Lessons learned from a century of business

Like other long-standing businesses in the horticulture industry, Chalet Landscape, Nursery and Garden Center had modest beginnings. Lawrence J. (L.J.) Thalmann Sr. founded the Illinois-based company, originally called L.J. Thalmann’s Architectural Landscaping, in 1917 out of his home.

“He enjoyed life, and his life was landscaping,” says Larry Thalmann Jr., L.J.’s son, who is retired now but once led the company his father started.

After L.J. graduated from high school, he rode his bike to his landscape clients, pulling a red wagon full of gardening tools. He maintained his business while attending Northwestern University’s American Landscape School at night. “He started the business with a wheelbarrow, a shovel and a dream,” says Larry Thalmann III (though he prefers to go by Larry), L.J.’s grandson and the current president of the company.

Much has changed over the past 100 years, including the market, customers and the company, which ranked 60th on Lawn & Landscape’s Top 100 list in 2017. Certain traditions have survived the decades, however, including Chalet’s commitment to its customers. For years, L.J. operated his business out of his home, until the 1940s, when construction on the Edens Expressway began. An old chalet that housed a restaurant was right in the future highway’s path, and it was condemned and put up for auction. Whoever bought the building would have to move it.

“Being of German heritage, he had an appreciation for the architecture. He thought it would be a shame to tear it down for the construction of the highway,” says Diane Thalmann-Stanton, L.J.’s daughter and Larry Jr.’s sister, who ran the company with her brother and is now retired. “He wanted to preserve the beauty of the building and thought it would make a great home for himself.”

Read the full story from the April issue here.