Growth stock: the nation's largest greenhouse takes great panes to cash in on North Carolina's most-lucrative crop.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: Feature

Beauty is big business at Metrolina Greenhouses Inc. in Huntersville, the nation's largest greenhouse under one roof and possibly the world's most automated. Under glass and plastic, about 400 workers tend 92 heated acres, producing 70 million plants a year. Spring bedding plants such as impatiens give way to summer annuals, followed by the pansies and poinsettias of fall and winter. Metrolina sows, prunes and packs plants bound for 900 retailers, including Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart and myriad independent sellers. Tom VanWingerden started the company in 1972, and his two daughters and four sons now work in the business. As big as it is, Metrolina is part of something even bigger: Greenhouse- and...