Logee's History

The History of Logee's

Offering Fruiting, Rare and Tropical Plants Since 1892

Logee's Tropical Plants - Front of Retail Store

Logee's Retail Store in Danielson, CT

Logee’s Greenhouses was started by William D. Logee in 1892 in Danielson, Connecticut. It began as a cut flower business and soon William Logee’s interest turned to tropical and unusual plants. In 1900, he bought a small Ponderosa Lemon tree from a grower in Philadelphia. It was known as the “American Wonder Lemon” because the fruit could get as large as 5 pounds. He felt the tree was essential for the Logee collection. It was shipped via train, then picked up by horse and buggy and planted directly into the ground in the original greenhouse. The tree is in the same greenhouse today (appropriately called the Lemon Tree House) and reliably produces 5-pound lemons every year. Thousands of small plants have been propagated from this original tree.

Ernest and Joy Martin

Ernest and Joy Martin c. 1950

William's eldest son Earnest, who was one of 13 children, became interested in horticulture and turned his attention to growing tropical plants in containers, making these plants accessible to anyone living anywhere but especially gardeners in northern planting zones. His interests centered around unusual begonias. He hybridized begonias for Logee’s and was one of the original founders of the American Begonia Society, creating the Buxton Branch in Massachusetts. He was drawn to semperflorens as well as rex begonias. He hybridized his own begonias and named them the Mother Goose Series. Examples of his hybridized begonias are Lucy Locket, Pied Piper, Goldie Locks, Mother Goose and Pistachio. Periodically, his begonias are brought back into production. Ernest Logee grew over 400 varieties of begonias. Sadly, he died as a young man when he fell from a tree on a hunting expedition. When his younger sister, Joy Logee went to his funeral, she met her future husband Ernest Martin who was also a horticulturist and member of the Begonia Society.

Joy Lee Martin

Joy Lee Martin

After William Logee’s passing in 1952, Joy Logee Martin and Ernest Martin became Logee’s Greenhouses second-generation owners. Joy turned her attention to scented geraniums and herbs and also kept her brother’s begonia legacy alive and well. They continued to grow Angel Wing, or fibrous begonias, tuberous begonias, rex begonias and rhizomatous begonias. In the mid- 1900’s Logee’s became well-known as a supplier of unusual begonias, scented geraniums, gesneriads, herbs, houseplants and rare tropical plants. The first Logee's catalog was started in the 1930’s from Joy’s beloved collection of herbs, geraniums and begonias, starting a longstanding tradition of selling  Logee’s plants through catalogs.

Byron Martin of Logee's

Byron Martin

Joy Logee Martin had two sons, Geoffrey K. Martin and Byron E. Martin. Geoffrey became a physicist and a university professor. His first wife, Tovah Martin is part of the Logee history and worked and trained at Logee’s during the early part of her career. Today she is a well-known horticultural author and garden editor and no longer works at Logee’s. Geoffrey is remarried with three children and is the Dean of the Math and Science Department at the University of Toledo.

Byron Martin chose to continue working for the family business and became the third-generation owner. In his early twenties he decided to add fragrant and flowering plants to Logee’s and it became a destination greenhouse to delight customers who visited. Similar to his uncle Ernest, Byron wanted whatever plant he brought into the Logee collection to grow well in a pot so it could be enjoyed by gardeners in every planting zone. Today, Byron is still instrumental in finding rare and unusual new plants for Logee’s customers.

As the business grew, Byron built more greenhouses and two propagation houses. When the energy crisis hit in the 70’s, heating glass greenhouses was costly. Byron decided to heat the entire range of greenhouses with wood. After harvesting his own wood and burning over 50 cords, he decided there had to be an easier way to conserve resources so he built a passive solar greenhouse to capture nature’s energy as well as an herb pit, which was built half-way underground.

Laurelynn Martin

Laurelynn Martin

In the 90’s Byron married Laurelynn Glass Martin. Today, Byron and Laurelynn are no longer married, but they are best friends and share ownership of Logee’s. They have two grown children, Elijah Martin and Angel Martin. Laurelynn has a Master’s degree, and came from a business, marketing, communications and writing background. She was instrumental in re-branding Logee’s, as well as finding the right people for the right jobs in the growing company. Under her leadership, she focused on how to define Logee’s, and finally settled on Growers Since 1892 Selling Fruiting, Rare and Tropical plants. Laurelynn also, took on grant projects for energy efficiency and solar energy, both which were successfully secured resulting in a reduction of Logee’s carbon footprint by using renewable energy and constructing an energy efficient production range. Laurelynn is most proud of growing the company through hiring and managing human resources. “People are Logee’s greatest asset, and I want to make sure that every employee, every day is able to live their best life while at Logee’s.” Laurelynn does this through equity and fairness and is grateful for the dedicated managers and staff at Logee’s.

In Byron’s spare time, he is an avid beekeeper with 7 apiaries, producing raw and unfiltered honey which is available for sale at Logee’s. He gives annual beekeeping talks for beginning beekeepers and grows pollinator plants around town to help sustain the local bee population. In Laurelynn’s spare time, she writes personal essays, books and novels. Her love for plants and writing manifested into two books Byron and she co-authored called, Logee’s Spectacular Container Plants and Growing Tasty Tropicals in Any Home, Anywhere, a book about growing small tropical fruit trees in containers.


 

The original Logee's greenhouse, circa 1900:

Logee's Fern House - Circa 1900
 
 

The same greenhouse still stands today, but is now known as "The Fern House":

The Fern House at Logee's