For 50 years, one greenhouse company has been bringing color into many Western North Carolina homes. Right in Mills River lies the Van Wingerden International Greenhouse, which has grown and provided poinsettias all over the Southeast for the last 50 years.
Erica Merrill and Mitchell Cantrell are the third-generation family members of the greenhouse. They say it all started when their grandfather immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands.
“He started many greenhouse locations across the United States and landed here,” Mitchell said. Their grandfather opened the greenhouse in Mills River back in 1973.
“It went from my grandparents to now my dad owns it, and now me and my brother are in it,” Erica explained. As a kid growing up in the greenhouse was always exciting for them.
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