About Us

dove logo Genesis became a full time business near Walnut, Illinois in October 1990, and incorporated under Illinois law March 25, 1992. The firm re-located in 1994 to a 15 acre tract near Tampico, Illinois, approximately 100 miles west of downtown Chicago or 40 miles east of the Quad Cities. An emphasis has been placed on on-site seed production. Our firm specializes in wholesale, commercial, institutional, and agricultural sales. Seed production is from naturalized plantings, single species monocultures, and row crop wildflower, grass, and sedge plantings and remnant prairies. The nursery has grown from 15 to 375 acres, with approximately 400 native species established on our farm.
Genesis Nursery, Inc. currently has 42,000 square feet of greenhouses (34,470 square feet heated). The firm handles approximately 250 species of containerized plants and over 400 species as seed, including over 60 species of Carex. Contract and custom growing services are available. Genesis offers seed mixes based on northern Illinois natural communities, as well as custom mixes from other native firms, IDOT and ISTHA mixes, and native landscaping and erosion control mixes.
Genesis Nursery hand harvests or directly combines (John Deere 6620 & John Deer 9500) wildflower, grass, sedge, and rush seeds. Seeds are dried by non-heated forced air, primarily on wood floors with cross ventilation, latent peak ventilation, and forced air peak ventilation. Seeds are processed with a Winona Attrition Mill Wildflower Model hammermill, 10HP Winona Attrition Mill hammermill, Dybvig seed cleaner, various Clipper brush mills and scalpers, Carter Day indent cylinder, Forsberg Gravity Table, and/or Hance Vacaway fanning mills and scalpers or whatever we can fit into our new facility that was competed in March 2015.
Genesis Nursery currently maintains seed tests on 275+ native species. All tests are performed at commercial seed labs by certified seed technologists, in accordance with AOSA or ISTA rules as the rules are applied to native species. Composites with fluffy pappi and seeds with comae are debearded. Seeds enclosed in pods or floral tissues have those tissues removed. Seed submittal data (geographic origin, seeds per pound, IDOA seed tag data, etc.) are available only with an irrevocable purchase/contract. Due to the frequent turn over of seed lots, advance submittals are not possible. Genesis provides over 3600 acres of seeds and plants annually to the green industry.
Genesis does NOT maintain a retail facility and is open by appointment only, the latter is strictly enforced.
Our detailed informational DVD is available to qualified restoration professionals upon request.
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Kathy Lubbs, President Genesis Nursery, Inc.Kathy is a founder of Genesis and serves as president of GNI. She grew up as a 3rd generation member of a construction industry-based family in northwestern Illinois. She has hands on experience in the oil fields of Kansas, the water well industry of northern Illinois, and the Chicago Northwestern Railroad.
At Genesis, Kathy manages the office, greenhouses, fields, barns & controlled burning. She is responsible for the day-to-day management of all labor in the greenhouses, seed fields, seed barns and seed storage and processing. In the office, she maintains and troubleshoots the accounting and data entry and directs the payables and receivables. She manages the greenhouses, and is responsible for the daily operation, plant propagation and production, from seed pretreatments to plant order processing and shipping.
In seed production plots, Kathy is responsible for soil preparation, seed and plug installation, cultivation, herbicide, and harvest of production plots. She is responsible for drying, processing, cleaning, conditioning, storage, order processing, and governmental inspection of all seeds. Kathy leads the controlled burns of seed production fields and natural area remnants on Genesis Nursery properties.
In her spare time, Kathy enjoys woodworking, direct from the log to fine furniture. Kathy also spends as much time as possible building Legos™ with her grandsons, David and Collin.
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Will Powers, Genesis Nursery, Inc. William “Will” Jennings Bryan Powers the III was born at the age of five in a log cabin that he built himself. He is a graduate of Dixon High School and Columbia.
Will manages customer relations, seed and plant estimating, seed and plant sales, scheduling plant deliveries, and materials purchasing. He also helps maintain electronic and physical seed records, electronic information, and does some computer and electronics troubleshooting. Will is active in all aspects of office procedures. In his spare time, Will enjoys smoking meat, eating smoked meats, and drinking cold Stella Artois. Will intends on consuming enough bacon, that upon his death, his nitrate-infused body will become a permanent display in the Cured Meats Hall of Fame
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Dennis is one of the founders of Genesis. He has lived in the great Green River Lowland all his life. He has been involved in native prairie restoration for over 35 years. Dennis helps with seed estimating, seed and phenology record keeping, writing seed mixes, writing and updating the DVD and website information, and occasionally answering the phone, which he only answers when no one else does. He likes plants much more than people. At 37 years-old, Mr. Lubbs was emotionally traumatized by repeated exposure to blatant idiocy in native landscaping and restorations specifications. Tainted specifications cause frequent relapses to this day. In his spare time, he enjoys traditional archery, distilled wines, botanical etymology, and good books.
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Billie Jo Egan, Genesis Nursery, Inc. As a teenager, Billie Jo was caught stealing hogs, and sentenced to life at hard labor at Genesis Nursery. This young woman has more experience with native seeds and plants than most people twice her age. Billie is responsible for development of our data-base, inventory control software for the seed room and greenhouse. She also wrote the code and designed this website. In the office, she helps with the day-to-day book keeping and software updates. Billie Jo appreciates a bottle of good wine and anything by Kurt Vonnegut. In her spare time, she, her husband, and 2 sons are ski bums, loving snowy weather. They are directly responsible for the severe winter of 2013-2014.
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We found Aaron on our doorstep in early January of last year. After a quick trip to the vet, a few shots, and new tags, we decided to keep him. Aaron comes to Genesis with an agricultural background and twenty years in business to business sales and management, but we do not hold that against him. Aaron is a valuable addition to the office, helping in seed and plant estimating, scheduling seed and plant deliveries, helping with office management, & customer service & relations. Around the farm, he helps direct vehicle and ag equipment maintenance. Aaron is also one of the public faces of Genesis (as you can plainly see why), buzzing around to customers & meetings in his Mini Cooper, aka the Clown Car. In his spare time, Aaron is a ski bum (and ski dad) who enjoys cooking and appreciates a couple of fingers of single malt scotch on occasion. aaron@genesisnurseryinc.com a>
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