In 1962, Gary's Dad (Bernie Fritchen) dug his first tree in Rockford Illinois. It was a 22 foot Red Oak with an 8 inch diameter trunk. He borrowed the trailer to haul the tree from the field to its planting location. Loaded and on his way – the tree hit a bridge, flipped 180 degrees raising the trailer and the back of his car 2 feet off the ground. With a rear wheel drive vehicle he was stuck until help arrived 2 hours later. The tree sustained heavy damage to the top where it hit the bridge. Bernie took the tree home, pruned it with his chain saw and planted it anyway. Today this tree is still thriving and beautiful at 62 feet tall with a 3 foot diameter trunk after 49 years.

Bernie continued in the Construction industry building custom homes and developing subdivisions in Illinois. The Fritchen boys grew up around their father's construction/development business operating heavy equipment and landscaping at an early age. All 4 Fritchen brothers went into the nursery business and are still in the nursery business today. Ben Fritchen, the youngest of the four brothers choose to stay with Gary starting when he was about 8. Today Ben is still a big part of our operation.
This was the start . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gary planted his first tree at 16 relocating it from a tree plantation to his father’s yard. In 1979 with a 10 acre site and 1,640 trees the Nursery business was born outside New Mulford, Illinois. The Illinois business grew to over 100 employees, hundreds of acres for growing plant material and several Green houses for propagation of perennial and annual flowers and shrubs. Fritchen’s Nursery did work for Chicago Bears players and was featured in the Chicago Tribune, Rockford Register and Country Living. Fritchen's became known in the Chicago land area as the company that who could get the job done whether large or small.

The third generation is starting in the nursery and landscape industry with Gary's children - Jenna, Luke, Logan and Will. Growing up surrounded by the nursery industry they have chosen to continue Gary's legacy.

In 2004 Gary and his family moved to Texas and started our tree farm in far North Fort Worth. Gary turned a 120+ acre historic ranch into a beautiful tree farm with several large lakes, stone walls and covered stone bridges. This property was once part of one of the largest working ranches in Fort Worth and was a historic site. In the 1950’s this property was shown as a fly over introduction for the evening news. In 2002 it was one of the locations for a movie shoot. With Fossil Creek running through the property it is the perfect site for a tree farm.
Since moving to Texas Fritchen's has completed work at Billy Bob’s, Lockheed Martin, Dallas ISD, Burlington Northern Headquarter and many other large projects. Gary's property has been featured in USA Today. We continue to do work at Hill Country Harbor and The Ranch located on Possum Kingdom Lake. We have done design and installation work at these two high end developments since inception.