Fifty years ago, when Don Harvey was working on his family’s flower farm in central Iowa, gladioli were immensely popular as cut flowers. Several farms in the Des Moines area produced acres of them and they were sold all over the Midwest.

Over the years, the demand for gladioli has floated up and down on the tides of fashion. Most of the gladiolus farms are long gone. Don and Mary Harvey have adapted to the horticultural trends, and their flower farm has evolved into primarily a retail greenhouse. But they are still growing glads and selling them to florists, supermarkets and at farmers’ markets.

Don’s parents, John and Agnes Harvey, grew asters, snapdragons and sweet peas along with glads on their farm in De Soto, near Des Moines. Don and his father ran routes across Iowa selling to florists when Don was in high school. In 1955, Don graduated and a few years later came back to work on the farm. The Harveys also grew potted plants and vegetable transplants in their greenhouses, but cut flowers were their mainstay and florists their primary customers.

In 1976, Don married Mary Frances Lee, who was working in an insurance office in Des Moines, but eager to get back to the kind of life she had known growing up on a dairy farm in Versailles, Missouri. Don and Mary had 10 children from their previous marriages. They bought the business from Don’s father and continued their progression from flower farm to garden center, as the demand for glads began to wane. “Back when gladioli were going great guns, the florists would order 20 bunches twice a week,” Mary said. “It has dropped off tremendously from what it used to be. It seems in floral school today they don’t teach arranging with glads except for funerals.” But even as florists were losing interest, consumers were getting excited about glads. The Harveys started going to a farmers’ market in Des Moines in 1976, where they regularly sold out of every glad they brought. “We would get there at 6 a.m. and you would see people running over to get them,” Mary said. “It has continued to be a great market for us.”

Today the Harveys grow 4 acres of glads and 4 acres of other cut flowers such as zinnias and celosia. They sell to florists in Des Moines, Omaha, and several smaller Iowa cities. Eighty percent of their gross revenue, though, is now from plant sales. Harvey Floral Company has 20 greenhouses covering a full acre. Plants are sold both retail and wholesale to other garden centers and stores. The combination of garden center and cut flower business has been a good one for the Harveys. The schedules fit nicely, with flowers coming into bloom just as plant sales start to slow in summer. The dual businesses also allow the Harveys to keep a core group of valuable employees working year-round.

Greenhouse business
The Harveys have thrived in the greenhouse business in spite of the competition from the mass marketers like Lowes, Walmart and K mart. In fact, back in the 1970s and 1980s, wholesale accounted for three-fourths of their business. Today, despite intense retail competition, their retail sales have grown to half their revenue. They say they have succeeded with retail by offering quality and variety not found in any discount store’s parking lot. “We offer things to our customers that they can’t get at Walmart or K mart,” Mary said. “They can get their red petunias and marigolds there, but the sophisticated gardener wants things they read about in the Sunday paper, and you don’t find those things at Walmart. The good gardener will drive miles to go to a good garden center.”

So the Harveys try to offer everything imaginable in annuals, perennials, vegetables, bedding and container plants. They also have a couple of specialties that set them apart from other garden centers. “To stay alive in the garden center business, you have to find some niches that are unique,” Mary said.
For many years, the Harveys’ niche has been cactus. They have the largest selection of cactus and succulents in the Midwest. Although there are still cactus aficionados who come from afar to get plants, the general public is losing interest. “Cactus is on the way out, but now herbs are going great,” Mary said. “We rode that one in, and we believe that one’s going to stay.”

The Harveys got in at the beginning of the herb trend, after hearing a conference speaker say that interest in herbs was growing on the coasts. They knew that the fad would hit the Midwest a year later, so they started growing herbs in earnest. Now they have three greenhouses full of herbs, 250 varieties. Basil, at $3 a plant, is one of their top sellers. “People come in looking for basil and we send them back to the bench with 15 varieties of basil. They’re amazed because they didn’t even know there were 15 kinds of basil,” Mary said. “They’ve learned something, and then they go home and look up herbs in a book and learn more and want more.”

