April 1, 2018
Brookland Treeland Nurseries founder Paul Olsen passes
Paul Olsen, founder of Schomberg, Ont.-based Brookdale Teeland Nurseries, died March 3, 2018. A well-known and prominent supporter of the landscape profession, Olsen was a founding member of both Landscape Ontario and the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, and served each organization as president (LO, 1996-97 and CNLA, 2007-2009). Olsen was proud that his company was and continues to be a family business. “My wife did the books for the company, starting in 1977 to the late 1990s,” Olsen told Landscape Ontario in a 2016 interview. “It was only the last couple of years she drew any pay.” In 2011, Olsen sold the operation to his son Jeff. Son Peter operates MD Growers in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. while daughter Diane runs the HR department that administers BTN’s 300 peak-time employees.