In 1871, the family moved to a farm near De Punt, south of the city of Groningen. Melle and Jan Vroom Sr probably established the nursery there in the late nineteenth century so that they could grow their own trees and shrubs for the gardens they designed. There are two drawings in the collection that may well depict this orchard/nursery. Their son and grandson Jan Vroom Jr (1893-1958) expanded the business into the Bonte Hoek nursery, which registered as a business in 1919. The catalogues from the 1930s are richly illustrated with photos of plants, shrubs and trees, as well as the gardens, parks and cemeteries designed by the Vrooms.

Landscape architects who did not have their own nursery often sourced their plants from a specific nursery. The collection of nursery catalogues is an important source of information about the plants, shrubs and trees that landscape architects used in their designs. The catalogues sometimes also contained garden designs. Special Collections has about 35,000 nursery catalogues from around the world, including catalogues of growers of fruit trees, vegetables and agricultural crops.