US wholesale nursery grower Willoway Nurseries has acquired Decker’s Nursery in Groveport, Ohio, adding a roughly 150-acre nursery operation that includes propagation greenhouses and specialist plant-liner production. The transaction was reported by Greenhouse Grower on 14 October 2026, citing executives from both businesses. The financial terms and exact closing date were not disclosed.
A wider production and propagation base
Decker’s existing operation combines container production areas, nursery stock blocks, greenhouse propagation, grafting and liner programmes. The reported 150 acres cover the nursery property as a whole; they should not be interpreted as 150 acres of greenhouses. The available reporting does not specify the greenhouse-only footprint.
For Willoway, the commercial significance lies in bringing more early-stage propagation expertise and finished ornamental stock into the same supply network. Plant liners and grafted material are upstream inputs for other nurseries, so the acquired operation adds a different capability from simply increasing finished-plant acreage.
The businesses behind the deal
Willoway, founded in 1954 and based in Avon, Ohio, supplies trees, shrubs and other ornamental nursery products. Its company history documents decades of investments in container growing, greenhouse infrastructure and distribution systems. The purchase adds a nursery south-east of Columbus rather than another site at Willoway’s Avon headquarters.
Decker’s has a long track record in specialist plant propagation. Its own historical account describes the development of a six-acre propagation and liner facility in the 2000s and later greenhouse investment at Groveport. Those facilities pre-date this transaction; the acquisition itself is not evidence of a newly built greenhouse.
The original Greenhouse Grower report quotes Willoway chief executive Tom Demaline and Decker’s president Brian Decker on combining their teams and maintaining customer service. It also says Decker’s existing staff are expected to remain important to the enlarged business. It does not quantify staffing changes or provide a consolidated output forecast.
What buyers should watch
For wholesale customers, the immediate question is how grafted conifers, liners, finished containers and ornamental stock will be offered through the combined distribution operation. The businesses expect a continuous transition, according to the original reporting, but no independently measured post-acquisition capacity or delivery improvement has yet been published.
Key takeaways
- Willoway has acquired Decker’s Groveport nursery, with about 150 acres across multiple production functions.
- Propagation greenhouses and grafting/liner know-how are central to the strategic fit; 150 acres is not the greenhouse area.
- Price, exact closing date, greenhouse-only area and quantified operating benefits remain undisclosed.
Featured image: container-grown ornamental trees at an unrelated nursery in Germany, used for illustration only. Photo: bdk / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; it does not depict either acquired or buyer facilities.
