By Joyce DeWallace, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Tucked away off Main Street just a third of a mile from Ski Ward are a series of six greenhouses at 271 Spring St. They are open to the public from Easter until the first of November selling annuals, perennials and vegetable seedlings and are known as a great source for big tomato plants. The other half of the business continues year round for commercial and wholesale customers. Bill and Marion Marston, their sons James and Joseph, daughter-in-law Hana, and grandchildren Alix, 5, and Angelina, almost 3, all work together in the family business.
Bill’s grandfather, T. Franklin Marston, started in 1897 when he bought the 32-acre farm to grow vegetables in fields behind the current greenhouses. He drove a horse and wagon into Worcester to sell bushels of turnips for 15 cents a basket. He also produced cabbages, carrots, and other vegetables and soon built two greenhouses in the back field to start his crops so they would thrive in the short New England growing season.
His son, R. Lisle Marston, served in France during World War I. When he came home, he tried several inside jobs, but doctors told him he needed to work outside for his health, so

The bright yellow ’31 Chevy roadster brought the Marstons together in the late 1950s and helped to start a partnership that has lasted for over 50 years.
he joined his dad on the farm in the 1920s. He build the current #1 greenhouse and started growing violets, which were sold at the former Denholm’s Department Store.
“There used to be a lady in Denholm’s window who would make the violets into bunches to sell, and people would gather on the street to watch,” Marion said. “In the ‘20s, Lisle built five more greenhouses and started growing carnations, anemones and snapdragons. Ninety percent of the business was wholesale. He shipped a lot of flowers to New York City. Later, he added canna lilies.”
“The depression was tough,” Bill stated. “We didn’t have the money to buy coal, so we cut wood by hand and used a cord a day to keep the greenhouses heated, but the business survived.”
Bill was too young to serve in World War II, so he has always worked on the farm. By 9, he was driving a tractor. He remembers shoveling coal, “probably over a couple of thousand tons over the years,” to keep the boilers stoked. He’s done it all – planting, replanting, transplanting seedlings, fertilizing, watering and maintenance. Now, he concentrates on all the maintenance and the watering, while driving some of the deliveries. He gets up at 3 a.m. every morning to check the boilers and make sure the heating system is keeping the greenhouses at the proper temperatures for whatever is growing.
The couple chuckled as they told the story of how they met. Bill has always loved collecting and refinishing old cars and has five in his big garage. Back in the ‘50s he was building a hot rod in a junkyard in Westborough. Every day he drove by Marion’s home.
“I went by and saw her a few times and liked her looks,” he recollected. “One day, I decided to stop and meet her. I was covered with grease, and you could say, I wasn’t ready for the cotillion.”
But the two hit it off and started dating in 1957. The next year, Marion joined the business, and they married in 1959. With a smile lighting her face, she said, “It took me that long to take over the business! I did a lot of arrangements and weddings.”
With their two sons, a daughter-in-law, and now two grandchildren, the Marston Greenhouse is operating with its fifth generation.
“My grandson Alix, who is in kindergarten this year, likes to plant seeds,” Marion said.
She handles all the front end, meeting with the customers, writing the orders, buying the seed, doing the office and credit work. Both she and Bill work on all the tasks associated with growing their abundance of plants.
Today, the business is half commercial and half, “walk-in public,” Marion said. “We’re so busy during the month of May, you can’t get in the greenhouse.”