About Us

Family Owned and Locally Grown Since 1967

Kaw Valley Greenhouses grows plants that are sold from April through June at more than 40 spring seasonal Garden Center locations throughout Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.
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Left - The Edmunds Family: (from left to right) Chris, Pete, Joe, Knute
Right - 1/2 million square feet of greenhouse space

Kaw Valley Greenhouses has been family grown since 1967 when Leon and Pat Edmunds’ family of eleven and their St. Bernard Bozo outgrew their home in Manhattan, Kansas. A little farm outside the city limits where the kids had room to run was the perfect relocation for the Edmunds. Using the old greenhouse on the property, cultivating their built-in workforce of nine children and Leon’s PhD in Plant Pathology, the family business was born. Now Kaw Valley Greenhouses operates half a million square feet of green house space and sells over 12 million plants annually.

Pat had her finger in various aspects of the business until she passed away in 1987 at age 57. Leon passed away in 2013 but in his eighties, could still be seen almost every day puttering around at the greenhouse, hosing down the floor or cultivating geraniums.

Left - The Edmunds children circa 1972
Right - The first marketing plan!

Four of the nine Edmunds children (Chris, Pete, Joe and Knute) are involved in the daily operations of Kaw Valley Greenhouses and the other five siblings, even though they are out of state, spend some of their vacation time working at the greenhouse just for fun.

Chris Edmunds selects all varieties of plants for the greenhouse, researches trial gardens across the country and manages Kaw Valley Greenhouses’ extensive trial garden in which all plants sold first have to successfully pass through.

Pete Edmunds is known to be a "Jack of all trades." During the season he manages plant inventories and deliveries to stores, and the rest of the year he has a hand in just about everything else.

Joe Edmunds is the President of Kaw Valley Greenhouses and his wife, Robin, ran the office for a number of years. Joe is a self-taught engineer who designed and built all of the greenhouses as well as equipment needed that didn’t exist on the market.

Knute Edmunds is the Production Manager and manages a staff of approximately 80 people during the production season and oversees all phases of production- seeding, transplanting, growing and finishing. Knute’s three children represent a third generation of the family business, working in the greenhouses after school and on weekends.
 

Fingers in the dirt! Keep your fingers in the dirt!

Chris Edmunds
"Our sister Terry was always 'the boss'. She was always sucking us into racing to 'go faster, faster'. She taught us how to position the transplants close to where they needed to be planted so the distance our hands had to travel was the shortest, thus faster. We constantly thought of ways to cut the minutes off transplanting."

Robin Edmunds
"I have a quick early greenhouse memory. Joe was telling me all about his family greenhouse, and said that I would be able to help dibble. I'd never heard the term before, so I asked him, 'Is that legal?' It sounded kind of dirty (in retrospect, it was!) and I wasn't sure what exactly he was asking."

John Edmunds
"Terry's ever-present reminder [to keep your] 'fingers in the dirt! Fingers in the dirt!' This has become our best of all encouragements to this very day in everything we do.Things that come immediately to mind center around the old glass greenhouse, specifically."

Pam Edmunds
"Before we moved to the KVG property on Zeandale Rd, we lived on Laramie St. in Manhattan. I was about 12 or 13 when I became very interested in growing flowers. After long, intense sessions with the Burpee Seed catalogue, I ordered my favorites and germinated the seeds in discarded Styrofoam meat trays covered with plastic wrap.  The south facing roof outside my parents sleeping porch was perfect for this.  I planted what baby seedling survived along the east fence in the backyard-- cosmos, marigolds, and balsam. They did pretty well for my first attempt.
 I was very excited later, when our parents announced that we would be buying a greenhouse out in the country!  Dibbling was always a contest in speed and moving flats from one location to another helped our muscles grow.  I loved the beautiful colors and scents of all the different flowers that we were growing.  Our family as a whole was very excited about this new adventure.  I was 14 when we started and my youngest brother, Knute was one. Everyone was involved and naturally fell into roles that best suited their strengths. Working at the greenhouse sure beat babysitting!"