Buckley Opens New Facility
March 12, 2008 
After more than a year of construction, Buckley Growers Illinois opened a state-of-the-art,energy-saving greenhouse adjacent to the Five Oaks Disposal Facility in Taylorville, Ill.
The disposal facility is operated by Waste Management, which partnered with Buckley to utilize hot water as a heat source. To heat the Taylorville greenhouse, a landfill creates methane gas which, in turn, powers an electrical plant and creates hot water as a byproduct. Hot water is then channeled to aerial pipes built along hanging basket lines and through floors of the greenhouse and the support facility.
Buckley can also use high-efficiency boilers and use natural gas as a safety backup energy source when landfill-created methane gas is not available. The primary energy source is, however, a huge cost-saver. The new four-acre facility is also a welcome replacement to Buckley’s previous facility, which was built in 1965 and recently sold to housing developers to pave the company’s way to Taylorville.
Aside from the heating systems, the Taylorville facility features two styles of greenhouses, six computer-controlled environment zones, 18 automated watering booms, 5,300 lineal feet of electric-powered production handling conveyors and 36,288 square feet of blackout curtains which span over 163,296 square feet.
Buckley focuses most of its production on young plants for growers, finished and seasonal plants for retail garden centers and landscapers, and holiday pot crops for garden centers, florists and interiorscapers.
Over the years, Buckley has evolved from a small Springfield florist to a major Illinois grower. Henry Pete Buckley began the family tradition in the 1880s and Harry M. Buckley continued it by building a 40,000 square foot greenhouse that led to the creation of H.M. Buckley and Sons.
In 1965, Buckley built a 100,000 square foot greenhouse in Springfield. Buckley Growers Illinois is now in its fifth generation with H.M. “Lad” Buckley IV, Doug Buckley and David Wagner Jr. serving as co-owners along with production manager William Boehm.
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