, nature, family, and experience could all come together.
Our perspective on risk is that growth usually requires some level of courage. You have to be willing to try, adapt, and keep going even when the path is not perfectly clear. The key is making sure the risk is rooted in your values. For us, every risk we have taken has been tied to our goal of creating a place that brings people closer to nature and closer to each other.
Looking back, those risks helped shape our identity. They pushed us to become more creative, more resilient, and more committed to the brand we are building. We are proud that we took the chance to create something different, and we hope people feel that sense of heart and purpose when they visit Handpicked Nursery.
Pricing:
- $1 to $150
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.handpickednursery.com
- Instagram: @handpickednursery
- Facebook: @handpickednursery
- LinkedIn: Hand Picked Nursery
- Youtube: @handpickednursery3552
- Other: Tiktok: Hand Picked Nursery
