Oregon Nurseries Hall of Fame member Jack Bigej passes away

The Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) reported the passing of Oregon Nurseries Hall of Fame member Jack Bigej, the second-generation owner of Al’s Garden & Home.

Bigej, 83, passed away Feb. 25 while surrounded by his family.

He was born Oct. 1, 1941 to Al and Ann Bigej. In 1948, they started Al’s Fruit Stand as a roadside fruit stand housed in an old chicken coop along Highway 99E in Woodburn, where the business still exists today.

Bigej later took over Al’s Fruit Stand from his parents and continually evolved the business, expanding it into Al’s Garden Center and later Al’s Garden & Home, a multi-location garden center chain with additional locations in Sherwood, Gresham and Wilsonville.

He also advocated for fair industry practices and sharing his passion for plants with future generations.

In 1964, he married his wife Deanna. By 1995, Bigej had talked his children, Darcy, Dorothy and Mark, into the business, along with Mark’s wife, Amy.

Bigej served as president of the Oregon Association of Nurseries in 1993 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017.

He received several OAN awards, including the Outstanding Service Award in 2005, Honorary Life Membership in 2004, Retailer of the Year in 1992 and the Pat Richardson Memorial Award in 2002 (given to honor an individual or company who has been innovative in implementing new technology into the nursery business).

He was also honored by Garden Centers of America with the Garden Center of the Year Award in 2005 and received the Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences 2024 Hall of Fame Award.

"His influence on Oregon horticulture continues to inspire those around him," OAN said in a statement.

"He was the most amazing father figure and mentor in my life and the lives of so many," Amy Bigej said on her Facebook page. "His bigger-than-life personality was contagious. He adored his wife of over 60 years, who was there beside him until the very end. He raised his kids and grandkids to know how to work hard and bring passion to whatever they set out to do.

"He loved sharing his passion for gardening and plants to anyone who would stop and listen. His legacy will live on and we will do our best to fill his big shoes," Amy Bigej continued. "The greatest gift Jack has left us is his strong faith and we know he is now resting in Heaven, looking down and telling us all to get back to work, the sun is out!"

The family is planning a celebration of life. For more information, contact OAN.

A scholarship at the Oregon Nurseries Foundation is also being set up in his honor. To contribute, checks can be made out to Oregon Nurseries Foundation and mailed to the Oregon Association of Nurseries, 29751 SW Town Center Loop W, Wilsonville, OR 97070. Write “Jack Bigej” in the check memo line.

Donations can also be made online. Put “Jack Bigej” in the donor comment section.

Words from Jack Bigej on how to cope with burnout

Editor's note: We originally published Bigej's comments on how to cope with burnout in 2008. We're republishing them here.

I just don’t get burnout. I’m on an adrenaline rush — this business is better than drugs!

We retailers live on adrenaline. We seek a euphoria on this. During the spring months, you get so hyped up, then you recoup. Actually, you don’t even do that, you turn around and begin preparing for the next season.

There are several people — Don Riddle, Eddie Anderson — you never see them down. They’re always on a high.

I’ve seen people who say they hate going into the store. If you hate going back to that store, then get out! I’ve been going to the same store for 46 years, and if you’d told me that 46 years ago, I wouldn’t have thought that was nuts.

But I still go in because I look forward to it every day. I go in early. On my day off, I check in two or three times a day. It’s a passion.

Maybe, when I was 50, I was getting some burnout. The situations weren’t what I wanted them to be at the store, and I changed it by buying out a partner. My kids then came in, and that was like an I.V. straight to the system.

I don’t have issues with my kids. I’ve got three in the business — four fantagalistic kids, but only three in the business — and we all get along. There’s no harsh words. They coordinate with each other. We’re just not the kind of family to yell at each other, probably because the wife would beat you about the shoulder.

This is the worst April in the past 10 years. And, well, I’m down. I caught a cold, and I normally don’t, so it’s probably a depression cold. But the store problems, it’s going to break. It’s not raining today, so we have one leg up.

Boy, when this sucker breaks loose, watch out! We’re sitting on $5 million of inventory that has to be moved in the next 45 days. We’re not done. April was down 25%, so that means May has to be up 35%.

We have some kicking to do. We’ve been playing with the advertising, the prices on flats to get them moving.

Really, it’s loving what you do and having a passion. If you’re getting burnout, maybe you need to look at something else.

I should have retired 10 or 15 years ago because the kids are doing great, but I’m having too much fun.

Here are some of the articles we wrote about Al's over the years:

Profiles in Power: Rewards of a gamble and growing your own: Jack and Mark Bigej, father-and-son CEO and COO of Al’s Garden Center in Oregon, talk about the biggest changes and challenges they’ve seen in the industry during the past two decades.

Working hard, working together: For Oregon-based grower-retailer Al’s Garden & Home, survival depends on keeping the connection between growing operations and retail stores healthy and cohesive.

How to cope with burnout