By Autumn Lee, The Toledo Free Press
Article published November 29, 2006
Members of the Maumee Valley Growers have pulled together to sustain their place as a main industry in Northwest Ohio.
As a way to ensure their longevity, they have produced a 14-month calendar featuring images of the MVG greenhouses photographed by Daniel Miller.
The MVG consists of nearly 700 employees working at more than 70 greenhouses who network within the local greenhouse industry to find ways to improve operation and efficiency.
The MVG produced the calendars as a means for additional recognition, Michael Driehorst, media relations manager with Thread Information Design, a marketing firm in Maumee, said.
"The photography within the calendars is also meant to showcase the beauty that surrounds us in Northwest Ohio," he said.
Tips and gardening information are included in the calendars.
"The calendars are an example of the type of expertise that's available in the area," Driehorst said. "These are people who have been in this business for years. The growers know the region best concerning what plants and flowers work well here."
Monthly presentations of new products and research advances made available through the MVG allow greenhouse owners to produce "the best products they can offer for Northwest Ohio," Driehorst said.
Joe Perlaky, the MVG's program manager, said the MVG (originally called the Northwest Ohio Greenhouse Cluster) started about three years ago with a "cluster study" white paper at UT. Michael Carroll of BGSU and Neil Reid of UT identified four major industrial categories within Northwest Ohio. The area's greenhouse industry was named as one of the four.
Carroll and Reid identified Northwest Ohio as being in the top 100 for sales volume dollars in the country for flowers and bedding plants that year, Perlaky said. When that information was obtained, Carroll and Reid wrote the "Greenhouse Grant," which was later funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support the Northwest Ohio Greenhouse Cluster.
Through the grant, Perlaky was hired as the program manager and Dean Krauskopf as an expert in the field also known as a "champion."
Perlaky and Krauskopf started meeting with growers and identified "actual players" within the area to discuss major challenges and how they could help the industry.
A year ago, the Northwest Ohio Greenhouse Cluster became known as the MVG.
Within the last year, two strategies - "branding" to advertise and evaluating energy costs - have been set in place to improve the greenhouse industry, Perlaky said.
"The calendars are a part of the branding strategy," Perlaky said. "The growers felt it would be a valuable tool to ‘get the word out.' "
Though the MVG is picking up momentum, Perlaky said, the Greenhouse Grant expires in September. Before then, the MVG plans on submitting another grant to sustain the organization.
Theresa Hoen, vice president of the third-generation family-owned Hoen's Greenhouse, said the calendars are "another tool of advertisement and help to encourage customers to buy locally."
Through the MVG, Hoen said, other growers help each other by sharing ideas to do what larger corporate establishments "can't do."
"It's a camaraderie that needs to take place within the industry," Hoen said.
Suggested retail price for the calendars is $12.95 and they are available through the MVG's members or by calling Perlaky at (419) 356-4847.