Gardener's paradise: Woldhuis Farms Sunrise Greenhouse prepares for busiest day of the year
GRANT PARK, Ill. - About an hour south of Chicago near the Indiana border sits a gardener's paradise.
Woldhuis Farms Sunrise Greenhouse in Grant Park, Illinois, has just under 400,000 square feet of indoor growing space, totaling eight-and-a-half acres, where they cultivate seven million spring and summer annuals.
The Friday before Mother's Day marks the busiest day of the year.
"Yes, everyone wants to get flowers for Mother's Day. That's when it's safe to plant outside and so it's prime planting season,,"said Trevor Woldhuis, the owner and operator.
This means there are traffic jams in the aisles as people fill their carts with annuals, hanging plants, potted arrangements and more.
It's a family-run operation.
"My great-grandfather bought the property we sit on in 1960 and started with mostly farm production," said Woldhuis.
At one point, they had more than 20,000 chickens and grew tomatoes for Campbell Soup. Over the years, the operation leaned more and more toward greenhouse production.
"Our main specialty is flowers, vegetable plants, hanging baskets. That's our bread and butter. But we also carry 300,000 perennials, tens of thousands of trees and shrubs outside, and over 100 different types of roses. That's what sets us apart — that massive selection and variety that we carry," he added.
And undoubtedly, this is the craziest time of the year. Mums are popular in the fall, and in November and December, porch pots to decorate the outside during the Christmas season are a hit.
Woldhuis Farms is a destination for gardeners from several states, some of whom are known to fill box trucks with products.
The farm's Sunrise Greenhouse is closed Sundays but open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
