Our Story
What started out as a hobby quickly grew into something unexpected for Ed & Ruth Adams. In 1952, a 100 square foot greenhouse was built to house orchids. Ed and Ruth’s passion for orchids turned into a business when they began to grow cut flowers, orchids, and flowering potted crops for grocery stores and floral shops. They continued to wholesale these products until the original facility had expanded to 5,600 square feet.
In 1973, DeWitt and Carolyn Moss (Ed and Ruth’s daughter) returned to Jerome from Idaho Falls to lend their knowledge to the growing business. They began construction on another 10,000 square foot greenhouse for producing wholesale bedding plants to existing and new customers. The business’s customer base consistently grew with each year as the facility continued to provide great service and to sell consistent, quality products. Carolyn and DeWitt soon expanded their gardening efforts in Jerome by specializing in new, extensive selections of annuals, perennials, containers and hanging baskets.
DeWitt and Carolyn’s son, Kevin and his wife, Dana, returned in 1983 to assist with the spring season, and to help in the construction of yet another greenhouse expansion project. This is now our current retail greenhouse that local customers visit today for gardening in Jerome.
Kevin was instrumental in forming the seedling department and began selling seedlings to other growers through brokerage firms in the industry. These were the early years of the ‘plug’ seedling method.
In 1996, Kevin and Dana purchased the greenhouses from DeWitt and Carolyn, and under their direction, the company has continued to expand. Kevin and Dana’s children, Jennifer and Dewey are now working their way into the business as the fourth generation.
Currently, we operate with over 300,000 square feet of covered greenhouses, and three acres of outside growing areas. We annually produce 180,000 flats, 350,000 containers and 37,000 hanging baskets. We sell to over 150 wholesale customers from 6 different states, mostly independent garden centers and grocery stores, within a 500 mile radius of Jerome. Our gardening retail store in Jerome gardening is open March through August and serves walk-in customers from all over the Magic Valley.
Moss Greenhouses Inc. is celebrating its 64th year in business. In 2006, we became an ESOP, or Employee Owned Company. Employee input and involvement have always been encouraged and valued here and by partnering with our employees we expect this company to grow even stronger.
Moss Greenhouses is a successful, innovative and progressive bedding plant producer and wholesale distributor. Our product is marketed throughout the Intermountain West Region and is the largest facility of its kind in Idaho. Our business is dedicated to selecting and producing premium plants, and our greenhouses operate with the latest in modern automated technology. In addition to supplying our sought after plants to the wholesale market, we maintain an onsite retail and custom planting center.
Moss Greenhouses is located in Jerome, Idaho. Jerome is part of the Magic Valley, an eight county area located in the south central part of the state. Nearby Twin Falls is the largest community with a population approaching 45,000. The Jerome/Twin Falls area is approximately 2 hours from Boise, Idaho, 3 hours from Salt Lake City, Utah and an hour from the northern Idaho/Nevada border. Idaho is known for its many recreational activities including hiking, rafting, caving, hunting, fishing, and rock climbing. Skiing is less than two hours away at the world-renown Sun Valley Resort. The Twin Falls-Jerome area is a mostly agriculturally based community surrounded by the wide-open spaces.
