Maumee Valley Natives

Once established, natives are low-maintenance, they require no irrigation, and are naturally resistant to diseases and insects.

Maumee Valley Growers would like to welcome you to the Maumee Valley Natives brand of wildflowers now available for distribution at your nursery or garden center! Maumee Valley Natives are grown locally for Northwest Ohio. Click here for more information about the benefits of Maumee Valley Native Plants.

••  Maumee Valley Growers: Choose the Very Best  ••

MVG Helps Beautify Lucas Cty Courthouse

Once again, on June 9th the Maumee Valley Growers has partnered with several organizations in NW Ohio in a major annuals planting at the Lucas County Courthouse in downtown Toledo. Nearly 30 volunteers from area horticulture organizations participated. Many thanks to Josh Miller and Matt Ross from TBG, Amy Stone at Lucas County’s OSU office and our illustrious Master Gardeners for orchestrating and providing volunteers for the event. Keeping Toledo and Lucas County beautiful during these challenging times requires a little extra effort, an effort these organizations don’t hesitate to provide.

Last but not least, our Maumee Valley Growers who enthusiastically donated all plant products! Without their generosity, community beautification projects such as these would not be possible.

Here is a collage of images from the Courthouse:

Listed below are all participants:

• Beautification Sponsored By Lucas County Clerk of Courts
• Grounds Beatifically Maintained By Lucas County Facilities Department
• Annuals Donated By Maumee Valley Growers
• Grounds Designed Including Native Plants Donations By Toledo Botanical Garden
• Courthouse Garden Project organized by Toledo’s OSU Extension Office
• Flowers Planted By Volunteers from NW Ohio Master Growers
• Plantings Promoted Through Maumee Valley Natives
• Landscape Consultation By Volunteers from EarthWear
• Flowers Planted By Volunteers from Owens Community College Volunteers

Those Maumee Valley Grower members donating flowers were:

• Creque’s Greenhouse
• Dearing Greenhouse
• Hoen’s Garden Center
• Lakeside Greenhouse
• Ohlman’s Farm and Greenhouse
• The Whitehouse Daylily Farm
• And others ...

Green Business is Growing in Northwest Ohio

Northwest Ohio is home to many multi-generational greenhouse businesses; read some of their stories here.

New businesses are being formed in the area as well, including the Whitehouse Daylily Farm, where MVG member Wade Smith is producing daylilies, other perennials, and vegetables both in a new hoop house and in the ground.

Smith, whose future plans include state-of-the art greenhouses powered by alternative energy sources, is experimenting with carefully chosen varieties and growing systems. By collaborating with other growers and with business, academic, and public sector stakeholders in the industry, he is hoping to grow a business that will provide him with long-term economic opportunities and future generations with fresh local food.

New Gardening Social Networking Web Site

DigtheDirt.com is intended to put gardeners in touch with other gardeners on an information-packed website dedicated to all aspects of the growing hobby of gardening.

A new social networking website, www.digthedirt.com, has been designed to be an online garden destination, with a vibrant online community, a dynamic database of plants and gardening ideas, and ultimately a source of any type of gardening information or resource. [From greenhouse product news.]

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Toledo area greenhouses grow in cooperation

Competitors benefit from sharing of resources

THE GREENHOUSE industry in the Toledo area is highly competitive, with more than 80 in Lucas County and nearby counties selling flowers and vegetable plants locally and to garden stores and big-box retailers in several states. But greenhouse operators are learning to cooperate with each other too. “We all pretty much work together,” said Larry Ohlman, president of Ohlman Farm & Greenhouse Inc., a large greenhouse on Hill Avenue that has 10 acres of growing area under plastic. “We trade back and forth and supply products to each other.”

[From a feature article in the Sunday Toledo Blade, May 9, 2010.]

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Annual spring fund-raiser blooms despite weather

Chilly winds and intermittent sprinkles weren't enough to dampen the enthusiasm of gardeners Saturday at the Toledo Botanical Garden's annual spring plant sale.

MVG supported the annual spring plant sale at Toledo Botanical Gardens.

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MVG Hosts Delegation from Middle East

Recently MVG Vice President Walt Kreuger and his son Michael hosted a visit from three young agripreneurs who are involved in family agricultural businesses in Lebanon. The young women, whose farms currently produce a range of fruits and vegetables as well as olives, are exploring new products including saffron, safflower, and sun dried tomatoes. >> More

MVG Supports Master Gardener Video Tips

Maumee Valley Growers is proud to provide support for “Master Gardener Video Tips” hosted by the online Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune. These are tips from local area master gardeners demonstrating techniques they use every day to grow healthier plants, combat garden pests, and more.

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Grower Organizations & Master Gardeners Partner for

  Spring Plantings at Lucas County Courthouse

On Earth Day, downtown Toledoan’s were taking note of a landscaping upgrade at the magnificent Lucas County Courthouse on Adams Street. During these challenging economic times, area growers volunteered their time by de-weeding and adding new native plants to the one block area of our central city in preparation for an annual planting later this spring. >> More

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Maumee Valley Growers are offering recycling: • Find out what items can be recycled • Get more information about the recycling program

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Good Intentions Always in Season at Farmers Markets

If you’ve never been to a farmers market, close your eyes and imagine an avenue of folding tables brimming with vibrant vegetables and fruit and spilling melt-in-your-mouth local products like cheese, hummus and fresh-baked bread.

Farmers markets are experiencing a renaissance. Click here to read about how these "community bazaars" offer benefits to their areas (from Miller-McCune Online Magazine).

Maumee Valley Grower Specials

Maumee Valley Growers is an industry-based association committed to working together to strengthen our local greenhouse industry. The industry includes more than fifty individual Maumee Valley growers, alike in offering top-quality local plants but distinct in location, product mix, and focus. Learn more about what you can find at these individual locations by visiting our specials page.

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About the Maumee Valley Growers

Maumee Valley Growers is a not-for-profit association of regional growers committed to marketing only the highest quality plants possible, thereby helping to sustain and grow the local economy.