Rooted in Love: The Story Behind Wild Things Nursery

There's a moment — if you're lucky enough to have it — when you realize that everything you've become was shaped by someone else's hands. A patient parent who threaded your fishing line one more time. A mentor who pointed at the bud on a dormant muscadine and said, look closer, cut here. A friend who sat beside you in a deer stand at 5 a.m. just because you asked. Wild Things Nursery wasn't born in a boardroom or a business plan. It was born in those moments, woven together over a lifetime spent in the great outdoors of North Carolina.

Growing up along the edges of Bear Creek and the Deep River, life was measured in seasons. Spring meant gobbling turkeys at dawn, spring peepers at dusk, and fireflies lighting the dark. Summer meant the cool, muddy water under the cascades at Johnson's Fjord and the pull of a catfish line at the point where the creek met the river. Fall meant the crunch of leaves under boots in the wilds of Lee County, and winter meant the quiet reverence of a deer stand and a cold, clear sky. Through all of it — every season, every adventure — there were people. People who made time. People who showed up. People who cared.

My parents always made time for fishing, even when time was short. That gift — the unhurried willingness to hand a child a rod and say let's go — is worth more than I can measure. From farm ponds on the outskirts of town to mountain ridges where Wild Turkeys called from the timber, they gave me a world to fall in love with. My mentors, teachers, family, and friends added to that world piece by piece — the call of the Northern Bobwhite, the sizzle of Good Fire as it crawls across the land and stirs something ancient in your chest, the slow dance of butterflies and bees over a patch of native wildflowers. No person is self-made, and I have never once believed otherwise.

And then there is my wife KIm and our children Savanna, Liam, Raylan, & Harper - Only God can create such beauty. Wild Things Nursery also carries the fingerprints of someone who left us far too soon. My nephew, Jordan Bryce Dillon, was there in the early days of getting this nursery off the ground, working alongside me in the cold and mud and dreaming of the Wild Things to come. Jordan left for wilds of Heaven last April, yet he is here — in every plant, every seed, and in every tree that will outlast all of us. .

This nursery exists at the intersection of everything we love: the biodiversity of the native prairie and open longleaf, ecosystems where a chorus of life sings in the presence of sunlight and fire. Wild Things Nursery and event venue is more than just a place to buy native plants or celebrate with others - it is a place to learn, grow, and immerse yourself in what backyards can be, what life can be, and why it all matters. Perhaps more than anything it is a painting filled with love and gratitude — to the places that formed us, the people who shaped us, and the wild things that depend on us to get this right.

We believe that growing native is not a trend. It is a home-grown revival of the way things used to be, the way things should be. The birds, bees, butterflies, and countless other creatures that evolved alongside our native plants are counting on us to bring those plants back and put them into as many hands as possible. Every patch of native wildflowers, every clump of native grasses, every longleaf seedling in the ground is a vote for a future where the Northern Bobwhite still calls and fireflies still dance in the night.

From the roots of our soul — thank you for being here. Thank you for your willingness to grow native. For Jordan: we'll keep planting good seeds and working tirelessly to make this place as beautiful as you were.

Wild Things Nursery is located at Sycamore Falls Farm in Carthage, North Carolina, on 108 acres of restored Sandhills habitat. We specialize in plants native to the longleaf and prairie ecosystems, conservation experiences, and a unique event venue immersed in the landscape we love.