Former small business owner, native plant horticulture & landscape expert, nonprofit leader
Over 46 years of experience in the horticulture industry
Bruce started his career as an employee at Wilcox Nursery & Landscape, one of Pinellas County’s oldest continuously operated garden centers (since 1951). He began in the nursery and restarted landscape design and installation for the business, building on his Florida State University and University of South Florida education in creative arts and business. Steadily through the years, he converted much of the Wilcox inventory to native plants, became responsible for operations management and eventually bought out the business. He expanded the business into employing a half-dozen designers and installation crews with a constant backlog in native landscape projects, both commercial and residential.
Bruce is the Past President of the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation, for which he is a founding board member. Bruce has been an active contributor to his local Pinellas Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society as well as many other Pinellas civic and green groups. He regularly gives educational programs on native plants and their use in ecological landscape design.
