Of Flowers, Pants and Family

FLOWERS HAVE A  LANGUAGE ALL THEIR OWN -- the Victorian Age called it floriography -- speaking to us through their vibrant colors, dramatic shapes, and wonderful scents.  

Flowers have been adding beauty to our planet for millions of years, playing an important role in the evolution of our ecosystems, cultures and civilization.  From births to funerals, they are symbols of our love, grief, passion and so many other human feelings.  Can you imagine spring in Wisconsin without the expectations of color coming out of the ground (often before the snow is melted) from tulips, daffodils and  grape crocuses?  

During my college days, I learned a few things.  (Ha, ha!  I can hear Liz laughing in the background.)  I used to deliver flowers for Felly's Flowers during semester breaks, and even though I spent eight to ten hours a day with them, my understanding is on par with quantum physics.  Nonetheless, here is what I did learn.  1) Most of the roses we sold came from the Netherlands,  2) we used dye to give our carnations a certain color and  3) I learned women love getting flowers at work.  The more people who see them receiving them the better.

The list of what I don't know, however, remains long.   I'm amazed that when it gets cold, they know to go dormant, storing their energy until the conditions improve the following spring.  These survival instincts not only allow them passage through winter,  but drought and wildfires, as well.   

Most importantly, few of us know the real work and dedication that goes into turning an ordinary seed into the amazing creations we find in floral shops and greenhouses.

What would it be like if flowers could actually talk to us?  Do they have personalities?  Are the flowers used for funerals sad or serious?  Are roses, so popular at Valentiines, not only thorny, but also horny?  I've got to believe sunflowers have a sunny disposition on life.  How could they not?

My favorite flowers would be those with a sense of humor.

Daisy:  "Why did the flower go to the dentist? "  After a few moments, the daisy continues, " Give up?  It's because it needed a root canal!" 

The tulip snickers, shaking its leafy stalk, and says:  "Well, since it's Valentine's Day, did you know tulips are better than one?" The daisy wiggles in the dirt with laughter.

And so, I imagine, it goes...

My fascination with flowers comes from my older sister, Linda, who is as synonomous with beautiful flowers as March Madness is to exciting basketball.

After 45 years, and a few aborted attempts to retire along the way, she is hanging up her pruning snips, bags of mulch and watering can.   Ah, retirement!

In 1977, after a few years of digging in people's mouths as a dentall hygienist using tooth scrapers, plaque removers and other teeth cleaning tools, she went back to school for an associate's degree in horticulture.  

Less than two years later, she was digging in flowers pots instead of patient's mouths.  She had found something that she enjoyed and could really sink her fingers into.

She credits our family's semi-agrarian lifestyle (half a century ago many of our neighbors had gardens that filled their back yards, including ours) for her interest in flowers and plants.  I have to agree -- once you get dirt under your fingernails, it's hard to get it out.

I wish mom and dad had pictures of us as kids, working in the garden, covered in dirt from head to toes.  I can remember one summer day after a thunderstorm the night before.  Our job was to bolster up the corn stalks that had fallen during the heavy rains.  If you've ever tried to contain mud, you can imagine how frustrating it was mounding up slop while fighting off the mosquitoes.  Despite the occassional hardship of growing vegetables and other plants, something took root in Linda's mind -- and heart -- that led to a lifetime of bringing success to whatever she was planting.

As part of her univerity studies, she needed three months of hands-on experience (an internship) at a local greenhouse.  Fortunately, she had a great one at home -- La Crosse Floral.  It was during these three months that she met Richard and John Zoerb (a high school classmate of our mother's) and formed a relationship -- one that led to her being offered a job when she was finished with her associates degree.  It was an offer she would not refuse.  Her first day at La Crosse Floral was December 10, 1979.  

Like all new employees, she needed training, which meant learning how to do the planting and watering.  Over time it expanded to cleaning work areas, packing products and even working at the retail store downtown (which she confessses to having not enjoyed).  Linda's personality was one of quiet, but reliable servitude, not so much selling to customers.  

Through apptitude and necessity, Linda soon found herself getting thrust into all aspects of an expanding business.  In the early 80's,  La Crosse Floral had 18 greenhouses and 75,000 square feet of growing space including wholesale, retail and corporate contracts with large buinesses in town, multiple churches and funeral homes.  Her hard work, and an abrupt change to the business hierarchy, eventually led to being promoted into management.  That had its own challenges, of course -- hiring and firing employees is never easy, and finding someone who wants to stand on their feet all day in hot and humid conditions was difficult.  Extremes in weather and maintaining greenhouse equipment led to many sleepless nights.  Sometimes it was easier to sleep at the greenhouse rather than drive over at 2:00 in the morning to start the furnace when the temperature dipped below freezing.

I don't know of too many people who would get out of a warm bed, get into a cold car, drive to work and turn on a furnace.  As a matter of fact, I only know of one.  My sister.

It was that kind of dedication the Zoerb family saw in her when John Zoerb gave her more and more responsibilities.  

Family.  It's a term floated around La Crosse Floral by employees and customers alike - - and in the conversation I'm having with Linda -- it anchors this story, and explains why she has remained with the business through more than four decades.

La Crosse Floral was incorporated in 1908. A few years later, beginning with Carl Zoerb in 1916,and again in 1930,  the Zoerb family's association with the business was fortified with shared family values.   Hans, John, Richard, Fritz and Linda Zoerb all had a hand in growing -- pun intended -- the business.  Each generation put sustainability, shared values and a strong emotional commitment to the company's legacy, to provide La Crosse with exceptional service and a product that was better than the competition.

