Horace Hagedorn

Horace Hagedorn, founder of Miracle-Gro plant food, former executive and director emeritus of The Scotts Company and beloved philanthropist, died Jan. 31, 2005 at the age of 89 at his home in Long Island, N.Y. Hagedorn was behind the popular Miracle-Gro brand, which includes the blue-colored water-soluble fertilizer used by millions of gardeners in North America and around the world. After building this successful business, he merged Miracle-Gro with The Scotts Company in 1995. Since his retirement in 1997, Hagedorn has been a tireless and generous supporter of dozens of grassroots and charitable organizations, many in the Long Island area, with a particular interest in causes that help children, families and education. Although Scotts was founded in 1868, its associates considered Hagedorn to be one of the Company’s founders, according to The Scotts Company. Hagedorn was a long-time resident of Port Washington, N.Y., and a native New Yorker. He was born on the upper west side of Manhattan on March 18, 1915 and lived in New York City until relocating to Port Washington in 1943. He was a fierce sailing competitor and sailed until age 84. Hagedorn attended the University of Pennsylvania and began his career selling radio time for the National Broadcasting Corporation in 1936. He later followed his interests to advertising, which included having his own advertising agency. One of Hagedorn’s advertising clients in 1950 was Otto Stern, who owned a nursery business in Geneva, N.Y. Through their business relationship and later friendship, Hagedorn and Stern became partners in a business to promote gardening products and plants. The two men invested $2,000 to introduce a new water-soluble plant food that provided “miraculous” plant growth. Hagedorn took Miracle-Gro from a small mail-order company to a mainstream profitable corporation over the ensuing decades, making it the number one and most well known plant food around the world with approximately $125 million in sales by the mid-1990s. In 1995, at the age of 80, he again advanced the gardening business by merging Miracle-Gro with The Scotts Company, creating the leading consumer lawn and garden business in the world. Hagedorn was predeceased by his first wife, Peggy. Together they had six children, Peter Hagedorn of Glen Cove, New York; Susan Hagedorn of Boulder, Colo.; Jim Hagedorn of Sands Point, New York; Katherine Hagedorn Littlefield of Skillman, New Jersey; Robert Hagedorn of Mercer Island, Wash.; and Paul Hagedorn of Atlanta, Ga. Hagedorn is survived by his wife of 19 years, Amy, and also leaves four stepchildren, 22 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His son, Jim Hagedorn, is chairman, chief executive officer and president of The Scotts Company. His daughter, Katherine Hagedorn Littlefield, is a member of the Board of Directors of The Scotts Company. His daughter, Susan Hagedorn, is the chairperson of the Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation.