Meet The Team
Learn more about the fun and knowledgeable staff members who are at the heart of our Plant Nursery. Our team is experienced, savvy, and most important of all, friendly. Check out our stories below and stop by to meet us in person.
Thurman Burnley
540-429-3638
Hello, I'm Thurman.
I'm a professional Beekeeper & have been the owner of Burnley Farm Apiary located in Spotsylvania V.A. since 2014. I have a great love of all things nature related and have been into gardening and exploring the great outdoors since I was a young boy.
I take great pride in teaching others, especially our youth and have talked to many youth groups including the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, the Future Farmers of America and several 4-H clubs as well as some home school collectives.
I was the president of the Rappahannock Beekeepers Association for four years and their VP for another two.
I was a Boy Scout Leader in one regard or another for fifteen years and raised two wonderful boys to become Eagle Scouts.
I got into beekeeping and plant propagation as an extension and natural progression of my homesteading efforts and now I'm teaming up with my good friend Mac to further that progression and bring what I've learned about plants and sustainability to everyone I meet.
If you have questions about plants or beekeeping give me a call or come out to B&D Botanicals and let's sit for a minute and talk.
Tending the honey bees
MacDonald Drane
804-241-2286
Hi, I'm Mac,
I've been working in the landscaping industry since 2000 while going back to school to become a landscape designer and horticulturist at George Washington University. It compliments my skills in Chemical engineering and my degree in Finance at the University of Louisville. I opened up my first business shortly after moving back to the Richmond area while enrolling at the satellite program at George Washington University being taught at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (LGBG). The pallet of having a working classroom at LGBG inspired me to seek out Dr Bonnie Appleton at Virginia Tech University at Virginia Beach and become an ISA Certified arborist. I continued my education at Penn State University getting certified as a Compost Facilitator in hopes that my background in Chemical engineering would some day allow me to create high quality soils and amendments for use in making incredibly disease and pest resistant plant material. I have taught multiple classes at the University of Richmond landscape design school over an eight year period from Plant design, botany courses, woody plant identification and site design to engineering classes and even several years as the instructor for the final comprehensive course for graduation. I've worked as a landscape designer installing 20-25 million dollars of landscaping all over the Central Virginia area over the past 20 plus years. As a former member of the Central Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association (CVNLA) I have extensive knowledge of wholesale and retail plant industry and extensive contacts all throughout the east coast, from plantsmen and nursery owners to professors at major Agricultural colleges up and down the east coast. I have installed every conceivable combination of simple front foundations and backyard gardens to extensive high end residential designs, vineyards, farm layouts, as well as extensive commercial housing and businesses including rooftop gardens on commercial buildings in downtown Richmond.
If you're interested in talking and need help designing your landscape into a show place give me a call. I can help.