Blast off

Founded just before the COVID-19 pandemic, in January 2020, Orient, Ohio-based Green Legacy has focused on building its team and customer base at the greenhouses purchased from Columbus-area Cuthbert Greenhouse.

“The first year [2020], we just did contract growing. The second year, we started spec growing and getting to know the Columbus market,” says owner Dan VanWingerden, whose family has a long history in the U.S. horticulture industry. “So, it was maybe the worst time to start a business, but the best time to be a grower. It probably helped get us started.”

2022 represented a reset for the entire horticulture industry. Then, in 2023, Green Legacy began solidifying a customer base that was predominately landscapers and independent garden centers.

“This past spring, we were 100% dedicated to our own vectors,” VanWingerden adds. Now, that customer base reaches as far as Pittsburgh. Green Legacy focuses primarily on annuals but brings some products in from Florida to satisfy customer demand.

As a bonus, the Columbus economy has exploded in recent years, largely because global tech giant Intel announced in January 2022 a $28 billion plan to build two advanced semiconductor manufacturing facilities northeast of Columbus in Licking County. As a result, the Greater Columbus region has experienced significant job creation, economic development and positive community development.

“Now, going into our fifth season, we feel like we have some good traction to service all of our customers, and it’s the most comfortable we’ve ever felt,” VanWingerden says. “So, we’re looking forward to the future.”

VanWingerden describes 2024 as a return to being a weather-dependent business. Great weather in spring resulted in rock-solid business for Green Legacy through Mother’s Day. This was followed by an unusual uptick in temperatures for two weeks, which stopped everything. June saw a return to more reasonable temperatures, and business picked up again.

“If you were able to hold your product through May and discounted a bit in June [to sell off the rest of your stock], then you would look back and feel like it’d been a good year. That’s exactly what we experienced,” he says. “Now, I don’t have a crystal ball, but that’s how we’re planning for 2025. We’re going to comp a little bit from what we did [in 2024] because we sold it all, and we’re going to keep moving forward. We anticipate that people who have been buying plants are going to buy again.”

Green Legacy’s outlook has shifted from year-to-year to a five- to 10-year strategic plan, and VanWingerden remains bullish about the economic climate.

“We’re full steam ahead,” he says. “Now, we’re not looking for opportunities to go deep into debt, but we’re building a solid foundation so that when there is a recession — because it will happen — we’re prepared. We will continue to grow great-looking products, establish our customer base and work with our customers to meet their needs and be ready when the weather or the economy isn’t cooperating.

“All I see is tons of opportunity,” VanWingerden adds. “I hope other people are scared and they grow fewer products because that just opens up the door for us.”

Mike Zawacki is a Cleveland-based writer who has been covering various aspects of the green and horticulture industries for nearly 20 years.