Since the inception of our nursery industry in Lake County, immigrants from across the world have played a major role. This tradition may have begun in 1832 when JJ Harrison migrated from England as a small child. Growing up in Painesville, he worked with his father at their farm on West Jackson Street. Sometimes they harvested cedar from local wetlands and sold them as railroad ties in Cleveland. Eventually the boy sought his own adventures away from home. By the time he returned and settled down, he had learned orchard techniques including the grafting of fruit trees. In 1858 he joined a historic partnership with Jesse Storrs, a local nurseryman who established a nursery several years before at North Ridge Road and Bowhall Road. Within several decades this partnership grew into the largest departmental nursery in the world and survived for almost ninety years.

Nursery propagation of cuttings, seedlings and grafts remains a special craft often passed on by mentors who acquire this knowledge from earlier generations. Dutch propagators with centuries of accumulated knowledge were often recruited by local nurseries. Gied Stroombeek (Warner Nursery, Roemer Nursery) and John Ravestein (Herman Losely & Son Nursery, founded by a Swiss immigrant!) mentored many local practitioners in the ‘Dutch Tradition’.

Paul Werner, a Polish Immigrant, began his nursery on North Ridge Road in Perry around 1920. In 1947 this operation was sold to the Gilson family, including Kathleen (Oliver) Gilson, an English immigrant.

Michael Horvath emigrated from Hungary in 1890 and took up residence in Cleveland ten years later as City Forester. He directed the planting of Wade Park and Rockefeller Park, before eventually starting his own nursery in Mentor, specializing in the hybridization of roses.   Joseph Kallay, another Hungarian, began working at Storrs & Harrison in 1897 for nine cents an hour. In 1909 he started Kallay Brothers on 18 acres on Bowhall Road, Painesville, with brothers Bella, Steve, Paul, James, Charles and Jennings. In 1917 the Kallays formed Donewell Nursery on Mentor Avenue, Mentor, which patented ‘Blaze’ climbing rose in 1932, US plant patent No. 10. For forty-four years, until the 1950s, the Kallays published their retail nursery and seed catalog in Hungarian. Alex Zebehazy, nicknamed ‘The Hungarian Philosopher’, operated Red Mill Nursery in Perry (now owned by Losely Nursery). Profits from his patented Pieris japonica ‘Red Mill’ provided a sizable donation to Lake County Historical Society. Likewise, Harriet Storrs, granddaughter of Jesse Storrs, bequeathed funds in 1960 that would establish the Lake/Geauga Fund of The Cleveland Foundation.

Italian immigration peaked in the US from 1880 to 1920 and their contribution to the local nursery industry is immeasurable. The Zampinis, Morettis and Scacciavillanis (Squares) are but a few who came to work our fertile soils and create legacies of their own.

Since the 1960s, Latinos from Puerto Rico and, more recently, Mexico, provide the engine for nursery growth and survival, embarking on their own American Journey of hard work and assimilation.

Submitted by Mark Gilson, Lake County Nursery Growers and Gilson Gardens