Willoway Nurseries, Inc.
Our Story
From a borrowed pickup truck and ten acres in Avon, Ohio to one of the largest wholesale production nurseries in the Midwest — seventy years of family, land, and growth.
Founded 1954 • Avon, Ohio
Written by Marilyn Demaline
A Family Business, Rooted in Ohio
The history of Willoway Nurseries was written by founder Marilyn Demaline. Each chapter originally appeared in a series of newsletter articles commemorating the 60th anniversary of Willoway, shared with employees and family through the monthly WILLOGRAM. The story below covers nearly seven decades of growth, innovation, and enduring family values.
Willoway began with a young man, a borrowed truck, and a row of willow trees. It grew into one of the most respected wholesale production nurseries in the Eastern United States — shipping to customers in approximately 25 states and cultivating millions of plants each year across hundreds of Ohio acres.
The Chapters
Seventy Years of Growth
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1963
The Beginning
1954 – 1963
Les Demaline was born July 23, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio. His family moved to Westlake in 1944, and by the age of sixteen he was mowing lawns with a borrowed 1940 Chevy pickup. His high school principal made the introduction that would change everything — connecting him with a local greenhouse owner who sparked a lifelong passion for horticulture.
In 1954, at just 18 years old, Les officially started the business. The name came naturally: a row of willow trees grew along the side of his parents’ home. His first major asset was a 1950 Ford Stake Truck, purchased for $100 cash, a trade-in of the old Chevy, and a chattel mortgage loan of $734.58.
In January 1956, Les married Marilyn, and together they built the foundation of what Willoway would become. They leased greenhouse property in Westlake, welcomed their son Tom in 1957 and daughter Cathy in 1959, and in June 1958 purchased their first ten-acre farm in Avon, Ohio from Frank and Rose Wysocki. Early crops included geraniums, taxus evergreens, annuals, perennials, and cut-flower snapdragons. By 1960 the family had built their home on the Avon farm, and Willoway was well on its way.
Roots Deepen
1964 – 1973
The 1960s brought expansion. Willoway purchased the remaining ten acres of the Wysocki farm and leased additional property across the street. Infrastructure development followed: a field tile drainage system laid by hand using twelve-inch clay tiles in forty-inch trenches, the original farm pond cleaned and enlarged, and aluminum irrigation pipe sections replacing the most labor-intensive watering methods.
By 1967, Willoway was offering a full catalog of taxus varieties, juniper, ilex, boxwood, mahonia, maples, and flowering crabapples — with maple trees at $15.00 per inch of caliper and four-inch geraniums at just $0.45 each. Balled-and-burlapped plants were a staple product.
Willoway joined the Lorain, Cuyahoga, and Lake County Nursery Associations, along with the Ohio Nursery Association and Ohio Florists Association. The next generation was already paying attention: Tom Demaline, while still in junior high, was reading books about Monrovia Nursery and nursery trade publications, laying the groundwork for his own future at Willoway.
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1973
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1983
A Generation Joins
1974 – 1983
By 1974, Willoway made a decisive strategic pivot — phasing out landscaping and lawn maintenance entirely to focus on field, container, and greenhouse production. The business was sharpening its identity as a pure wholesale grower.
In January 1978, the “infamous blizzard” tested the operation. Power stayed on, protecting the greenhouses, while Bill Schlegel and Roy Hiller patched plastic greenhouse covers. Les and Tom were stranded at the ONA Trade Show in Columbus for two days — Tom celebrated his 21st birthday waiting for the storm to subside.
1979 was a landmark year: Tom married Barbara Hinman and Willoway acquired the Range 2 property with older greenhouse, service buildings, and 14 acres. Les and Marilyn purchased an additional 20 acres between the main nursery and Hinman property. Cathy followed, purchasing 40 acres in Sheffield.
Major facility investments followed: Bio-therm boilers with bottom heat lines, Willoway’s first canning machine (a Potmaster handling 4” to 3-gallon containers), the main pond cleaned and enlarged, and the farm’s first licensed private band radio system — four hand-held radios and two truck installations. The 1981 Summer Field Day attracted 400–500 industry attendees for wagon tours, vendor displays, and what Marilyn described as an “old-fashioned Western Beef Barbeque cooked on an open-fired spit.”
Infrastructure & Innovation
1984 – 1988
The mid-80s were defined by bold infrastructure investments. Willoway built its first covered shipping docks with four Nexus greenhouses connected to the “Ladies Barn” potting and propagation space, then expanded to eight covered docks by 1988. A transition from Econoline vans to 24-foot step vans transformed shipping capacity.
Water infrastructure became a strategic priority. In 1985, Willoway constructed a two-acre pond at the WDC property holding approximately nine million gallons. A 265×330-foot reservoir was dug six feet underground with a six-foot above-ground dike, achieving twelve feet of total depth. A transfer line under Route 83 linked the east and west side ponds.
The drought of 1988 — just 0.98 inches of precipitation from mid-May through August with daily highs averaging 91°F — put all that infrastructure to the test. Tom negotiated an emergency water purchase from a pond near I-480 and Route 83, rented large pumps, and moved water through county ditches eight to ten miles to Avon. “That move saved our container production.”
Computer systems arrived in this era: first a leased Moore Business Systems unit for invoicing, then after a lightning strike destroyed the hardware, a SLICE 2 system with complete accounting and inventory capabilities purchased in 1985.
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1988
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1993
Best of Show & Moving West
1989 – 1993
1989 opened with a triumph at the Cleveland Home and Flower Show. Willoway’s “Tower of Mums” — structures five to twenty feet tall filled with chrysanthemums in multiple colors, complete with a fountain, pool, and color-changing lights — earned the Best of Show Award for the second consecutive year.
The Wholesale Distribution Center (WDC) transitioned to independent corporate status, enabling it to sell products beyond nursery-grown plants including mulch, grass seed, and landscape timbers. A Columbus location in Hilliard, Ohio followed in 1991.
The Move West began in 1991 with the purchase of the 89-acre Lakeview Farm in Erie County. This bare farm ground was transformed: 30 acres tiled for immediate planting, a seven-acre lake built with a dam for irrigation, and direct Lake Erie water drawing capability secured through state permits. Drip irrigation systems replaced the large rain guns.
The 1992 Field Day celebrated the 25th Annual Green Industries Field Day, drawing over 1,500 attendees and 200 exhibitors. The first-ever Skid Loader Rodeo featured dealer equipment demonstrations — a hit with the crowd. In 1993 two spray buildings were completed and comprehensive WPS training programs were established for all workers.
Scale & Recognition
1994 – 1998
By the mid-1990s, Willoway was farming approximately 750 acres. The “Pot-in-Pot” production system was introduced — a custom-built machine that excavated planting areas, installed permanent drainage and irrigation infrastructure, and set buried socket containers into the ground for growing containers to drop into. The system eliminated toppling crops and enabled efficient rotation in the same prepared areas.
“Named by founder, Les Demaline, after the Gene Autry radio program character Gabby Hayes who called young cowboys ‘Whipper Snappers’ — Webster: an informal, old-fashioned term for a younger person who annoyed older people by being very confident.”
The Whipper Snapper Program was born in this era to address the challenge of single-person-handleable trees for municipal street planting. Using new techniques to produce branched trees in 1” to 1¼” caliper in the most popular shade and flowering varieties, Willoway produced competitively priced trees in a 22-inch ball with rot-proof burlap and wire basket.
December 1994 brought national recognition: the Goodyear Conservation Farmer of the Year Award for Lorain County was presented to the Demaline Family and Willoway, cited specifically for “capturing run-off water from the production areas and directing it to the ponds for recycling.”
The H-2A program arrived in 1998. Unable to hire enough seasonal workers locally, Willoway applied to the Department of Labor’s Federal H-2A program, providing a more stable and reliable workforce for the growing seasons. The ABECAS computer system replaced the old SLICE platform that same year — a months-long conversion effort involving thousands of plant inventory records.
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1998
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2003
Shipping at Scale
1999 – 2003
Willoway’s 45th year brought a focused effort on streamlining shipping across farms. Plants from Avon, Long Road, and Huron had to be consolidated at the main facility for order assembly. Shuttling between farms, semi-tractors with dry and refrigerated trailers, flatbed trailers, CDL-licensed drivers, and a fleet of independent trucking relationships made the operation possible.
Department managers Keith Balduff, Jeff Lee, and Mark Shelton developed the Unit Value System — assigning each plant a “unit value” based on type, height, width, branching characteristics, and container or ball size. This enabled accurate truck space calculations before scheduling pickups, dramatically improving load efficiency.
