Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
It’s mid-October in Asheville, and that means it’s time to start talking about the holidays. We’re still nearly two weeks away from Halloween, but there’s already a holiday-themed window taking shape at the Haywood Park Hotel, and the WLOSers have already referenced “Santa” in a couple of stories. Wonder how soon they’ll work in “the white stuff.” (Suggestion: use it in story about this past weekend’s Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk.)
Anywhere, here’s another area tradition. The notice is from WHKP in Hooterville:
VAN WINGERDEN INTERNATIONAL, Inc.
ANNUAL OPEN HO– — USE
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13th
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Van Wingerden International invites the community to attend our annual Open House. We want to invite our neighbors and every one in our community to come and see how thousands of brightly colored Poinsettias are grown and waiting to be shipped. Tour the greenhouses located on Highway 191 (Haywood Road) Mills River, in Henderson County, North Carolina. Van Wingerden International’s 37 acres of greenhouses are open to tour on this one day of the year. You will see acres of poinsettias in full bloom. Employee hosts will be on hand to share how the plants are grown using environmentally friendly technology and to answer questions.
Van Wingerden International, Inc. is located (since 1973) in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the town of Mills River, North Carolina, between Asheville and Hendersonville. A wide range of flowering plants is produced in 37 acres of climate-controlled greenhouses.
Over 225 people are employed in the various areas of greenhouse production, sales, shipping, maintenance, and administration. Plants are shipped in climate-controlled tractor-trailers to a wide variety of retail stores throughout the southeastern U.S.
