In an exclusive interview with Landscape Management, industry icon and Mariani Landscape chairman Frank Mariani says his company is doing something that many said couldn’t be done in the residential landscape market.

Over the last 18 months, Mariani — No. 20 on the 2022 LM150 list — has extended its reach and influence within the residential market by acquiring seven family-owned landscape companies countrywide. These companies include:

• Berghoff Design Group / BDG Maintenance in Phoenix, Ariz.
• Designs by Sundown in Littleton, Colo.
• Hoffman Landscapes in Fairfield, Conn.
• NatureWorks Landscape Services in Walpole, Mass.
• Rocco Fiore & Sons in Libertyville, Ill.
• RP Marzilli in Medway, Mass.
• Woodlawns Landscape Company in Chicago, Ill.

“It’s always amazed me that people would throw a stake in the ground and say, ‘Guess what? You can’t consolidate,’” Mariani says. “Some of the commercial companies are truly a roll-up. We never went in that direction. We are consolidating the best landscape companies in the best markets throughout the country.”

This new Mariani Landscape family of companies offers what Mariani, and new CEO Bryan Christiansen, call the “ultimate peer group,” a platform service in which leadership teams across companies can draw insights, share experiences and solve problems.

“The larger corporate entity exists to help them become better and leverage the power of coming together to create something better than if they’re on their own,” says Christiansen. “We’re keeping the brands. We’re keeping the leaders and the teams. We are bringing together investment dollars, and as a team saying, ‘Now that we have the money to spend, where are we going to spend it to make everybody better?’”

Through the company’s “ultimate peer group,” Mariani Landscape hopes to move the industry as a whole forward with new approaches to HR, training, recruiting, sustainability and more.

“Our industry hasn’t progressed at the rate of other industries with respect to adopting technology and prioritizing things like career growth,” says Matt Gramer, president of NatureWorks Landscape Services. “We at Mariani plan to move the needle in that regard and set the tone for innovation for the industry.”

Mariani says his company aims to raise the bar. He also makes it clear that Mariani isn’t coming into this venture to take over and change what works for a company that joins it.

“We want to do things that people talk about,” says Mariani. “It starts with understanding that when some big bad company comes in to take things over that, we aren’t going to do that. We bought and partnered with these companies because we believe they are every bit as good as Mariani.”

Mariani Landscape will continue pursuing residential landscape companies, looking to expand into several new states in the coming months. The company encourages those interested to email partner@marianilandscape.com.

“I remember when I was 40, I wasn’t thinking about partnering with anybody because I’m Frank Mariani,” Mariani says. “Well, guess what, if I could have done this with somebody else and had a Bryan Christiansen along with the Mariani team that we’ve retained, God knows where we’d be right now.”