Member Spotlight of the Week!
Your Place for Business News, Local Events and Updates

Coach Eby Youth & Family Center Business for Breakfast - July 14

2nd Annual Mini Golf Scramble After Business Hours - July 23

Educator Appreciation Night - August 20

Community Leader Members

Smokey's Gardens - Member Spotlight of the Week

It was 2001 when Alan Yong and Kevin DeLucenay first met.  Alan was called in as a business consultant to review the chimney service and hearth retail store Kevin was operating at the time.  At Alan’s recommendation Kevin soon moved his business into the town of Ashley, Indiana next to I-69 for greater visibility and the space to have a nice sized showroom.  In 2007, after much discussion, the two agreed to enter the Daylily business and sell the existing chimney and hearth business.  Planting the Daylilies moved from Alan’s home in Chicago and purchasing collections from 5 other growers in the first 5 years soon turned into roughly 30 acres filled with Daylilies and scattered within a 3-mile radius of the store in Ashley, IN.  That did not include all the available space around their location that was originally used to plant the Daylilies as they arrived in bulk.  Alan created a beautiful show garden there, but it was not efficient to go to so many different locations to tend to the flowers. 

It took the next two years, 2013 and 2014, to move the Daylilies to Michigan and into the ground at the first 40 acres purchased in Coldwater.  Thousands of varieties and millions of cultivars were moved.  Kevin’s familiarity with farm equipment allowed him to modify several pieces of equipment to meet the needs of the flower business.  He purchased a wash station so no dirt would be shipped with the flowers as required.  He modified a strawberry planter that allows for two people to ride on the attachment that made planting the many cultivars faster than you might imagine.  Added to that was a modified vegetable harvester and the other necessary tools for the greatest efficiencies were in place. 

Alan and Kevin came up with systems that would provide the farm with the largest selection of quality Daylilies at reasonable prices as was their stated goal.  They wanted to become the best at what they were offering, often doing what others would not so they could then do things others could not.  It was a lot of work, but they kept with it and Smokey’s Gardens is now the largest Daylily farm in the U.S. and quite possibly the world.  Since the original land purchase of 40 acres an additional 30 acres were added and just this year, we gained another 20 acres putting us at a total of 90 acres!  Additional equipment and staff have all been added to the farm each year to be able to expand their offerings and provide better service to their customers. 

As an internet-based business, you can find them at www.smokeysgardens.com.  Please look at the many varieties of Daylilies you will find there; many are Smokey's own hybrids. Unfortunately, we are not set up to offer retail sales from the farm, but if you would like to place an order online you are welcome to pick up the order when it is ready. 
 

CONNECT WITH US!

Chamber Member 2 Member Discounts


CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER M2M DISCOUNT DETAILS

Would you like to offer a discount to other Chamber members?  Reply to this email and let us know if you would like to get involved in our new Member 2 Member discount program!  All renewing and new members will receive M2M discount key tags so they can receive M2M discounts at these locations: https://www.coldwaterchamber.com/m2m-offers.html

Corporate Partner Members





















Chamber E-News - Member Spotlight of the Week!