Our History
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At the age of 14 his father was seriously injured in an accident leaving major farming duties to McRae and his mother. They continued the family farm until McRae graduated from high school and left to attend the University of Minnesota.

While at the U of M, McRae was named the outstanding freshman in Agriculture, was on the Freshman Board, University Senate, U of M meats judging team and he was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity. In order to fund his college education “and extra-curricular activities” he milked cows at the University’s dairy in the mornings and worked for an agricultural marketing firm in the evenings. Also, he continued to pursue his love of music embarking on a somewhat unsuccessful music career. However, even today you will often find him playing the piano at industry events or anytime he finds a piano sitting vacant.

McRae’s first job after college was with Ecolab selling dairy farm sanitation products, by his own admission he wasn’t a very good employee and spent most of his time working on his golf game rather than selling to farmers. Fortunately for the interiorscape industry, he was fired from that job and ended up in the garden center business working with one of his golfing buddies. It was during this time he really found his love of plants and says that it stems from being a displaced farmer in the city! However, soon McRae (being not a very good employee) was trying to run the garden center his way, just like he did when he ran the family farm. He tried to get his employer to start a plantscaping business, but his bosses thought the plant thing was just a passing fad.