Thoms Farms, LLC is a Michigan Centennial Farm.  A centennial farm is a working farm of 10 or more acres that has been continuously owned by the same family for at least 100 years.  In 1871, Gustave Thoms, of Lutheran-German descent, along with his older sister arrived in the Port Hope area from Posen, Prussia (now central Poland).  For the first three years in the United States, Gustave worked for a large industrial farming family, the Staffords.  In just 3 short years, he purchased 40 acres of the current location.  A few years afterwards, he purchased the remaining 80 acres of the original farm.  Gustave was a successful and hardworking farmer.  With this success, he latter added several hundred acres onto his estate.  He with the two following generations used the land to grow corn, beans, and wheat as well as raise cattle, pig and other farm animals.  Gustave passed away in 1936. 

His sons Leo and Samuel Thoms took over the agricultural operations.  Samuel received the original 120 acres, while his older brother Leo received the newer farmland to the east and along the lakeshore.  During his father’s life, Samuel also added an additional 60 acres directly across from the original location to start his own family.  This land is currently still in the family.  Samuel had five sons and one daughter. The second eldest son, Kenneth Thoms, took over the operations after his father’s death in 1979 until his own death in 1985.  His brother’s Donald and Larry took ownership of the property shortly after his death.  Both brothers working in the Metropolitan Detroit area rented the land to local farmers for agricultural crop production.

Steven D. Thoms, son of Donald Thoms, is majority owner of Thoms Farms and its sister company, Thoms Bros. Landscaping.  Steve was frustrated with purchasing high priced material from local growers; and low quality, questionable hardy, and unseen material from growers from the south.  That is how this production nursery was started.  In 2002, Steven Thoms and the other principals of Thoms Farms put together their financial resources, and their knowledge of the industry and business to start Thoms Farms, LLC.  That year, almost 3,000 whip and lightly branched bare root shade and ornamental trees were planted on the family land.  Since that first year, 2,000 – 3,000 trees are planted annually.  2006 was the first year of harvesting, adding to the excitement of the future of this production nursery.

Although we currently only grow shade and ornamental trees, in the future we look forward to offering a full line of landscape trees (both deciduous and evergreen) to landscape contractors and wholesale nurseries throughout the Great Lakes Region.  Also, Thoms Farms’ long-term goal is to offer large size plant material to meet the growing need for 4”+ caliper and 12’+height specimen trees.  We will be the one stop shop for buyers of bulk quantities of landscape trees.