UNITY TOWNSHIP, Ohio – Life is abloom at Sutherin Greenhouse, north of East Palestine.
Owners Don and Dianna Elzer have 13 greenhouses on the 5-acre property and are prepared for the season as warmer weather brings gardeners out of hibernation.
“From a business standpoint, if you don’t make money the last two weeks of May, enough to carry you through the rest of the year, you’re not going to make it,” Don Elzer said.
The greenhouse also sells mums in the fall, plants at Shaker Woods Festival and seasonal Christmas blooms.
Easter can be tricky. The business tries to time all spring flowers to bloom at the same time, primarily for local churches, looking to fill their sanctuaries with fragrant lilies for holiday services.
But the varieties range from tropical, cacti and succulents to house plants, annuals and perennials. Dianna Elzer said the greenhouse is packed for the spring rush.
Plants grow, need to be divided, repotted and require care. Some houseplants in the salesroom are tall, stretching for the new skylights. Every space is full.
Don Elzer jokes his goal is to run out of plants by the Fourth of July, Dianna believes in always planting or propagating more.
Renovation
During the slow winter, the Elzers took a break from planting and renovated the salesroom. They turned a dark, leaky converted garage into a space with skylights and high beadboard covered ceilings.
While renovating, the Elzers found antique equipment and business records in the attic. Some is displayed in the salesroom. The finds include prepaid sales tax stamps affixed to sales receipts. The greenhouse stopped using that system in 1962.
The renovated space also features exposed wood beams and a variety of houseplants. Dianna Elzer says the renovation, which includes insulation, will allow the business to remain open year-round.
Over its 78-year span, the business has had four owners, but many employees have worked there through the years. The Elzers employ nine part-time workers, but when they bought it, Don Elzer said it seemed everyone who came through the door remarked, “I used to work here.”
Knowledgeable employees are hard to find, but the Elzers commend their staff, like Tish McDevitt, who Dianna Elzer said can talk to anyone and readily shares her knowledge of plants and sense of design with customers.
History
Founded in 1947 by Clyde Sutherin, who returned from World War II to buy two used greenhouses and place them on the property, the business has evolved with the market and expanded over time. Known briefly as Clyde’s Floral Service, the Sutherin Greenhouse was operated for years by Sutherin and his wife Esther.
“There’s some floral paper from when it was Clyde’s Floral Service that we found in the attic,” Dianna Elzer said. “It’s very fragile, but it says, ‘Say it with Flowers.’ So, we hung it up.”
The name was changed by 1950 to Sutherin Greenhouse and eventually, their son, Don Sutherin took ownership along with his wife, Janice.
While the founding Sutherins focused on retail sales, Don Sutherin took the business in the wholesale direction, propagating cut geraniums, according to the third owner, Charles Linert. The business would propagate between 25,000 and 50,000 geraniums annually.
Linert’s wife, Darlene, worked there for a short time, before they bought the business in 1990. The Linerts owned it for more than 25 years.
But when the cost of propagating geranium cuttings became too costly to compete with big companies, Linert said they again began to diversify, back into retail sales. They added spring flower baskets and fall mums.
The Linerts teamed up with garden clubs and with teachers to create fundraisers through which students would sell preordered poinsettias or certificates for plants to raise money for their organizations.
The Elzers admit they were not the most knowledgeable plant people when they took over the business. They had been buying plants from Linert at Sutherin Greenhouse to beautify the outside of one of their other businesses at the time, Dogs on the Run in East Palestine.
Linert suggested they buy it all and although he is retired, he still advises them.
Diversification
While Linert had supplied the plants that decorated the grounds at the Shaker Woods Festival, the Elzers took it a step further and added a retail booth there. Don Elzer said it opened their market up to more people, who might not typically go to greenhouses, and now accounts for 30% of their annual sales.
Nothing quite matches at the Sutherin Greenhouse. Each owner added on leaving a maze of mismatched greenhouses and a variety of equipment.
Something always needs fixing, especially in the spring when the electronic valves and irrigation system are put back into service. Linert and the Elzers agree running the greenhouse can mean a never-ending list of projects.
Elzer’s latest project has been to build and design new tables that display the plants. He learns from each design.
The Sutherin Greenhouse, 2113 state Route 170,is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays, but the hours expand in May.
Pictured at top: Don and Dianna Elzer.