DELHI TWP. – Ron Robben said his father, George, wasn’t too sure about the plan to tear down historic elements of the family business and replace them with something brand new.

“My dad was a little apprehensive at first,” said Robben, the third-generation owner of Robben Florist & Garden Center on Pedretti Road in Delhi.

But, as difficult a decision as it was to erase a portion of the company’s past, he said the time had come to replace two of the garden center’s original greenhouses with new structures.

Robben recently tore down two of their four wooden Rough Brothers greenhouses, which dated back to 1932, and installed two new greenhouses. The original wooden greenhouses were built a year after Robben’s grandfather, George Robben Sr., opened the business in 1931.

“Those greenhouses definitely served their purpose,” Robben said. “Now my dad loves the new greenhouses. He still comes by the garden center and he enjoys walking through here and telling customers all about the new houses.”

Two of the old wooden A-frame style greenhouses remain standing next to the new greenhouses, but Robben said he plans to replace those as well in the next year or two.

Delhi Township native Keith Bemerer, who works for Cincinnati-based Rough Brothers Inc. and served as the designer and project manager for Robben on the new greenhouses, said the garden center’s wooden greenhouses are among the oldest in the township.

“Back then they used redwood and cypress bars because those particular types of wood don’t rot,” he said. “They were built really strong, but weather has taken its toll on the houses. The roofs are bowing because of 84 years of rain and winter snow.”

He said the new greenhouses Robben installed are taller, built with galvanized steel and have poly-inflated roof panels instead of glass. They provide more light, better temperature control and more overhead space for irrigation systems and hanging baskets, he said.

The Gothic style shape of the roofs on the new greenhouses also shed water and snow faster than the old A-frame structure, Bemerer said.

Robben said the computerized roof opens and closes electronically, allowing him to easily adjust the temperature inside the greenhouse by a matter of degrees.

“These new houses are much more efficient and they hold more plants,” he said. “The customers like the larger greenhouses.”

Robben, his cousin Larry Robben, who is the greenhouse manager, and their staff installed the greenhouses themselves, and he said although the work was sometimes a challenge they were able to keep the business open and not interrupt any plant growing during the project.

The garden center has 6,000 hearty mums ready for the fall season and thousands of poinsettia plants are now growing in the new greenhouses for the upcoming holiday season.

“We’re a third-generation family business,” he said. “These new greenhouses will last another generation.”