SNA Ceasing Operations After 121 Years

Chris Beytes

The Southern Nursery Association (SNA) announced in January that the Board made the decision to shut down the organization, citing the cancellation of the SNA Conference (the association’s main source of income), as well as declining membership.

SNA was founded way back in 1899 to “to unite and advance” the Southern U.S. horticulture industry “through educational, research and marketing efforts,” and the organization did much good in that time, including producing one of the industry’s largest trade shows between 1950 and 2009, the SNA Research Conference from 1955 to 2020, and the SNA Plant Conference from 1991 to 2020.

The SNA published the Proceedings of the SNA Research Conference and featured more than 3,000 titles comprised of more than 12,500 pages on the SNA website. Hundreds of topics in 13 categories were presented at the conference and the proceedings have been published online as an industry service. Don’t worry—this library will be transferred to the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) website (hriresearch.org) for future
reference.

Also being preserved are two existing Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) funds—the SNA Fund and the SNA Golf Classic Fund totaling about $300,000—which will be combined and renamed the Southern Nursery Association Legacy Fund.

Past SNA Executive Vice Presidents Danny Summers (1989 to 2006) and Karen Summers (2012-2020) have volunteered to maintain the sna.org website to house SNA’s rich history, including SNA past presidents from 1899 to 2020, SNA Awards program winners from 1956 to 2020, SNA Research Conference Proceedings from 1991 to 2020, past Bryson L. James Student Research Competition winners, and the “Best Management Practices: Guide for Producing Nursery Crops.” Additionally, an SNA Facebook page will be maintained to create a community for past SNA members, and for photos, memories and comments.

Additional historical memorabilia will be deposited with the Atlanta History Center’s Cherokee Garden Library in the Southern Nursery Association Repository created in 1999 for SNA’s 100th anniversary. The collection contains hundreds of administrative records, meeting transcripts, seed catalogs, research proceedings, trade show programs, photos and more.

The Sidney B. Meadows Scholarship Endowment Fund, created by SNA in 1989, will not be impacted by this move. The Fund is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 charitable corporation fully independent of the SNA and will continue its efforts to award academic scholarships to horticulture students throughout the Southeastern U.S. To date, the fund has awarded more than $550,000 in scholarships. The fund balance currently stands at more than $900,000. GT