Meet Our Staff

Judy and her husband, Jim, founded Mitchell’s Nursery in 1979 after meeting while studying horticulture at North Carolina State University. Their shared love of plants began a business that has kept them busy ever since!

More than four decades later, Judy remains actively involved in the nursery. From managing finances and coordinating plant orders to keeping up with the countless details of running a garden center, she helps keep everything organized and moving forward.

Judy also has a lifetime of horticultural knowledge and enjoys sharing it with customers and employees alike.

When she’s not keeping everyone on track at the nursery, Judy enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, who represent the third generation of the Mitchell family to lend a hand around the greenhouses.

Jim’s love of plants began at an early age when his father helped him turn his childhood sandbox into a rooting bed for azaleas. What started as a childhood project eventually became a lifelong career in horticulture.

While studying horticulture at NC State, Jim met Judy, and the two began growing plants together before they even finished college. In 1979, they established Mitchell’s Nursery.

Over the years, Jim has done a little bit of everything, from growing plants and building greenhouses to making deliveries and helping customers. Today, you’ll still find him helping with plant production, potting, and deliveries.

Outside the nursery, Jim has been involved in Scouting, the Epilepsy Foundation, and music. He also enjoys spending time with his grandchildren.

Growing up at Mitchell’s Nursery, Jay spent plenty of time working around plants, but he didn’t always plan to make a career of it. In fact, he originally headed to Raleigh to study engineering and thought he was leaving the nursery business behind.

While attending school, Jay worked at his aunt’s greenhouse and realized something surprising: he missed growing plants!

That realization brought him back to Mitchell’s more than 25 years ago. Today, Jay helps oversee the nursery’s daily operations, including plant production, irrigation, greenhouse facilities, and future growth.

He especially enjoys the challenges of growing healthy plants and finding better ways to operate the nursery.

Jay and his wife, Melissa, have four children who occasionally help around the nursery. Whether any of them will follow in the family’s footsteps is a story still being written!

Jennifer joined Mitchell’s Nursery as a seasonal employee in the spring of 2019. We quickly recognized her abilities, and she returned that fall as a full-time Grower Assistant.

With a bachelor’s degree in business from Gardner-Webb University and more than 18 years of previous customer service experience, Jennifer brought a strong background in working with people and managing daily operations.

Today, as our Garden Center Manager, Jennifer helps coordinate employees, plant purchasing, customer service, and the many moving parts of a busy nursery.

She enjoys helping customers and working with our team to make sure the garden center is ready for each season.

When she’s not at Mitchell’s, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her family, fishing, gardening, and settling down with a good book.

If you’ve shopped for trees or shrubs at Mitchell’s, there’s a good chance you’ve met Lorie!

Lorie knows our tree and shrub department inside and out. She helps care for thousands of plants, from potting and pruning to keeping them healthy and ready for customers.

She also enjoys helping customers choose plants for their landscapes and putting together attractive container gardens.

Lorie is known for her determination, outgoing personality, and willingness to tackle whatever needs doing. Over the years, she’s become a familiar face to many of our regular customers.

Outside the nursery, Lorie enjoys spending time with her family, her dogs, and being outdoors.

Linda joined Mitchell’s Nursery in 2015, bringing an interest in horticulture and a friendly approach to customer service.

After studying horticulture at Forsyth Technical Community College, Linda continued developing her plant knowledge through years of hands-on experience at the nursery.

Today, she helps lead our garden center sales team and has become one of our go-to people for finding plants, answering customer questions, and keeping up with our ever-changing inventory.

If you’re looking for a particular plant, Linda is often one of the first people to ask!

Many of our longtime customers know Linda by name, and she enjoys seeing familiar faces return each season.

Outside of work, Linda enjoys gardening and spending time with her family and pets.

Lisanne started working part-time at Mitchell’s Nursery in 2019 and joined our full-time team in 2022.

Since then, she’s become familiar with just about every corner of the nursery. From transplanting young plants and pruning perennials to caring for trees, shrubs, and seasonal flowers, Lisanne helps keep our plants looking their best.

She also enjoys helping customers and sharing what she’s learned through years of working with plants.

With so many different crops and seasons at Mitchell’s, there’s always something new to learn, and Lisanne has gained experience with a wide variety of plants.

When she’s not working, Lisanne enjoys spending time with family, gardening, hunting, swimming, and trips to the beach.

Kayla began working part-time at Mitchell’s Nursery in 2022 and joined our full-time team in the fall of 2024.

She enjoys seeing plants develop from tiny plugs and cuttings into the beautiful flowers and plants customers take home.

Kayla helps with transplanting, plant maintenance, seasonal displays, and assisting customers throughout the garden center.

She enjoys learning about different plants and the care they need. Some of her favorites include hens and chicks and sunflowers.

With thousands of plants moving through our greenhouses each season, Kayla gets plenty of opportunities to put her growing knowledge to work!