Family owned and operated Platt Hill Nursery has been a high-quality plant and landscaping destination since 1980 when Platt Hill purchased a parcel of land in Dundee from his great-grandfather, David Hill, and established the nursery in his own namesake. David Hill had his own growing and wholesale tree and plant business, but the equity in that business had become so diluted that Platt decided he wanted to branch out on his own, creating Platt Hill Nursery. Instead of being a grower/wholesaler, Platt Hill Nursery became a retail operation. Platt has a passion for growing plants, bringing life out of the ground, and grew that into a successful business. Experiencing growth, Platt bought a second location in Bloomingdale, sold the Dundee location after outgrowing it, and then purchased another second location in Carpentersville . Platt owned and operated the nursery businesses in Bloomingdale and Carpentersville until 2018 when he transitioned the ownership and management to his two sons, Graham and Clark.
Graham and Clark complement each other in their top roles at the nursery, each having distinctive responsibilities that have contributed to recent growth and success of the business. Clark supplies the nursery with a wealth of horticulture knowledge , something Graham believes has been essential to Platt Hill’s success in recent years. Clark is, in Graham’s own words, “a chip off the old block,” having acquired Platt’s love of growing and his experience in the family business has led him to become highly specialized in the industry in a way that Graham is not. This has allowed Graham to focus on the administrative side of the business. While Graham says he would be remiss to say that family dynamics when owning a business together are perfect, he calls owning and operating a business with his brother “invaluable.”
The brothers have very complimentary skill sets that help move the Platt Hill Nursery business forward. When Graham returned to the company in 2018 after serving in the Marines, he and Clark made a conscious decision to separate the responsibilities at the business, so they were not duplicative. Graham’s skills align with larger strategic planning and overall management, something he says could be applied at virtually any company, while Clark is more of a specialist in this space. Graham notes that the recognition that your counterpart is just as good as you are is important to have a successful business.
With the mission to “be the best garden center of our time, ” Platt Hill Nursery is committed to helping customers find the right plant for their space in or outdoors. Their plant experts are dedicated to helping customers discover their own perfect living environment by asking a few questions. They aim to help make gardening easy and sustainable for everyone. They even invested time and money to study and identify their consumer psychographic profiles, which drives their daily business decisions by looking at how they connect with someone beyond traditional demographics. This process, completed in 2022, helped Platt Hill Nursery codify their core consumers and identify who they should be targeting. Now, they have shifted their focus from master gardeners to younger women with kids who don’t have a lot of extra time, but they want a nice garden/outdoor area but are unsure of how to get it. Platt Hill Nursery has positioned themselves to be the one to help that customer get set up for success. Graham likens it to the Best Buy Geek Squad model, providing in-store help for success and customer satisfaction.
Services include plants for purchase, landscaping services, and gardening advice. Platt Hill Nursery’s website has a blog section with tips such as indoor winter gardening for beginners, hibiscus plant care guide, when to plant spring bulbs, 18 fall vegetables to plant in your garden and much more. If the blog wasn’t helpful enough, a section on their website is dedicated to a library of how-to FAQs with topics ranging from Japanese beetle control to a recipe for savory cheddar muffins. And if those resources were still not enough for customers, Platt Hill Nursery offers a YouTube channel for customers to find on-demand educational materials.
Platt Hill Nursery’s plant selection includes trees, evergreens, houseplants, perennials, annuals and vegetables. They are able to sustain a relatively beneficial cost structure because they are vertically integrated , growing 80 percent of their product lines in-house. In recent years, Platt Hill Nursery has made significant investments to expand their growing operation, which they believe well positions them to continue to offer quality product at a good price point for customers. They have focused on minimizing variability to maximize the value of the product, producing higher quality at a lower cost.
Platt Hill Nursery also has a dedicated landscape department that can help customers conceptualize, design and install the landscaping of their dreams. Graham says there is a synergy between retail and landscaping, and they have seen added value of this department to their business.
Powering all these services and plants is a group of 50 to 60 full-time horticulturists and several other part-time workers that Platt Hill Nursery is proud to call part of their team. One employee has been with Platt Hill Nursery since 1987, and several others have been there for 10-20-plus years. In their peak season from mid-April to June, they have approximately 180 part- and full-time employees. Cultivating a team of plant experts, Platt Hill is committed to providing customers with professional service combined with the best quality and widest selection of plants and garden and seasonal merchandise. The Platt Hill Nursery team is committed to not only ensuring the success of the business but also the success of their customers and their indoor/outdoor spaces.
Platt Hill Nursery has four four-legged members of their team as well, something that benefits their business in more ways than one. Four resident cats are charged with two responsibilities – pest control and customer endearment. They help control rodents on the properties and attract customers alike. They even have their own seasonal themed coloring pages that are created for kids to color while at the nursery and then hung up around the store portion of the grounds. They have shown to be a very endearing part of Platt Hill Nursery with customers, and they have been essential to keeping pests at a minimum.
Platt Hill Nursery was one of IRMA’s featured retailers as part of the We Are Retail campaign. You can view their feature by clicking here.
Community Involvement
Platt Hill Nursery believes contributing to the community is an important thing for their business to do. Graham views it as a differentiator from other companies and sees value in being integrated into their local communities. He says not only does community involvement humanize their business, but it also assists in getting people outdoors and making spaces beautiful – two things Platt Hill Nursery is passionate about. They have seen it eliminate barriers for people as well, as they work to reduce the fear of failure when trying to grow things. In Graham’s words, “we don’t believe in black thumbs, just varying shades of green.” He says it is their mission to help people cultivate those thumbs and instill confidence in the person’s ability to grow. He believes they do so by layering their expertise on someone’s lack of experience and make sure they are successful in their space. Simply stated, Platt Hill Nursery wants everyone to “grow confidently.”
