Lake County Nursery

	Celebrating our 6oth Anniversary! 1946 - 2006

he seed for Lake County Nursery, Inc. was planted back at the turn of the century when Egidio Zampini and Vincent Sallay, Jim's grandfathers, left their european homelands and moved to America. Though Egidio came from Italy and Vincent emigrated from Hungary, their paths were similar.

Both men began as laborers in the Pennsylvania coal mines, both had backgrounds in agriculture and both settled their families in Lake County, Ohio. It was in this fertile area of northeast Ohio that both went to work for Storrs and Harrison, then the world's largest nursery and devoted the remainder of their working years to developing their skills as nurserymen.

Felix (Zeke) Zampini, Jim's dad, followed in his fathers footsteps. As a young adult, he worked for the railroad. But his love of nursery work remained so strong that he also found time to work in area nurseries after putting in long hours on the railroad.

In 1946, Felix decided to devote his part-time activities to his own nursery. Felix Zampini and Sons Nursery became a reality on a quarter-acre plot in Painesville. By 1962, the nursery had grown to a size of forty acres and Jim assumed total ownership and management.

Today, approximately one thousand varieties of trees, shrubs, evergreens, ornamental grasses, perennials, vines and ground cover grow on more than 1,000 acres, making Lake County Nursery, Inc. one of the largest nurseries in Ohio and the U.S. One million container plants are produced annually.

The nursery propagates much of its own material, growing most of its own lining out stock from seed or through the production of hardwood and softwood cuttings, including extensive budding and grafting production. They continually adopt new cultural practices to improve plant quality. The market is constantly re-evaluated so that plant material grown at the nursery meet the changing needs and desires of customers.

During the peak times, dedicated employees number about 250 to help achieve revenues in excess of $8 million annually. Several profit centers have been added, including a research and development division, a retail garden center and a truck brokerage firm.

To date, Lake County Nursery has trademarked or patented over 125 plant varieties. Additional plants are in the process of being patented or trademarked with more at various stages of development.

A fourth generation of the family, Jim's daughter Maria, and son, Joseph, are now active in the growth of the company. Jim Zampini and his family are proud of their heritage and hope the successful future of Lake County Nursery, Inc. will pay tribute to the past endeavors of their ancestors.

Egidio Zampini

Vincent Sallay

Felix (Zeke) Zampini

Jim Zampini