Embracing the Destination

Jennifer Polanz

Groovy Plants Ranch, which had been sitting on around one acre of land in Fargo, Ohio (right off I-71 about 30 minutes north of Columbus), recently announced an 11-acre expansion. The grower-retailer operation owned by Jared and Liz Hughes is well-known for its selection of unique and rare houseplants and succulents, as well as a wide variety of other plant material and products. In fact, it’s become an in-person and online destination, with travelers from as far as New York making the drive to shop the store. They ship online orders throughout the country, as well. The store’s popularity recently earned it “Best Midwest Garden Shop” via the Midwest Living 2022 Best of Awards.

The store opened in 2015, and was on an upward trajectory already with succulents and unique houseplants, as well as other cool specimens, when the pandemic hit. Then sales really took off.

“When we saw it, we put the pedal to the floor—hard,” Jared says. “It was very obvious what was going on.”

The expansion allowed them to build eight new Quonset greenhouses, four of which are already filled with plant material. That gives them more growing space to change the previous growing area over to more retail-focused space, as well as allow them to move storage into a barn on the new property. Moving that storage opens up their existing barn for renovation and that will become space for classes, yoga and events. They have space on the property for food trucks, as well, creating an inviting, eventful shopping experience.

“I am very much a freewheeling type of business owner,” Jared says. “I don’t get stuck in the analysis paralysis. We had the opportunity to buy three properties, I hemmed and hawed for about five minutes, and then bought them. It was a rare opportunity.” GP