One might expect to find warehouses and large equipment near Salt Lake City International Airport’s imposing air traffic control tower. But a greenhouse filled with 1,500 red, pink, white and cream-colored poinsettias?
For more than 20 years, the airport’s maintenance division has had its own greenhouse — at the base of the Federal Aviation Administration tower on the north side of the airfield — where it grows a variety of plants for outdoor landscaping and indoor decorating.
Growing its own plants saves the airport money, said Tingey, who estimates that the poinsettias cost Salt Lake City $2 each, much less than if it purchased them from a commercial grower.