Our Story

Tom Boekestyn grew up in the horticulture hub of the world, Westland, Netherlands. He brought the knowledge and experience he gained from working in his dad's greenhouse—along with running his own—to Canada. This led to the founding of Virgil Greenhouses in 1972, where Tom began growing tomatoes and a variety of potted plants.

Tom's brother, Pim, had been growing freesia year-round in Holland for several years, while in Canada it was only grown in the spring at that time. In 1989, Pim decided to immigrate with his family to Canada and join forces with Tom at Virgil Greenhouses. The brothers began growing freesia year-round and soon took over the majority of the freesia market. With the help of their family and dedicated long-time staff, Virgil Greenhouses is now the largest producer of cut freesia in North America.

In 2000, Tom decided to retire and Pim took over the business. Over the years, Pim has strived to keep the operation up to date and innovative—soil cooling, grow lights, and induced CO₂ are just a few examples.

In 2014, Pim’s son Peter, along with his brother-in-law Tim, joined Virgil Greenhouses. Together, they are motivated not only to continue providing top-quality freesia into the future, but also to work hard to ensure the business continues to grow. Now for over 10 years they have successfully introduced year-round production of premium cut ranunculus. They have also developed a growing program to provide butterfly ranunculus and, more recently, anemone within this year-round production.

With a never-ending excitement for innovation and new ideas, Peter and Tim have been working to bring new cuts into the program. Trials of new flowers are continuously met with much anticipation each year. Today, they have a passionate team of local staff and an amazing group that comes faithfully each year from Mexico. The whole team is excited to see what the future holds for Virgil Greenhouses.