The prairie whispered to Christa Orum-Keller from a young age.
She was transported by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” tales, which her father, Peter Orum, read to her. The stories painted a vivid picture: a boundless Midwestern landscape teeming with life, a magical tapestry of diverse flora stretching endlessly beneath a big blue sky. This captivating vision resonated deeply with her.
Beyond the pages of Wilder’s books, the Orum family found their own prairie haven. Regular walks along the Schulenberg Prairie at The Morton Arboretum, a nearby oasis in Lisle, Illinois, brought the stories to life. Here, the restored tallgrass prairie bloomed with native plants, a vibrant testament to a bygone era — a time capsule whispering of the land before European settlers arrived.
These early encounters with the prairie would become pivotal moments in Christa’s life, shaping her vision, philosophy and passion. “Those experiences and being in awe of nature influenced me,” she reflects. “I don’t think of myself as a historian, but whether it’s the history of landscape architecture, environmental history, pioneering history, of American history, they impacted our region. So, that seed was planted in me.”
Christa’s recognition as a HILA winner is a testament to the lasting impact her expertise, vision and leadership have had on the industry and her community over her 30-plus-year career. Her curriculum vitae is a testament to her leadership skills, with experience in sales, management and imparting her knowledge of horticulture and design principles. Her broad knowledge base has allowed her to approach projects holistically. Notably, she strongly advocates for using native plants and sustainable planting practices, promoting the inclusion of native species for optimal ecological benefit. She has championed collaboration within the green industry throughout her career, bridging diverse disciplines to achieve common professional and industry goals. This commitment is evident in her active volunteer work, serving on industry committees and boards for organizations like the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association, Illinois Green Industry Association and the American Society of Landscape Architects, Illinois Chapter.
Today, Christa serves as chair of Midwest Groundcovers, a wholesale grower specializing in groundcover plants, but also growing shrubs, evergreens, perennials and native species, and the affiliated Midwest Trading, which provides the green industry with growing media, amendments and mulch products. Midwest Groundcovers was founded by her father, Peter, a legendary nurseryman, entrepreneur and industry advocate in his own right who received a HILA in 2018.
“Her father is a legend in this industry, and those are some big shoes to fill,” says Steve Castorani, a long-time industry colleague and president of North Creek Nurseries in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, who nominated Christa for this year’s award. “Christa has been able to take that baton and build upon that legacy, which is pretty amazing. She’s followed in [her father’s] footsteps, keeping the tradition that Peter built alive in the nursery and through philanthropy while bringing her unique vision to the company and driving it forward into the future.”
Long road home
Though the Orum family thrived in the verdant world of horticulture, a different path beckoned for Christa. While childhood found her learning practical green industry skills –— taking cuttings, weeding, mowing, potting and nurturing her own plantings under her parents’ watchful eyes — Christa set her sights on large-animal veterinary medicine from a young age.
However, during her first semester at the University of Illinois, after walking past the landscape architecture building, those interests suddenly changed. “I don’t know what happened, but suddenly I wanted to do that,” she says. “I don’t know if it was divine intervention or something, but it just happened.”
Christa quickly became engrossed in those studies and learned that landscape architecture amplified her inherent abilities and talents, particularly project management. “I like the process of creating something and delivering it,” she says. “I also enjoy interacting with people to understand their needs to either create a physical site or solve some sort of a problem [for them].”
After graduating in May 1990, Christa took a job with Thornapple Landscapes, a Chicagoland landscape design-build firm with a maintenance division. All new employees had to start on a maintenance crew to learn the ropes, which would greatly influence Christa’s professional outlook. “That was a great, great experience because, as a landscape designer, you’re designing [projects] that must be maintained,” she says. “Even today, I always look at a project and ask: ‘How are we going to maintain that? How is the traffic going to flow? How are we going to function in this space, and what can we do to make things easier?’”
By the end of 1992, Christa felt she’d reached a crossroads in her career. Eager to buck the stereotype that landscape architects didn’t know plants, she enrolled in Joliet Junior College and earned an associate degree in horticulture. But Christa still hadn’t answered the question: What’s next?
