Thank you for taking your time to visit our website and learn about our company and our history.
The founding of our company starts almost 70 years ago as one of the first commercial fern propagation nurseries in California. Three generations later, with millions of fern liners and fern plugs sold, we are still growing strong.
1954 is the start of our history. Bert Clark along with his wife, Mary, and their partner Yolanda Orta, started Berryman Nursery in West Los Angeles, CA. The Clark’s and Yolanda sold their spore propagated ferns in two-inch clay pots placed in wooden flats. Berryman Nursery was known throughout California for the quality of their fern liners and the success they attained in growing beautiful, healthy fern liners.
In 1969, Bert and Mary moved to Fallbrook, CA. Yolanda decided to stay in West Los Angeles and started Yolanda’s Ferns. The new name for Bert and Mary’s nursery became Clark’s Nursery. The larger property in Fallbrook allowed Clark’s Nursery to expand the size of their greenhouse space and produce more ferns liners and plugs.
Frank carrying trays to load for shipping to a customer
By 1973, as the wholesale fern liner and plug business grew for the Clark’s, Bert and Mary’s daughter, Suzie and their son-in-law, me, Frank Brock, joined Clark’s Nursery. During the following years, Suzie and I learned the specialized technique for propagating spore-grown ferns from Bert and Mary. Throughout the years it has been Suzie’s and my goal to carry on with the great foundation of knowledge learned from Bert and Mary. This includes selling only the highest quality fern liners and fern plugs and treating each customer as a friend by providing honest, reliable, and attentive customer service regardless the size of the order or the size of the nursery.
Bert and Mary Clark show a guest the greenhouse that holds the spore trays
With the retirement of Bert and Mary in 1989, Suzie and I moved our nursery to another property in Fallbrook that allowed us to build newer greenhouses and expand the fern liner production further. During the early 1990’s, we were introduced to fern growers in Holland. We were very impressed with their technique in sporing and the quality of the fern liners and fern plugs they sold. After our visit with the growers in Holland, we started purchasing young fern plugs to supplement our growing need for ferns. 30 years later our relationship with our colleagues in Holland is still as strong as ever.
By late 2007, Suzie and I decided that after 36 years of producing ferns for the wholesale market it was time to stop growing the fern plugs ourselves and we made the very hard decision to close Clark’s Nursery. With the great relationship built over many years with our fern growers in Holland we decided that we would broker their ferns liners and fern plugs to the United States and Canadian wholesale nursery market. We started F Brock Enterprise, LLC.
Carrie, Age 7, standing on a bench in the brand new greenhouse at Old Hill
With the growth of our fern market and our customer base, our daughter Carrie Russell started working for us in late 2013. From a very early age, Carrie has been involved with our nursery business. For most of Carrie’s life, whether it was mixing soil, emptying trays, loading trucks, or running extension cords to the generators because of power outages in the middle of the night, she has played a part in our fern business. Through the years Carrie has carried on the spirit of our company that started in 1954.
Suzie and I have been blessed beyond anything we could have imagined when we first joined Bert and Mary in their business in 1973. Looking back over the years, we can see how God has directed every step of the way – the good times as well as the difficult times.
Never having liked the name of F Brock Enterprise, we have changed our company name to Brock’s Fern Plugs. With a new name and website, we hope that this will set up our company for the next generation.
With our new name, nothing will change with the ferns that we provide for our customers. Carrie and I are still the only employees of our company. We are even more committed to selling the very best quality fern plugs and fern liners to our customers and providing them with exceptional customer service. Those two ideals are the mission of Brock’s Fern Plugs, just as they have been for almost 70 years.
Thank you again for spending your valuable time in reading our story and to getting to know us.
Frank Brock - April 20, 2022