Benoit Greenhouses Showcases a Long History of Cultivating Flowers and Produce

Luke Benoit’s family has been growing plants since the mid-1970s, but the history of the growing grounds at Benoit Greenhouses dates back more than 140 years.

In 1884, Charles Splear built a greenhouse east of Kankakee, and two of his sons founded Splear Brothers Florist in 1908. A 1929 newspaper article described the Splear business as “probably the largest and most complete floral and vegetable greenhouse in this region of the state.” The Splear family operated the business until the 1960s, when the property was sold to Charles Jans.

In 1975, Luke’s parents, Vince and Christine Benoit, purchased the business in partnership with Vince’s cousin, Mark Benoit, and his wife, Brenda. The company specialized in spring-flowering plants sold wholesale to garden centers in the Chicagoland area, central Illinois and northwest Indiana. Vince and Christine were the sole owners from 1989 until 2019, when Luke and his wife, Mandy, purchased the business. Today, it is Kankakee’s only commercial greenhouse.

“They’re still an important part of it,” Mandy says of her in-laws. “They’ve done an amazing job running the wholesale business and raising their family throughout all of it. When they sold it to us, they’re thrilled to just work here and support us.”

The support is greatly appreciated as the next generation makes their mark on the property.

“The decision-making part of the business can be exhausting,” Mandy says.

However, she thrives on making those decisions, tweaking the model that has sustained the family business for decades while offering customers new experiences.

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Retail Ready

Historically, Benoit Greenhouses’ wholesale specialty has been geraniums and begonias.

“Geraniums have always been a specialty of ours, and we grow nearly all of the begonias ourselves from cuttings,” Mandy says.

However, selling directly to customers is becoming another large aspect of the business. The retail center began as a tan and green pole barn, which Mandy suggested painting black.

“My father-in-law, Vince, is the kindest person in the world and also deeply practical,” says Mandy, a designer and photographer. “He just thought the idea to paint the barn was wild, that we shouldn’t take a perfectly good shed as it was and paint it. But we did. I designed some windows for the building, and we lined the walls with wood, so now when you walk into the space, it’s an experience versus just walking into an old shed.”

Handmade jewelry crafted by Mandy, pots, containers and other garden-related items can be found in the garden center. Inside the retail greenhouses are spring annuals, perennials, hanging baskets, succulents, vegetable starts and herbs – 90% of which are grown at Benoit Greenhouses.

Retail operations began in 2018, with springtime service to retail customers from April to June each year.

These days, the revenue mix is 45% wholesale and 55% retail, with retail increasing thanks to a recently added garden center and a newfound focus on fall mums, pumpkins and family activities.

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Fall Awakening

In 2020, Luke’s cousin Kevin, who owns Benoit Pumpkin Farm about a mile from Benoit Greenhouses, had grown tired of the retail aspects and wanted to focus on growing. So, Mandy and Luke bought Kevin’s retail business as well. Mandy recalls spring 2020 as an extremely stressful time.

“It was COVID, and we weren’t even sure we could open,” Mandy says.

But they instituted curbside pickup in early spring, and they pivoted several times. That autumn, they began offering fall products, including mums, fall planters and heirloom pumpkins in the retail space.

Now, the fall offerings happen every September, plus a corn maze, games for kids, a bounce pad in the shape of a pumpkin, a corn pit and farm animals.

“We have carving pumpkins brought in, and we have carvers come out to demonstrate,” Mandy says.

Even with no admission fees for the corn maze or bounce pad, Mandy says fall has become extremely important to the business. They also operate a seasonal coffee shop aptly called Coffee and Donuts.

“These fall activities bring tons and tons of people, and sometimes we even have to close the parking lot,” Mandy says. “The fall part of our business has been key to growth.”

Even with her focus on design and aesthetics, Mandy says Luke gets the credit for the push into the fall aspect of the business.

“He thinks big,” Mandy says. “He’s also very creative, and he’s willing to try anything as far as building things and working on ideas.”

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Happy Customers

At the end of the day, a greenhouse’s success hinges on customer satisfaction with healthy plants. Begonias and geraniums may be their specialties, but Benoit Greenhouses is known for the quality of all their plants.

“We grow most of our plants from cuttings, and it’s common for our customers to say they only buy plants from us because our plants last the entire season,” Mandy says. “Vince has been doing this since the mid-1970s, and Luke also has tons of growing experience in addition to his associate degree in greenhouse management.”

Luke went on to earn a bachelor’s degree with a horticulture sequence from Illinois State University.

“We’re very passionate about what we do,” Mandy says. “We really love the people who come here and serving them and figuring out ways to make their experience better.”

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