Graham shared stories with IRMA about how they have found Platt Hill’s employee uniform has become extremely approachable even outside of the acres of the nursery. Members of the community will routinely come up to Platt Hill employees if seen in their uniform (shirt and hat) at the grocery store and ask for advice on plants and gardening. This shows that their integration into the community has reaped benefits for the businesses, garnering trust from customers and the public alike.
Below are a few examples of how they have given back:
- Platt Hill Nursery participates with both COD and McHenry County College where they provide guest lectures, donations and provide paid internship opportunities to Horticulture and Landscape Students. They have hired a number of these interns upon graduation.
- Platt Hill Nursery routinely provides plant donations to the surrounding cities in order to bring more natural beauty to the cities we serve.
- Platt Hill Nursery participates in Eagle Scout project s to help them beautify their own communities.
- Participates with local high school special needs programs to help students learn life skills for work and gardening. Platt Hill Nursery has been involved with this program for 20+ years and Graham said they have benefited as much from it as the participants have, calling it invaluable. Platt Hill Nursery has hired many of the program participants as part time help, one of which has been at the nursery for over five years. He said the team gets fulfillment from their involvement and it enables them to connect a different group to nature that might not have otherwise been exposed. As participants graduate from the program, Platt Hill Nursery celebrates their success on social media and the community responds with six to seven hundred congratulatory comments on the posts.
- Platt Hill Nursery is an active member of the Chicago Regional Tree Initiative and sits on the advisory committee. This initiative is designed to put more trees in the ground and create biodiversity to enhance the ecosystem.
- Platt Hill Nursery participates in the Illinois Landscape Association and Illinois Garden Center Association.
About Graham Hill
Graham was born in Dundee and grew up in St. Charles, Illinois and started working at Platt Hill when he was 12. He eventually traveled to Ohio where he attended and graduated from Denison University in 2007. After college, Graham attended the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, graduating and accepting a commission into the service . This led him to his first assignment in Okinawa, Japan, where he spent two years leading teams of Marines and deploying with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).
After completing this assignment, Graham tried out for the Marine Special Operations Command where he was subsequently assigned to Camp Pendleton in California. Serving as the Operations Officer and Head Quarters Company Commander with a team of 200 people, he deployed to Afghanistan. This was an extremely rewarding experience, where he also met his future wife, Jackie.
After finishing his assignment in California in 2014, he was sent to school and then to the Joint Special Operations command, serving in Crystal City, Virginia. During this time, Graham was able to attend Georgetown in the evenings to obtain an MBA. While in Virginia, Graham and Jackie had their first child, Hayden. In 2017, Graham was deployed again to the middle east, this time in Jordan. While challenging, Graham had the opportunity to work on another operations assignment, leading a team of 26 across three different continents.
In 2018, Graham resigned his commission from the Marine Corps and welcomed a second child, Hunter. After his service to the country and as a father of two, Graham decided to return to Platt Hill Nursery and join the family business with Clark and Platt. Upon his return to Platt Hill Nursery, he succeeded his father as the president of the organization alongside his brother, Clark. Through their partnership, they navigated COVID-19, while subsequently growing and expanding the business through 2024.
Graham found his service in the military to be applicable in managing Platt Hill Nursery. He believes leadership fundamentals are universal truths, using service-based leadership and cultivating team dynamics in his current role. The largest team he led during his service was about 260, so that kind of experience was valuable in his transition to Platt Hill Nursery. He also used a lot of applicable skills and experience to focus time and effort on developing an enhanced organizational structure for Platt Hill Nursery to position them for long-term success.
Employee Testimonials
Chrissie Sieff, Nursery Manager, Carpentersville
I have been a long-term employee of Platt Hill Nursery; I have worked for this company for over 20 years! Many of the employees of Platt Hill Nursery have 10, 20, and even 30 years of employment, so I am not an anomaly. I have been in the garden center industry for 40 years now, and I consider myself a lifer with Platt Hill Nursery, I don’t plan on ever leaving because this is such a wonderful company to work for.
The reason that I have stayed with the company so long is that the company puts their employees first. We are paid very well, above our industry’s standard. We are also valued. For example, the company just improved our lunchroom with beautiful quartz countertops and marble tables for our employees. It’s just something really nice that there is no ROI on, but the employees feel appreciated; that the company would spend several thousand dollars to improve their comfort and feeling of worth.
Mike Davison, General Manager/Greenhouse Manager, Bloomingdale
I love working at Platt Hill Nursery. I helped grow it to what it is today, so I have a lot of blood, sweat and tears here. I want it to be the best garden center around and that takes a lot of work.
I have worked here for almost 30 years. Platt established a great nursery with procedures and systems that worked for us and that has kept me around. We have a beautifully laid our Garden Center, he held us accountable, and we have a long tenured staff that feels like family.
We continue to strive to be the best in all that we do. We do not sit on our laurels. Platt Hill Nursery is different from other retailers because of the staff we have and how we want to help our customers. We want them to be successful in their endeavors with plants. We strive to greet all customers – a difficult thing to find in most retail stores these days – and having a great staff is key to this.
We have quality plants, and we work hard to find and grow the best quality plants, so the customer starts with the best. Something else that sets us apart is that we diagnose plant problems and offer solutions to those problems. Again, this is to help our customers be successful.
Platt Hill Nursery strives to have a nice, clean and pleasant shopping experience for our customers. With all the plants and flowers around, it makes for an oasis for our customers. We have found that doing these things consistently has given us a happy customer who comes back to shop and word of mouth for future customers.