Nursery Crops Flourish in Louisiana as Growers Focus on Local Plants, Diversification and Helping Others

By Amanda McElfresh

NOLA.com

On any given day, Mark Mese can field messages from growers and nursery owners around the world about acquiring some of the hundreds of plants in his Baton Rouge nursery. Mese, a retired attorney, has about 3,000 square feet of greenhouses on his property, where he carefully tends each day to bromeliads, rare ferns, begonias, succulents and more.