Custom 24-foot self-tracking wagons were built with steel shipping pallet accommodation; pallets were unloaded with forklifts at docks. Lean-stacking and rack systems protected plants during transit to customers across approximately 25 states.
In 2003, a residence adjoining the main nursery was refurbished as the Nursery Sales Office — fully equipped for sales staff, marketing, and order entry. The display garden in front of the main nursery, featuring a water feature with waterfalls using recycled irrigation water, was completed in this era and became a favorite location for bridal party and family photographs.
Fifty Years & a New Greenhouse
2004 – 2009
2004 marked Willoway’s 50th anniversary. The year brought new product introductions: “Endless Summer” Hydrangea from Bailey Nursery and a Clematis collection from Raymond J. Evison. Willoway joined the Novalis Marketing Group, a regional alliance selecting and introducing quality plants for independent garden centers in the northern Eastern U.S.
In early 2006, the Demaline Family made what Marilyn called “the most ambitious, expensive, but exciting project undertaken by this 50-year-old company”: a major new greenhouse complex on the Ward Farm in Erie County. The decision was driven by the inefficiency of the aging five-acre glass houses, the labor costs of maintaining five scattered locations, and the volatility of heating fuel.
The new facility introduced BOOMERANGS (a second tier for hanging baskets), automated irrigation booms, FLOOD FLOORS managed by the Argus computer system drawing from three water sources with full recycling, and BLACKOUT and SHADE CURTAINS providing up to 40% shade and projected 30% heating savings. A HURST BIOMASS BOILER burning approximately 120 loads of chipped wood chips per winter became the primary heat source.
The Huron facility’s annual production included spring flowering annuals, succulents, herbs, vegetables, tropicals, perennials, tropicals, poinsettias, mums, and pansies — plus propagation of three million cuttings annually. The Sheffield greenhouses were decommissioned following completion, and the remaining Main Nursery greenhouses were repurposed for perennial production.
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2009
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2014
Sixty Years & Forward
2010 – 2014
The post-recession years demanded discipline. Willoway navigated economic volatility through rigorous budget preparation, careful credit term reviews, and a relentless focus on quality and efficiency. Competitions intensified and waste reduction became a priority across all growing operations.
Facility improvements touched every farm: Main Nursery sections R-2, R-3, S-3, S-4, and W were rebuilt or upgraded; a large water main was installed at the open-roof greenhouse for year-round growing; Huron received new Ward Farm and Darrow Road South sections; and Lakeview North and South received drainage improvements.
Nutrient management systems — injectors and storage tanks for 12 essential elements — were installed across the operation. Wireless communications came to Long Road Farm, improving data and audio transmission to the main nursery.
The printed catalog — evolved from “mimeographed 4-page price lists to a nearly 100-page full-sized printed and bound book with color pictures and detailed plant descriptions” — transitioned to an electronic catalog managed in-house. The team took complete control of digital content, enabling real-time updates.
At the 60-year mark, Marilyn concluded her history with a message from the founding family: “Our Family — Les, Marilyn, Tom and Cathy — extend a Great Big Thanks to everyone for your part in allowing us to celebrate an AWESOME 60 YEARS!”
In Memory
Les & Marilyn Demaline
Lester L. Demaline
July 23, 1935 — October 3, 2024
Les Demaline, founder of Willoway Nurseries, passed away peacefully on October 3, 2024, at the age of 89. Born in Lakewood, Ohio and raised in Westlake, he graduated from Westlake High School, Class of 1954 — the same year he founded the business that would bear the name of the willow trees growing beside his parents’ home.
Les and Marilyn built Willoway together over seven decades, transforming a single borrowed truck and ten acres of Avon farmland into one of the largest wholesale production nurseries in the Midwest. He was an avid outdoorsman, a passionate woodworker, a founding member of the North Coast Ohio Chapter of the Antique Classic Boat Society, and a nationally recognized judge and restorer of wooden boats.
In 1999, Les was inducted into the Westlake High School Hall of Fame. He was a member of state, regional, and national nursery associations and received several awards recognizing his contributions to the horticultural industry.
Survived by: his wife of 68 years, Marilyn Demaline; children Thomas and Cathy; six grandchildren Emily, Erin, Karen, Eric, Brett, and Craig; and twelve great-grandchildren.
Preceded in death by: his parents Leland and Evelyn (née Grady) Demaline, and his siblings Richard and Lynda.