A trusted friend and mentor encouraged Christa to consider joining the family business. “The opportunity was there,” she admits, “but I hesitated because it felt like the easy thing to do.” Her friend wisely countered this perspective, urging her to reconsider the opportunity’s merits rather than dismissing it solely because of its familiarity.
Choosing another path, Christa enrolled at DePaul University and pursued an MBA in macroeconomics, which she earned in June 1995. “This was my opportunity to sort out exactly what to do next,” she says.
While working on her degree, Christa attended a Midwest Groundcovers event in a social capacity and struck up a conversation with the sales yard manager, who urged her to work part time in the sales yard. Christa’s plant knowledge and experience with landscape contractors were valuable assets she could apply. “I’d worked at Midwest in high school, so I knew how things worked [at the company],” she says. “I knew I could talk to landscapers and process their orders. So, that’s what got me coming back to Midwest.”
Yet the question of committing to the family business full-time still hung over Christa as she worked in various roles at Midwest. The female owner of a contractor to Midwest introduced Christa to a local women’s business group, an invite she now says was a true gift. “She wanted me to meet two women who had taken over their fathers’ [manufacturing] companies,” she says. “She wanted me to network, talk to them and learn about their journeys. They were outside the green industry, so they had nothing to gain by trying to convince me to do it or not to do it.”
Following graduation, Christa and her husband, Craig Keller, who at the time worked in public accounting, decided to take a year-long sabbatical in Denmark (where she has dual citizenship) to work at various greenhouses. Before they left, Christa’s parents officially invited both to join the business upon their return.
“So, we spent a lot of that year (January 1998-March 1999) traveling through Europe and talking about the pros and cons and really being very deliberate in our thinking about whether this was a good idea for one of us, both of us or neither of us,” she says.
The couple returned, and in March 1999, they committed to the family business, with Christa joining Midwest Groundcovers and Craig joining Midwest Trading.
Succession
Christa was no stranger to the inner workings of Midwest Groundcovers. From an early age, her parents included her and her brother (who died at age 16 in a motorcycle accident) in family meetings to discuss the business because they had an ownership responsibility, regardless of whether they were involved in an operational role at the time. “We were constantly talking about what was happening, what the next thing was both for the people in the operation, for my parents and for my husband and me,” she says.
About 13 years ago, the president of Midwest Trading announced he was terminally ill, and the company needed to begin planning for his succession. Craig declined the role, and it was decided that in 2013, Christa would ascend to the role of chair of the board for Midwest Trading and hire its next leader. In 2013, Joe Hobson was named president and CEO of Midwest Trading.
In 2018, Christa ascended again, this time to the role of chair and president of Midwest Groundcovers, to replace the outgoing executive retiring after 40 years with the business. “We didn’t have anyone ready [to fill that role], so I agreed to do both roles for a year or two, which then became five and six years,” she says. In 2023, Paul Pirkle was hired as president and COO.
Going native
That decade between 2013 and 2023 was hectic and challenging, says Christa, especially at Midwest Groundcovers. “There were a lot of questions about what was going to change and what was going to happen,” she says. “I felt frustrated because I didn’t [intend] to turn the company on its head.”
However, during this time, she realized the importance of working with her team to develop a formal strategic plan to guide the company into the future. This plan would propel Midwest’s business interests forward, utilizing the talents and skills of the individuals she had in critical roles within the company. It would also involve an emphasis on native plant species.
Christa knew native plant species — a lifelong passion — needed to be showcased in landscape settings. It reaches back to an eclectic retail nursery, The Natural Garden, where Christa interned in the late 1980s. “It was a haven for people in the Chicagoland region — professors, conservationists, environmentalists — local people who in the 1960s, ‘70s and into the 90s were going into subdivisions before they were bulldozed to dig up the woodland plants and bring them to Natural Garden,” she says.
Christa’s time at The Natural Garden sprouted deep roots within her and her husband Craig, who had his own connections with the horticultural enclave that reached back to their high school years.
“By the time I joined Midwest, I was talking about all this prairie stuff and about native plants,” she says. “I put a lot of pressure that we needed native plants in our offerings.”
