Our History
Schwope Brothers Tree Farms was started in the mid-seventies by my dad and uncle. It started as a hobby for two farm boys that found themselves working in the big city. I’m told they couldn’t get farming out of their blood. Pop worked nights as a mechanic and days at the farm. My uncle was a salesman by day and worked many evenings at the farm, and the whole family worked at the tree farm on the weekends. I was still a little boy when they sold the business to another local nursery back in the mid-eighties, but my fondest memories as a child were working on the tree farm with my family. I think I was taught to love trees about the same time I was taught to walk, and it stuck. As long as I can remember, I have spent much energy learning everything there is to know about trees and continue to this day.
From the moment I was told that the tree farm had been sold, I began dreaming of one day reviving the business that our family had built. I started a landscaping business when I was in high school, then a nursery when I was in college. I planted my first crop of trees in 1997 as a sophomore and continued to plant every year while I studied. I graduated from Kansas State in December of 1999 and immediately started harvesting trees that spring. That small tree farm grew into a big landscape distribution business and out of being a tree farm. It is called KAT Nurseries and continues grow as distribution center for nursery stock. My dream did not become a reality until 2005 though, when I bought two farms in Atherton, Missouri and re-established Schwope Brothers Tree Farms. After 20 years of the name used only in past tense, it was back and action and we moved quickly. The operation grew to over 500 acres of production on 10 different farms using simple principles like: hard work, good horticulture, and creative thinking. We currently supply balled and burlaped nursery stock to a vast region and can boast about being the largest producer between the Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains. We have and will continue to put the principles of quality and diversity above all others as we move through the second coming of Schwope Brothers Tree Farms.
Tory Schwope
Owner
Schwope Brothers Tree Farms
