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The Hinsdale Goers, a family of growers
Phil Goers took over the family greenhouse busines, when his father Vern Goers retired in the early 1990s. | Buzz Orr~Sun-Times Media
Upcoming
What: Fall Festival with pumpkin decorating for children, seasonal food and drinks, one-day sales and free workshops.
Where: Vern Goers Greenhouse, 5620 S. Oak St., in Hinsdale
When: From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 6
For information: Call (630) 323-1085 or look at the website, www.verngoersgreenhouse.com.
Article Extras
Updated: October 28, 2012 6:14AM
HINSDALE — Gardening in the Midwest is not a year-round hobby, but running a greenhouse is.
“Many people don’t realize we are open year-round,” said Kim Boyer, daughter of Karen and Phillip Goers, the owners of Vern Goers Greenhouse, Inc., a family business started in Hinsdale 46 years ago.
Although the days are getting shorter and the weather cooler, “there’s still plenty of time to plant,” Boyer said last week.
For example, “Now is a great time to plant peonies,” she said. “It has the whole winter to establish its roots and get ready for the spring.”
Similarly, bulbs should be planted now to produce spring daffodils, tulips, crocus and hyacinth. Garden chrysanthemums, sedum and Joe-Pye weed are other plants that will add color to the fall garden.
Sales at the greenhouse continue through November and December with church decorations, and evergreen wreaths and ropes. But come January and February, the retail side quiets down.
“We still get customers coming in for gift baskets and house plants,” Boyer said.
But primarily, “we stay busy sowing seeds and transplanting, both annuals and perennials, for the next spring. That process actually starts in late November,” Boyer said.
Goers grows 50 to 60 percent of the plants it sells.
“Because we have limited space,” the rest of the stock comes from local wholesalers, Boyer said.
But many gardeners’ enthusiasm was squelched by the heat and drought this past summer.
“Business was a little bit slower than usual,” Boyer said, yet expenses were up.
“We water everything by hand, so we had a higher water bill and spent more time watering the plants to keep them looking good and keep them happy in their smaller pots,” she said.
The conditions seemed to agree with the chrysanthemums which were all grown at the greenhouse.
“Our ’mums look better this year than they have in the past,” Boyer said.
Along with Boyer, Phillip Goer’s other grown children, Christian and Sarah, and his sister, Mary Myers, Hinsdale Central High School graduates all, work at the greenhouse.