The Harveys have another specialty, starting wildflower seeds for Allendan Seed Farm, a nearby operation that grows 300 acres of wildflowers for seed that is sold primarily to highway beautification programs. The Allen family, owners of the farm, have been continually expanding their production, but it’s been hard to find nurseries that will grow the plants for them. Harvey Floral is doing it during the summer, when the greenhouses are not as busy. Again, it’s a small niche that keeps cash flow and employees going during the summer.

Harvey Floral has about 20 employees during its peak season. They have a number of labor-saving devices, such as a pot filler and vacuum seeder, but there’s no getting around the fact that growing plants is labor-intensive.

Cut flowers
Outside the greenhouses, which sit right beside the Harvey’s home, is a big flat field where the glads and other flowers are grown. The town of Adel, 12 miles west of Des Moines, was once a tiny burg but it has grown up around them and now Harvey Floral is surrounded on two sides by the high school and its playing fields.

Don uses an assortment of what he describes as “ancient” equipment. “The newest is a ‘62 and it doesn’t work,” he said. “The next newest is a ‘55.”

“It just goes to show you don’t have to have all the latest equipment,” Mary adds. The Harveys, using an old bulb planter, do three plantings of glads, in mid-April, mid-May and the first week of June. They plant a large number of varieties, with different days to maturity, to keep the number of plantings to a minimum. The glads start to bloom in late June and go till mid-September. The first two plantings are #1 bulbs, and the last planting is #3s, which produces a smaller flower but still adequate for their markets. They also have started growing miniature glads, which are becoming more popular with florists for bouquet work.

Don swings down a row of glads with a speed born of decades of experience. His knife is in his hand, and he quickly cuts the stems and simultaneously picks them up. He advises that the stem be cut when the first flower at the bottom is coming out. He stores them in the cooler in plain water, and says the glads open readily at the flower shop or supermarket and give a good week’s vase life.
The Harveys have always just cut what was blooming and taken it out on their route to visit the florists of Iowa. Usually, they sell most of it.

“Unless you’re very large, selling on spec is the best way to go,” Mary said. “It would take one person working full time to keep up with a list of all the varieties you’ve got, and fax or call it to the florists. That means one more person on the payroll.”

Dividing the responsibilities
Asked to give advice to couples who farm together, Don jokes “Don’t.” Mary is more forthcoming. “Don and I have gotten along pretty well working together,” she said. “It has been a real joy for me to be able to work with my spouse. I feel that for the employees’ sake, one person should be in charge but if I think we ought to be doing something differently, I say so.”

“Boy, does she!” Don breaks in. “There’s enough to do in this business that you can do your own things without getting in the other person’s way,” Mary continues. “Coming into the business after Don was established has required me to not step on his territory. What I have done is let him keep his space, but I have opened up new spaces for me to work and not tread on his space.”

So while Don manages the growing operations, Mary specializes in personnel management. She does all the hiring and firing, the payroll, the computer programs that keep the books. She arranges the advertising in the newspaper and works with the news media. She also is involved in local flower, lawn and garden shows. Last year’s show in Des Moines was a big success, and the show plans to quadruple its space next year. “February and March,could be one of our slow times but Flower Lawn & Garden Shows let us generate working capital to keep us going through those months, too,” Mary said.

The future
Although Don and Mary quite obviously love their work, they caution that it has been all-consuming for them. Don and Mary say it just isn’t possible to take a weekend off in May. They also have 17 grandchildren who occasionally work in the greenhouses when they need money, but so far none have seemed likely candidates for succession.

But Don and Mary aren’t talking about retiring. If anything, they hope to grow the business, to increase the retail side and eventually drop the wholesale side.

Mary says the key to staying enthusiastic about a business is to know when it’s time to take a break.
“I recommend having a hobby that gets your out of the general run of daily tasks,” she said. “I have several things I like to do that gets me away from the business when I need a break. Bowling, geneology, and quilting are my sanity when things get too insane in the business. Don likes to go to the casino for his hobby. Whatever it is, you need to get away from business, spouse and kids and do something that’s fun for you.”