Family Business Has Plenty of Fathers to Celebrate

Father's Day is not the Wagon Wheel Nursery & Farmstand's busiest holiday, as its large selection of flowers makes it much more of a popular destination around Mother's Day.

But for a third-generation family business, Father's Day is significant to co-owners and brothers Nick Jr. and Larry Cannalonga, whose grandfather, Vito, began the the Wagon Wheel as a small garden center, and whose father, Nick Sr., owned the business before them.

"The advantage to the family aspect of the business is trust, honesty and integrity," Nick Jr. said. "I have faith in them like I couldn't in anyone else."

"I see how there could be problems, but we are always on the same page and agree that neither one of us are bigger than Wagon Wheel," he continued. "We always agree to do what's best for the store."

Vito Cannalonga's venture into landscaping and construction began in 1952, as he worked on office buildings all over New England and opened the Wagon Wheel, at 957 Waltham St., to supplement his income.

The Wagon Wheel thrived during the following decades, and over the years evolved to provide deli items and produce alongside flowers, plants and award-winning landscaping products. 

Nick Jr. joined the family business in the mid-1990s during a bad time for construction.

"As my grandfather's construction and landscaping business began doing worse, the garden center became the focus and we added a farm stand," he said. "Larry came on board shortly thereafter and he now heads up the garden center side of the operation," he said.

Through the transition, the Wagon Wheel has continued to do well, said Nick Jr., and in 2000 the building was refurnished, and the brothers continue adding items to the store.

"Farmstands are a dying breed in the food business," he said.

The Wagon Wheel name came from his grandfather's love of Westerns, and has remained ever since.

"Cannalonga Landscaping simply doesn't work," he said, as he rang up a customer's boxes of vegetables, which were promptly wheeled out to a waiting vehicle by a farmstand staffer, on a recent afternoon.

Nick, a father of two, said he and Larry, who has three kids of his own, plan to spend Father's Day with their families. But the Wagon Wheel will be open, where he says the store will most likely sell a lot of ornamental plants and food for barbeques. 

"Dad, Larry and I get along great, and I'm sure I'll see them on Sunday," he said.