Farm Land in Warren County, TN: The Nursery Industry

McMinnville and Warren County did not just adopt the nickname "Nursery Capital of the World" as a slogan -- it reflects a real, more-than-century-old ornamental horticulture industry that shapes soil, water infrastructure, and land value across a large share of the county. Here is what a buyer of agricultural land in Warren County should understand about that industry before making an offer.

This page covers what's specific to Warren County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

How McMinnville became the 'Nursery Capital of the World'

The industry's roots trace to 1887, when J.H.H. Boyd began collecting seeds and plants from the region's forests to sell, and by 1904 he and his sons Fernando and Jim had relocated their growing nursery operation near McMinnville specifically -- drawn, as the story is consistently told, by the area's fertile soil, moderate climate, and central geographic position. Over the following century, that single family operation grew into a defining regional industry: documented figures put the current scale at more than 400 growers -- ranging from small family operations to large commercial wholesalers -- cultivating an estimated 55,000 acres regionally and producing roughly 19 million containers of ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials shipped every year to customers across North America. McMinnville's geography helps explain why the industry has stuck: the area sits within a day's shipping distance of roughly 80 percent of the population east of the Mississippi River, and the region is noted for having an unusually large number of native woody plant species to draw breeding and production stock from.

The economic scale is genuinely significant at both the state and county level: the nursery industry's documented statewide economic impact runs to roughly $400 million annually in Tennessee, with about $90 million of that generated within Warren County itself. A separate, more recent accounting -- reported in 2026 by the Upper Cumberland Business Journal -- puts Tennessee's wholesale nursery sector at more than $430 million annually in expenditures, payroll, and net returns on its own, rising to nearly $965 million when retail nursery and garden-center operations are counted alongside wholesale growers; the same reporting cites the 2017 Census of Agriculture County Profile ranking Warren County No. 1 among all 95 Tennessee counties in nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod production, with close to $75 million in county sales in that Census year. These figures come from different years and measure somewhat different things (statewide vs. county, wholesale-only vs. combined wholesale-and-retail), so treat them as corroborating rather than identical data points -- the throughline across all of them is that Warren County is not a minor player in a modest state industry, but the documented anchor of it. That concentration is commemorated with the county's own historical marker recognizing the nursery industry's heritage, and the City of McMinnville's own official history page centers the industry as a defining part of the community's identity -- this is a rare case of a single agricultural sector being genuinely core to a county's economic and civic self-understanding, not a minor footnote.

What this means if you are buying agricultural land here

For anyone specifically shopping for farm land in Warren County -- whether to continue nursery production, convert to another agricultural use, or simply hold agricultural acreage -- the scale of the local industry has practical implications worth working through before you buy. A parcel currently or formerly in nursery production may have infrastructure that's valuable if you intend a similar use (irrigation systems, drainage tile, established access roads sized for delivery trucks, container pads or shade structures) but that same infrastructure can be a genuine removal cost if your plan is a different agricultural use or a residential build-out. Get a full accounting from the seller of what infrastructure exists, its condition, and whether it conveys with the sale, and price the land accordingly rather than assuming "nursery-ready" is automatically a premium in every direction.

Water is the other practical consideration worth taking seriously. Commercial nursery operations, particularly container growing, are genuinely water-intensive, often relying on on-site retention ponds, wells, or withdrawal from a nearby creek. Tennessee's riparian, reasonable-use approach to both surface water and groundwater (described on our Tennessee state page) means a landowner's right to draw water is shared with other users on the same watercourse or aquifer -- worth asking about directly if a neighboring, currently operating nursery draws from the same source your parcel would rely on. Beyond water, Tennessee's Right to Farm Act (in place since 1982) is also specifically relevant here: if you're buying land near an established nursery or other farm operation that's been in continuous operation for at least a year, that operation carries a legal presumption against nuisance claims from newer, non-farming neighbors -- worth understanding whether you're the incoming farmer or the incoming neighbor.

Zoning, greenbelt, and next steps

Warren County zones jointly with the City of McMinnville through the McMinnville-Warren County Regional Planning Commission (see our Warren County hub for the county's general zoning framework). Confirm with the Commission how a specific parcel's zoning district treats agricultural and nursery-production uses specifically, since large-scale container and field nursery operations don't always map cleanly onto a generic agricultural-district definition written with row crops or livestock in mind. It's also worth asking the Warren County Assessor's office about Tennessee's Agricultural, Forest and Open Space Land Act (the statewide "Greenbelt" program), which taxes qualifying agricultural land, including nursery production acreage, on its current-use value rather than full market value -- a genuinely material consideration for the tax basis of any working nursery or farm parcel here.

Finally, talk directly to the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture's Extension office for Warren County: given the concentration and maturity of the nursery industry here, local extension staff are likely to have far more specific, current guidance on soil suitability, water permitting, pest and disease management relevant to nursery stock, and realistic production economics than a general national farm-land guide can offer.

Farm Land in Warren County, Tennessee: Buying Into Nursery Country

How McMinnville became the 'Nursery Capital of the World'

What this means if you are buying agricultural land here

Zoning, greenbelt, and next steps

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