Randolph County Farm Bureau member Tom Gilmore, 72, is no stranger to the nation’s capitol.

His family business, Gilmore Plant & Bulb Company in Julian, has sold a variety of farm products to beautify many of the memorials and other historic sites in Washington, D.C.

“I feel good about it, but I give all the credit to my sons,” Gilmore says. “They do the growing.”

Gilmore may no longer do plant production, but he is still active in marketing the company’s products. Sons Dell and Dwayne manage the production aspect of the business and grandsons Jake and Josh also work at the nursery.

Their most recent federal order was for a baker’s dozen of Leyland Cypress trees with an average height of 30 feet. They are destined to border the First Family’s swimming pool.

The Gilmore family operation covers more than 1,000 acres and includes a wide variety of ornamental plants, shrubs and trees.

“The (Bush administration) White House contacted us,” Gilmore says. “We sent photos to their staff, and they visited us to see the trees.”

When the new administration took office, the order stood, and Gilmore is shipping the trees this fall.

“We furnished all the plants for the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and we did plantings around the Pentagon, Dulles International Airport, the U.S. Air Force Memorial, the World War Two Memorial and the Botanical Gardens,” he says. “Another job that gave me a lot of excitement and enthusiasm was furnishing plants for the National Museum of the American Indian.”

The family’s plant and bulb company, which was founded in 1912, has also furnished plants and trees for many of the state and nation’s gardens, highways and byways, but no longer produces bulbs – as times changed and demand no longer met the cost-benefit ratio.

Gilmore says the current economic situation and the recent drought make it necessary for all farmers to evaluate their business models.

“Our company’s gone through the Great Depression and World War Two,” Gilmore says. “People don’t buy plants when they don’t build new houses, and they don’t buy plants when they’re losing their jobs or afraid they’re going to lose their jobs. It ranks as some of the toughest times.”

He says his business is surviving by adjusting its work force, stressing the quality of its products, being blessed with customer referrals and a good reputation, and finding a market niche.

“We grow a lot of material that a lot of nurseries don’t grow, particularly the larger sizes,” he says. “Recently, we shipped 14-feet-tall Red Cedars to Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace in Kentucky.”

Gilmore is a 1959 graduate of North Carolina State University and was a classmate of former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt. Perhaps taking the lead from his popular college classmate, Gilmore has served the community in a variety of ways. He served in the North Carolina House of Representatives, on the North Carolina Board of Agriculture and in a variety of other posts.

In addition to community service, Gilmore says it’s important for farmers to belong to organizations like Farm Bureau.

“I’m proud to be a member,” he says. “During the recent drought, Farm Bureau was out front fighting for all farmers. It’s the same thing with taxation, zoning and many other problems that farmers face.”