H ME&Garden Edition
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www.driftlessjournal.com | news@driftlessjournal.com | 563-382-4221 | Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | Vol. 6 Issue 17
Alex and Jenn Slifka recently moved into their new home south of Spring Valley. (submitted)
‘The Bohemian Palace of the South Side’
Slifkas build their unique forever home
By Denise Lana When salon owner Jenn Slifka and her husband, Alex, bought their first home just shy of a decade ago, they chose an old farmhouse that was situated on 10 acres south of Spring Valley, Minn. Over the next nine years, the couple juggled spending family time with their three sons, owning/operating numerous businesses in downtown Spring Valley, and completing projects to fix up their aging homestead. “It had been remodeled a few times and had different additions,” Jenn said. “There wasn’t anything about it that offered a lot of character or seemed orig-
inal to the house.” Alex, a woodworker by trade, and Jenn decided that the old farmhouse needed so much work, it would be easier to raze the structure and start fresh. Realizing a pre-planned house design might be too generic for what they wanted in their dream home, Jenn and Alex designed their house together and drew up the floor plans from scratch. They explained, “Once we got the plan drawn up and sized, we sent it to an architect to get actual blueprints to work off of. We wanted a simple
Slifka home
continued on page 4
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Join Jill to celebrate her 10th year of ownership & 78 years in business!
Mark’s Jewelry Since 1946
105 W Main St. St. Lucas, IA | www.marksjewelry.net | 563.778.2232 TUES, WED, FRI 10-5 | THURS 10-7 | SAT 10-1
Tickets on Sale NOW! at Participating Locations:
Plantpeddler owners reflect on 43 years of success By Zach Jensen The Driftless region is home to many headline-making companies and businesses, but one stands out as having earned regional, national and international acclaim. With the help of 100 loyal and hardworking employees and a few robots, this once-momand-pop retail store has set dozens of world records for its horticulture business. As part of their mission, the company helps schools around the United States and has recently earned recognition from Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig for its contributions to agricultural education. Mike and Rachel Gooder founded Plantpeddler nearly 44 years ago in Cresco and have been “growing” their business ever since. The beginning “From 1980 to today, the company has averaged 8 to 10 percent growth every year,” said co-owner Mike Gooder. “We always strive to build a better plant, and that mission is what Plantpeddler is all about, and it’s been fun. We started as a mom-andpop store, and now we’re global. We work internationally with plant breeders and offshore production to bring plant material into the country. We do a lot of exciting stuff.” “We keep growing our wholesale and young plant divisions,” added Rachel Gooder. “In the beginning, retail was 100 percent of our business, but now, we’re about two percent retail, and the rest is wholesale and young plants.” The largest portion of Plantpeddler’s business stems from the company’s young plant division where they provide starters for about 3,000 greenhouses throughout the country. “We support greenhouse growers large to small,” said Mike. “They might buy a few products from us, or they might buy almost everything they need. We’re most known for our production of begonias, but we’re also one of the biggest propagators of Poinsettias in the country. We produce several million of each of those crops every year. In total, we propagate 15 to 18 million young plants per year.” But, like most successful businesses, Plantpeddler comes from humble beginnings. In fact, Mike’s inspiration for the business was fostered by his Crestwood
The Plantpeddler Administration Team is pictured in the young plants facility part of the 14 acres of growing space the company owns in Cresco. RIGHT- It’s illegal to import most rooted plants into the United States due to the potential to spread diseases and pests. As a result, Plantpeddler imports “slips” or “cuttings” from premium and hybrid plants from breeders around the world. The slips are subsequently grown into flowers and plants which are sold to retailers across the country. High School FFA instructor, Glen Dillon, who changed his life. After learning the basics from Mr. Dillon, all Mike needed was a little more “kick” to get motivated to build his dream. “For one of my classes in horticulture at Iowa State (ISU), I had a project to design a greenhouse operation and create a business plan,” Mike remembered. “For mine, I was going to propagate Poinsettias, begonias, geraniums, mums and other crops in the greenhouse range. The instructor gave me an A on the project but wrote on it, very clearly, ‘Whatever you do, don’t try this, because you will likely fail.’ That made it the ultimate challenge, so I had to do it. That was the motivation I needed.” While at ISU, Mike met Rachel, who was studying turf management at the university to become a golf course superintendent. “We met in a turf class and decided to date,” Rachel said, “and we worked at a golf course one summer to see which way we wanted to go. It was a great job, and we loved the work, but it just wasn’t for us. So, we decided to buy a greenhouse and had an opportunity in Mike’s hometown of Cresco.” Mike and Rachel married on June 20, 1980, and just eight days later, they bought the Cresco Greenhouse from Arnie and Pauline Kubalsky and began Plantpeddler. “We knew two college graduates couldn’t make a living off a small greenhouse and store,” Rachel said. “So, in 1984 we opened the second retail location in Decorah, and said we’d grow as much as we can for both locations, and if we had anything extra, we’d wholesale it.” In 1995, the Gooders big box stores started selling plants during holidays, a staple of
floral operations. “That’s when we decided to pursue expansion into young plant production,” Rachel said. “In the year 2000 we started propagating young plants, and that’s when we started shipping nationally, instead of just regionally.” Plantpeddler partnered with Dummen of Germany to produce rooted Hiemalis Begonia, and other major crop liners, for the North American market. Subsequently, this helped establish Plantpeddler as a greenhouse young plant supplier. Plantpeddler Sales Manager Stacy Bryant said Dummen had a line of begonias, and Mike was looking for inputs of begonias. “The young plant liners that Plantpeddler sells now are something specific that we originally couldn’t find: Good quality liners,” Bryant said. “So, Mike was rooting for Dummen, and by doing that, we had access to the best liners in the United States.” “The Young Plant facility (opening in 2002) was an important jump forward for us as a company,” Mike said. “Through the Dummen relationship, we built our international company and got to know the global market. We started chasing genetics, and through our focused efforts, we’ve built partnerships with leading ornamental plant breeders around the world.” Because of the potential for foreign pests and diseases, most rooted plants can’t be imported from other countries into the U.S. To facilitate this, Plantpeddler imports small pieces of plant material,
Plantpeddler continued on page 6
Waukon Chamber’s
SPRING STYLE SHOW
Broker Leather, Epic Wear, Elliott Jewelers Hello Sunshine, Silver Laine
The growing business:
Waukon Banquet Center Friday, April 26th Doors Open - 5:00 PM, Show Starts - 6:30 PM