It was not easy, as most family interactions can sometimes be messy and unpredictable.  But with over 100 years of experience, knowledge and community connections people knew who to call for floral arrangements for formals, weddings, funerals and plantscaping.  They provided plants and flowers for some of the biggest names in La Crosse:  First Federal Bank, Dairyland Power and Trane Company.

It's one reason why La Crosse Floral was named as one of the top "100 Revolutionary Garden Centers of North America by Today's Garden Center magazine in 2014.

Which brings us back to Linda and her growing expertise in planning months in advance for daisies, geraniums, poinsettias, lillies and mums.  She says her biggest challenge was always having the desired flower in bloom when the season arrived.  She's much too modest to agree with me, but if they handed out most valuable player awards at La Crosse Floral, she would have a shelf full of them.  Being able able to read nickle defenses and blitzing linebackers in football is much easier than trying to control when poinsettias and lillies will bloom for the holidays.  You have to be able to control the amount of sunlight, day and nightime temperatures and moisture when the means of providing all of that is constantly changing.

Not only does the weather vary, but so does planning for a holiday like Easter when it can come early or late iin the year.  But don't expect the customer to understand -- they just want their flowers in time to enjoy.

What's it feel like ending a business that is over 100 years old?

"Like it's time," says Linda, who remains working every day despite the business officially ending on January 5th.   "There's still a lot of work to do, between selling remaining inventory and everything from tables, to pots to soil and equipment."

"I'm going to miss the spring plantings," she says.  "Springtime in the greenhouse was always the best!  But physically, it's taken its toll.  I just can't keep doing what I have been doing."

Bittersweet is a word that comes to MY mind.  I don't know if it applies, but the bitter would represent the  struggles all businesses have had since the COVID shutdowns in 2020 to maintain and hire staff.  Like so many businesses, lack of help, much less qualified help, has meant shorter hours and more work for the employees that remain.  Competition from big stores like Home Depot, Walmart, Menards, Shopko (back before it closed), and online availability has meant a change in business practices.  The greenhouse moved away from wholesale and concentrated on local contracts with businesses that have used La Crosse Floral for more than 40 years.  The aging condition of the greenhouse has also been a real challenge as costs have increased and maintenance of the 18 houses has rmeant reducing their growing space to about 6 houses.  Plumbing and maintaining an aging boiler has also been difficult.

On the other hand, sweet would reflect the many memories of the people and suppliers who have worked with or called on La Crosse Floral.  "I've been lucky to work in an environment that always felt like family to me," she says with a smile.  

After a pause Linda continues, "You know, when our dad became ill and later died,  John Zoerb took his place.  And I don't have many memories of our grandparents.  I don't remember spending much time with either mom's or dad's parents, so again, the people I worked with at the flower shop and greenhouse  became their replacement.   I've always been lucky to have my other family (at work) to spend time with with."

She was also lucky to work with someone like John who thought she could handle the additional responsibilities early, even through it typically takes  8-10 years of experience to be a greenhouse grower.  Linda credits this confidence in her as one of the biggest reasons she has continued working for La Crosse Floral all these years.  And she never wanted to betray this trust by leaving or going somewhere else.

She remembers the early Easter breakfasts, Christmas parties, New Year's Eve hotdogs and Bluffside Tavern gatherings around a pitcher of beer.  And nothing can replace the joy she got from looking through Johnny's Selected Seed catalog, a horticulturalist's absolute wishlist and something millions of people can relate to while waiting for the Sear's Christmas catalog from the early to mid 1900's.

One of her favorite memories includes the day when she was working in her office (probably planning the upcoming planting schedule), when Hans walked in to ask her a question.  No sooner did he stop walking, and his pants fell down around his ankles.  He stood there a second, realized what had happened and without ANY embarrassment or apology, pulled them up.  "Got a rope?" he asked, holding his pants tight to his waist.

"Now that's something you don't expect to see everyday," Linda says, laughing in remembrance.

I imagine it will be hard selling off those cherished parts of her past.  I retired about a year and half ago, and spent my last month going through files, catalogs, old photographs and garbage bags full of papers.  To be honest, it was easy putting them into the trash.  My relationships were always more valuable to me than the paperwork.

I'm sure my sister will have a much harder time selling greenhouse tables, benches and pots that she has been using for so many years.  I'm sure they not only represent her past but are, by now, part of her DNA.  She 'll never get the smell of soil, water and fertilizer out of her nose.  Or the feel of her favorite gloves and tools that fit her hands so well.  The sound of the greenhouse in the middle of the night, and the busy conversations with eager customers planning their gardens (especially the customer who wants to know where she's going to find the Green Magic variety of broccoli) when she's gone.  They will always surface when she takes a moment to look back on her tenure at La Crosse Floral.

Few people are able to find a job they enjoy as much as Linda has at the greenhouse,  Even fewer do it for 45 years.

Early fans of Linda's work

Retirement is next for her.  In addition to spending more time with her sister and her family in Minneapolis, she has always enjoyed traveling.  Last spring Liz and I took her with us to the Big Five national parks in Utah.  We thought she needed a break from her job, and few things bring as much enjoyment to her as flowers.  One of them is traveling to national parks.  So traveling -- near and far -- is in her future.

And finally, she will be able to spend more time in her own garden.  Planting what she wants, when she wants and how she wants.  It's the same garden (but considerably smaller) that our dad used for growing his garden.  Hello beans, peppers, tomatoes and maybe squash (although she usually gives them all away).  My sister, Tina, who is also retired, is probably eager to come help -- especially in the fall when Linda will  harvest, can and store tomatoes and grapes from the back yard.

Something tells me our dad --and Hans, with pants firmly tied around his waist -- are looking down on her, proud of her choice to become a horticulturalist, and what she has meant to so many people in need of a little advice and a helping hand in making their lives a little more beautiful.