Marshall May

Martha & Helen May

Helen May

A Growing Team…

Ed Swango joined the Mays Greenhouse team in 1981, at just 16 years old. He started out working in annuals but worked his way up to manager of the houseplants department, where he stayed for many years. In 1997, Ed’s partner Bob Pennington was hired seasonally to help Nancy’s husband work on furnaces, but he was well-liked enough to stay on full-time doing maintenance and growing shade annuals. Both Ed and Bob became owners in 2004, following Helen May’s retirement. As of today, Ed and Bob are no longer with us, and their presence is greatly missed, but we take comfort in knowing that they are together once again. They do visit us from time to time in spirit though, occasionally throwing things across the store or walking through vacant greenhouses, so we know they’re both still keeping an eye on the greenhouses that they dedicated so much of their lives to.

The Next Generation…

In late winter of 1996, shortly after graduating from high school, Jason Fulton was hired by Helen May for the maintenance of the perennial department. Under Helen’s wing, Jason continued working at May’s while attaining his horticulture degree, which he received in the year 2000. In the spring of 2004, he created our nursery department by branching out into woody trees and shrubs, and over the years he has continued to expand both the perennials and nursery lines, with a special focus on native plants. In 2013, Jason became an owner, but he still manages the perennials and nursery departments in tandem. Often-times in spring you will see him working 7 days a week, showing up early and staying late, ensuring everything is running smoothly.

Nate Pennington started working at Mays Greenhouse alongside his father Bob as a teenager in the early spring of 1997. He spent the majority of his time doing the sort of after-school work that he still hires high schoolers to do today, carrying plants out to customers’ vehicles and helping plant seedlings. He continued working at Mays during breaks throughout his college career and post-college he pursued a career in the automotive industry, but eventually he came back to work at Mays full-time managing our maintenance department, as his father did. Nate became an owner in 2012 following the passing of his father Bob, and he too continues to manage the department that he was originally hired into nearly 30 years ago, in tandem with the duties of ownership.

Nate and Jason are now the sole owners of Mays Greenhouse, but their commitment remains the same as that of their predecessors: To carry a wide array of uncommon, high-quality plants that you can’t find just anywhere. And though we lost Judy in 2023, Nancy, Martha, and Helen still visit us regularly, so we know we must be doing something right – if we weren’t, they’d be sure to let us know!