So, Christa convinced some curious Midwest staff members to start propagating native plant species. And the rest, she says, is history. In 2011, Midwest Groundcovers purchased The Natural Garden, which had found itself in dire financial and organizational straits. Today, Midwest Natural Garden operates solely as a production facility of native plants sourced within 90 miles of St. Charles, Illinois.
Midwest Groundcovers production manager Chris Plane notes that the company’s name includes the word “groundcovers,” and native species are just another way to cover the ground. Christa was vital in the business utilizing native species to fill the voids in landscape designs.
“It wasn’t a rebrand but a modernization of our company and our product line,” he says. “We hold a lot of events and provide a lot of education [about native species]…and as a result, we’ve redefined the different ways these plants can be used in a landscape.
“Christa talks about our plants being ‘hand-crafted,’” Chris adds, “that there are people involved who make these plants. It’s not some nameless thing [that’s responsible]. I think we know where our plants come from, both who had a hand in propagating them and their provenance. We take a lot of pride in that.”
By 2015, the integration of native plant species into local commercial and residential environments began to take off. “From the time I’d worked at Natural Garden — and even before that — I’ve been promoting the use of native plants,” Christa says. “I was informing and educating the landscape architects and designers I was working with, and often, I was becoming the resource they’d come to when they wanted to learn more.”
Christa’s passion and perseverance for native species is a testament to her visionary leadership, says her father, Peter. “I’ll admit, I didn’t think much of it when [Christa] first started talking about it,” he says. “But [native species] has become a very big part of our business, and we have [Christa] to thank for that. It proves that you have to listen and try new things.”
Those who work directly with Christa describe her as a forward thinker. In addition to making native species a cornerstone of Midwest Groundcovers’ product offering, she was at the forefront of modernizing the company’s marketing efforts and investing in technology to grow the business. All the while, though, she carefully balanced her father’s legacy with the need to grow the company.
“One of Christa’s greatest strengths is that she can see into the future and identify where there’s opportunity,” says Nikki Melin, vice president of sales and marketing, who has worked closely with Christa for the last decade. “[Her father] Peter was the brains behind the production side. He created Midwest. Christa’s special touch has been her abilities in sales and marketing. [During Christa’s tenure], she taught us to be open to change, open to market trends and to move fast to capitalize on those opportunities to remain relevant. As a result, we’re more nimble as an organization.”
A key component to Midwest’s success has been the company’s culture, which many believe has been strengthened through Christa’s leadership. She’s emphasized the value of “doing the right things always” and the inherent need to “speak straight, listen generously.”
“Christa is very collaborative, and she really wants to bring people together to work on things, address issues and solve problems,” Chris says. “It’s important to her that everyone has a voice.
“She doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations, but that’s not to say she’s aggressive [in her interpersonal approach],” he adds. “She wants to talk the issues out and hear all sides.”
Her father is deeply proud of his daughter and her accomplishments in leading the family business. She’s leveraged her talents and strengths to grow the business and influence the advancement of the horticulture industry. “Her place in the business was a long time coming,” he says with a laugh, adding he wasn’t sure it’d be in the cards early on. “But she came back, little by little.”
When asked about his daughter’s legacy, Peter says Christa has put the right people in the right positions to succeed and propel the company forward. “We’re all very good at something, but we’re not good at the whole pile,” he says. “To make progress, you need to find someone else to do what you can’t. And all in all, I think Christa has been good at that and realizing she can’t do it all herself.”
The thing about passion is that it never feels like work, even when it’s a cornerstone of your corporate philosophy. Even today, Christa seeks the solitude of the tall grasses, a desire she shares with her husband Craig, who has been her sweetheart and partner since high school. Together, they’ve raised a son, 21, and a daughter, 15, neither of whom knows yet if their own paths will lead them to the family business.
In high school, Christa began writing down annual goals for herself, outlining where she wanted to be in six months, a year, five years and 10 years. “My lifetime goal, which I had then and still have now, was to have children who would become productive, kind and contributing members of society, and I think we’re progressing nicely there,” she says. “And if I could help provide that for more people, whether it’s in terms of conservation and land stewardship or generosity of spirit to do good works in the world, then I would like my legacy to be a continuation of that or amplification of that and to leave this world a better place than we arrive at it.”
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