Cultivating Garden Success Since 1987
Beginning as a “seed” in 1987, Finke Gardens is rooted in a love of plants and an obsession for trying new kinds. Rich and Luann Finke met as horticulture graduate students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the early 1980′s where they both worked for the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. Rich became curator and horticulturist at the Nebraska State Fair Park Arboretum, while Luann worked for UNL Extension Horticulture and later at the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum and UNL Landscape Services.
Rich and Luann Finke, horticulturists with a passion for plants and the inspiration of accomplished colleagues, began as a company of two that has grown into a staff of more than a dozen. Through the years, the love and obsession have blossomed, now with more partners to further the dream.
Finke Gardens & Nursery began as a landscape design/installation business in 1988. In 1995, we opened a retail store with a diverse offering of trees and shrubs, two greenhouses and six employees. In fifteen years Finke Gardens has grown to over five acres of nursery and retail space extending from 66th to 70th Street between the MoPac Bike Trail and Dairy Queen on the north and Dead Man’s Run on the south.
Commitment to Quality Permeates the Company
We invite you to become acquainted with Finke Gardens . Whether you visit the gift shop for elegant garden accessories and superb gardening tools, the greenhouse for a great variety of houseplants, perennials and annual flowers, or the woody plant nursery to choose the perfect trees and shrubs for your landscape, we think you’ll find the very best quality available. The staff at Finke Gardens is committed to helping you make excellent selections for your landscape. Please visit Finke Gardens to see for yourself!
Staff Bios
Rich and Luann Finke met at UNL while in graduate school. Finke Gardens grew out of their love for new plants and a passion for sharing them with gardeners. After 22 years of growing plants, designing and installing gardens, they still can’t wait for the new season of possibilities that each spring offers. Luann serves as landscape designer for the company. Rich grows all the annual and perennial flowers, and can be found almost every day caring for his plants as well as customers.
Luann is reading “Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit” by Scott Ogden & Lauren Springer Ogden. She admires the couple’s ability to express their love and understanding of plants in the landscape and on the written page.
Rich is reading “Brothers in Clay: The Story of Georgia Folk Pottery” by John A Burrison. When Rich isn’t caring for plants and his kids, he’s studying and collecting southern folk pottery from Georgia and North Carolina.
Ryan Luckey, Tree and Shrub Manager at Finke Gardens for the last three seasons, has been working in the green industry for 10 years. He grew up gardening with his family on a farm near Columbus. Ryan has a degree in Horticulture from UNL with emphasis in landscape design. He is a Nebraska Certified Nurseryman, a member of the Nebraska Nursery & Landscape Association and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. He not only vegetable gardens at home, he loves to cook and preserve his produce. Music, home brewing, and pipe organ restoration are favorite pastimes. Ryan considers Dirr’s Manual of Woody Landscape Plants light reading.
Jonathan Jacobs, Assistant Tree & Shrub Manager, returned to Finke Gardens after completing his UNL Horticulture degree with emphasis in Landscape Design. With two years of experience with customers at Finke Gardens, Jon has demonstrated his knowledge of plants and how to help people use them in the landscape. He looks for opportunities to use his creative side, working with new ideas and interesting spaces. He’s just started reading “The Well Tended Perennial Garden.”
Cindy Humann is Finke’s retail manager. Even though Cindy has a UNL degree in Business Administration with emphasis in Accounting, not Horticulture, she enjoys learning something new about plants everyday. She also loves reading mysteries, plays in her church bell choir and is mother to three “sometimes” great children. Cindy is reading “The New Year’s Quilt” by Jennifer Chiaverini, hoping to soon resume work on a quilt she started before her oldest daughter was born.
Nick Engel grew up on a farm, loving the chance to garden with his parents. He graduated from Southeast Community College in Beatrice with an associate degree in Horticulture, and has been working at nurseries since 2004. He and his wife have just purchased their first home, so Nick is getting a workout at home in additional to planting and managing landscapes for Finke Gardens’ clients.
Owen Wilcox has been working with Finke Gardens for over 16 years. This experience combined with an early start at gardening with his dad, has produced one of Meadowlane neighborhood’s best front yards. Owen is our singing gardener – he’s part of the First United Methodist Inspirational Singers, and is praying for higher placing in the Finke Gardens Big Pumpkin Contest.
Shelley Stoltenberg comes to Finke Gardens after working in landscape gardening in Michigan and South Dakota. Plants make her happy and she hopes she can share that joy with Finke clients. In her free time she likes to garden, paint and cook. Her favorite authors are Barbara Kingsolver and Augusteen Burrgoughs. Michael Pollan’s book “In Defense of Food” has changed the way she looks at food and has inspired her to use some of her garden space for fruits and vegetables.
