Keepsake Plants: producing flowers for 100 years

Yoder brothers started in 1920

LEAMINGTON — Aris Horticulture Inc., known locally as Keepsake Plants, and before that, Yoder Canada, is celebrating 100 years in business.

With humble beginnings, the company has grown to include multiple divisions, including Keepsake Plants Florida, Keepsake Plants Canada, Green Leafs Plants in Pennsylvania, as well as divisions called Must Have Perennials and Aris Sales.

Ira and Menno Yoder first established the Yoder Brothers company in November, 1920 in Barberton, Ohio. They purchased the business from agricultural industrialist, O.C. Barber.

Production, at that time, included vegetables and some flowering plants.

The Yoder brothers, through scientific technologies, developed the Chrysanthemum into a year-round world-wide crop.

Today, what began as a sustainable agricultural farm, is now one of the largest, diversified vertically-integrated greenhouse operations in the industry.

The corporate office remains in Barberton, with production locations in Alva, Florida (two farms); Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Leamington, Ontario.

An aerial view of the Yoder Canada operation, Plants 1 and 2, as they looked prior to the 2010 Leamington tornado, which destroyed much of the greenhouse operation at this site along County Rd. 20. Aris Horticultural Inc., is celebrating 100 years in business, which was started in 1920 by Ira and Menno Yoder.

Expansion touched many parts of the globe, including the southern U.S., Canada and Europe. The knowledge gained over the years has been applied to many other crops, including Azaleas, Hibiscus and Perennials.

For example, Aris invested in perennials in 1996 and utilized its expertise in stock management to achieve both efficiency and clean stock. Making things better has been a driving force for the company.

In 1964, Yoder Brothers established themselves in Leamington, where new greenhouses were built to produce flowering potted plants for supermarket retail sales, in conjunction with Atkins Flowers.

Plant patents replaced breeder/grower agreements and the first Chrysanthemum was patented in 1965.

Over the course of the next three decades, Yoder Brothers was a worldwide leader in flowering plants and a breeding breakthrough in the 1990s featured ‘Pelee’ as being the first colour pot mum.

In 2008, Yoder Brothers changed its name to Aris Horticulture Inc, when the mum genetics and internationally-known Yoder-mum brand name were sold to Syngenta Flowers.

Keepsake Plants divisions were established for the Florida and Canadian potted plant production.

“We are incredibly proud to celebrate our 100th anniversary and humbled by the fact that few companies reach this major milestone,” said a company statement. “It would not have been possible without the support of our customers, distribution and breeder partners, suppliers, employees, and the communities we’ve worked with over the years.”