PERRYSBURG – Zach Edwards, president of Black Diamond, suggests that when the cold temperatures and gray skies get people down, a stop by their Perrysburg store and greenhouses at 12320 Eckel Junction Road will put a little green in their day.

“This unique building and the strong Black Diamond brand has become a destination garden center where the majority of the plant material grown and sold,” he said.

Edwards said the customer can check out their expanding array of house plants including those which do well in low light with little maintenance, like philodendron or pothos.

Once seeing all that greenery gets customers to start thinking about their outside garden and landscape plans, Black Diamond employees are available to help.

“Black Diamond employees can talk about what might work in the space you have,” Edwards said. “We can help a do-it-your-selfer plan what will work in their space.

“A picture of the site is helpful, but as long as we know that location’s orientation to sunlight, access to water and type of soil, we can point out plants that can work in that particular area.”

He said Black Diamond has many locally-grown perennials, annuals, herbs and vegetables and are happy to offer a large selection of both outdoor and indoor soils appropriate for every type of use. The store also has the fertilizers, plant foods, pest controls and many other accessories for the garden and landscape.

“When it comes to the lawn,” he said, “we have your grass covered too.”

Sprinklers, hoses, spreaders and seeds are always in stock during the growing season. Edwards said that the expert staff is happy to offer advice on what products to use and how best to apply them.

Come autumn, hardy mums, the perennial-type that comes back up every year, are available, along with fall bulbs, corn stalks, straw bales and pumpkins. Cut Fraser firs are readily available starting in November, as are locally handmade cemetery pieces.

Edwards says that over the last 70 years, Black Diamond as evolved constantly to serve the customer.

The original location for Black Diamond on Tremainsville Road in Toledo began as a coal company in 1946 and the addition of a plant nursery/garden center was made in 1953. By 1966 the coal company was obsolete and the nursery business had added two additional buildings to the original business and added a large parking area.

Edwards said landscape design services became an early mainstay in the nursery and eventually seasonal holiday items at Thanksgiving and Christmas became the perfect pairing with the heavily seasonal nursery and flower business, including fresh cut Fraser Firs, grave blankets and cemetery wreaths, indoor holiday trimmings and outdoor lighting.

The next major phase of Black Diamond was the addition of a residential lawn service division in the mid ‘70s, he said.

“This five-step weed control and fertilizer program quickly took off in all corners of the metro Toledo area, including SE MI. Franchises in Detroit, MI and Dallas, TX came along in the 1980’s on the heels of this successful service division,” he added.

In the early 1990s Black Diamond expanded their growing greenhouses to include five smaller hoop houses and one large (30,000 square foot) “big house.”

”With those additions, Black Diamond was able to grow 90% of its own annual and perennial bedding plants for retail sales,” Edwards said.

The original location on Tremainsville is open seasonally for flower and nursery sales and both the original greenhouses and the later additions are still in operation, growing the annuals and perennials sold at both locations.

Black Diamond Lawn Service still operates out of that location, serving over 8,000 customers in the Toledo Metro area, he added.