Whalen’s Greenhouses in Toughkenamon has been growing millions of plants for Philly-area retailers for nearly a century, writes J.F. Pirro for The Hunt.

Set across 140,000 square feet of greenhouse space, the company sells wholesale plants to garden centers and landscapers. The team grows a wide range of seasonal plants and flowers, from Easter lilies to fall mums to holiday poinsettias.

The greenhouse has remained a family-owned business since its founding in 1933, when Henry Whalen Sr. began a landscaping company in Delaware County. As business continued to grow through the following decades, Henry Sr.’s son Jim purchased the business in 1968, and the operation expanded to Toughkenamon in 1983.

Whalen’s Greenhouses consolidated all operations to the Toughkenamon location in 2002.

Jim’s son John Whalen then took over the business in 2006 with his brother-in-law Bill. The duo has since grown the successful plant business even further, including a recognition as a Top Five Up and Coming Growers by Grower Talks Magazine in 2007.

Today, the company serve retailers throughout the region with over two million plants and flowers grown annually.

John Whalen continues to take great pride in carrying on his family’s legacy into its fourth generation. About his love for his job, Whalen said, “Sitting behind a desk, I’d be frowning…Dad always said he never saw a person leaving his place with a frown on his face.”

Read more about Whalen’s Greenhouse and the family operation’s century of business in The Hunt.

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