Owners
Established in 1999, Backbone Valley Nursery is a local, family-owned business. Ben and his father, Dale started the nursery growing mainly trees. The nursery has expanded to grow even more trees and now has a Texas Mountain Laurel growing operation as well as a large retail and contractor sales operation.
Ben Robertson
Ben received his degree in Horticulture from Tarleton State University. Ben loves growing trees. LOTS of trees! In his spare time, you can find him spending time with his wife, Jessica, and their three boys Weston, Braydon and Karson.
Dale Robertson
Dale has a vast amount of plant knowledge and can grow just about anything. His knowledge of Pecans is legendary. Now retired, Dale is an avid fisherman, and I mean AVID! You can find him spending time (when he’s not fishing) with his wife, Beverly, and their six grandchildren.
David Martin
David is happily married to Ben’s sister (also Dale’s daughter), Kelly. They have three beautiful children, Matt, Emily, and Charlie. David has a degree in business from the University of Oklahoma. He joined the family business in 2005. David uses his years of experience in landscaping to help customers make informed choices about plant material and to help educate employees about nursery operations.
Retail Staff
Our knowledgeable retail staff are here week round to assist you with your gardening and planting needs.
Mary Kay Pope
Mary Kay joined Backbone in 2015. She has degrees in Landscape Horticulture and Greenhouse Management from The Ohio State University. She is also a Certified Arborist. Her experience and wisdom are great assets to Backbone, and she enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. Her youngest son, Logan, also works at the nursery. Mary Kay publishes our weekly newsletter, films YouTube videos about gardening, writes blogs for our website and newsletters and loves diagnosing plant problems.
Craig Hunter
Craig joined Backbone in 2012. He started out unloading trucks, stocking plant lines, and helping customers. Craig is now one of our managers and does most of the ordering of plant material for our retail customers and contractors. Craig is an avid gardener and has transformed his yard into a test garden for his heavy clay soil. Craig has a quick wit and a soft spot for cats.
Kayla Kılburun
Kayla also joined our staff in 2015. She has been instrumental in scheduling deliveries of plants and bulk soils and is our “go to” person for technical difficulties! She tackles projects with enthusiasm and can do just about anything. Kayla loves the outdoors and loves gardening. She is also a Certified Pesticide Applicator.
Landscape and Tree Crew
We are grateful to have a wonderful and knowledgeable staff with years of experience.
Behind the Scenes
You may not have met these hard workers, but they are essential to our operation!
Becky Cunningham
Becky has been with us since 2010! Smarts run in her family as this Texas A& M degree holder has two daughters, both with biology degrees from Texas State. When they aren’t at the nursery, she and her husband, Jerry, love to travel.
Jerry Cunningham
Jerry is a retired chemist with 30 years of LCRA experience. A man of many hats, he started working on our retail staff in 2008, and soon took on manager, maintenance, water treatment, and biology positions for the nursery. He and his wife, Becky, are an unbeatable team!