WEYERS CAVE — During the winter at a greenhouse outside the town of Weyers Cave, tiny seedlings sleep under plastic boxes, and older plants lie dormant until the springtime. Everything seems to be waiting for April — and so are the greenhouse’s owners.
Mary Jane Martin and her business partner Jay Painter of Chinquapin Ridge Farms grow flowers, herbs and vegetables at Heritage Acres Greenhouse. During their opening season, from April to mid-June, they sell seedlings, potted plants and starter plants of all kinds.
“We started out doing basically vegetables, herbs, and annual and perennial flowers,” Martin said. “Since then, we’ve added some house plants and a number of succulents, as well as the gift shop.”
Martin bought the greenhouses in 2020 after wanting the location for several years but not being in a position to afford it. The place has been around for many years and has gone through several owners.
Until 2024, when she partnered with Painter, Martin said it was a struggle to run the greenhouse herself. Some of the plants are finicky and must be checked multiple times daily.
“It’s a constant worry for if something fails and, say, the heater doesn’t cut on and the temperature drops and freezes the plants,” Painter said.
When it opened in 2021, the greenhouse was called Valley Roots. Martin originally ran the greenhouse with her son, but after he left the business — and with the addition of a gift shop in 2022 — Martin changed the name to Heritage Acres Greenhouse, Gifts & More. In 2024, she partnered with Painter and widely expanded the variety of plants on offer.
“We’ve partnered up this year to try and grow Heritage Acres and get more people coming in and offer different things,” Painter said. “So last year, we started offering asparagus root, seed potatoes, onion sets, onion plants, and it seemed like we were the only place that had sweet potato slips.”
Sweet potato slips, or seedlings, were one of the greenhouse’s bestsellers last year.
“Last year, people came from hours away for sweet potato slips,” Painter said.
The small gift shop at the front of the property is open during the greenhouse’s off-season, though it’s more of a passion project than an income source.
The gift shop is open during greenhouse hours, but during the off-season — which is most of the year — it is open only on Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. It sells handmade soap, hand-painted aprons, figurines, and other goods made by local artisans, from consignments, or picked up by Martin.
“We’re trying to get the gift shop more to locally made stuff,” Martin said. “We recently added a refrigerator in there. Open Doors, who we’ve partnered with, is milking some of our cows, doing herd shares, and making cheese.”
Also in the gift shop is a mural painted by Pennsylvania artist Verna Lauver, who is Mary Jane Martin’s mother. The mural features lilacs growing up on a trellis surrounded by black-eyed Susans. Lauver also painted some rocks that are sold in the gift shop.
While both co-owners have alternate streams of income, such as livestock farming and electrical work, they are both dedicated to improving the greenhouses and attracting new customers. Though the business is expanding in some ways, Martin and Painter have had a difficult time attracting customers to their out-of-the-way location.
“We’re not as popular as we’re hoping to be someday,” Martin said. “It’s been kind of slow because we’re back off the main road. We’re trying to grow this business, we’re trying to capitalize on unique plants and medicinal herbs, and we’re starting to work on microgreens as well.”
Martin and Painter are already growing some medicinal herbs, like dandelion, clover, yarrow and ashwagandha. They plan to sell these at the greenhouse for the first time this year.
One of their greenhouses is too rundown to grow plants in, with holes in its plastic top. Martin and Painter hope to refurbish it and turn it into an event space to attract more people to the location.
“What we kind of envision is covering it with a solid color plastic and using it for gardening classes and different things,” Painter said.
“Community events, maybe like a farmers market, or some kind of movie night,” Martin added. “If we ever get it functional, to where we can control the climate, we have all kinds of great ideas.”
To contact Heritage Acres Greenhouse, Gifts & More, call 504-810-4062. The greenhouse’s address is 8089 Greenhouse Road, Weyers Cave, VA, 24486. Right now, in the off-season, the gift shop is open from noon to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
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