A History of Minnesota Floriculture

Floriculture as an American industry is a development of the nineteenth century. In 1800, there was one commercial florist known to be in business in the United States. Three more opened between 1810 and 1820, another eight between 1820 and 1830, and 25 more in the next decade. Naturally, population growth and development of the industry occurred later in the mid-western states than in the more populous East.

In 1838, the settlement of St. Paul was started on the east bank of the Mississippi River. The Minnesota Territory was created by the U.S. Congress in 1849. Three public squares in the loop section were donated to St. Paul for park purposes in 1849. They were Rice Park by Henry M. Rice, Smith Park by Cornelius S. Whitney and Robert Smith and Irvine Park by John R. Irvine. This recognition of the need for public park space in Minnesota preceded even the establishment of Central Park in New York City. The beginnings of Minnesota's floriculture industry followed shortly thereafter.

The Territorial Legislature granted a charter to the University of Minnesota and provided for the establishment of the Department of Agriculture in 1851. The first settlement on the west side of the Mississippi River was established the same year, as was Minnesota's first commercial nursery.

Minnesota Floriculture Pioneers

Daniel A. Robertson who, according to University of Minnesota professor William Alderman, "was a wonderful man interested in almost everything including horticulture," was the first president of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society (1866) and the first University of Minnesota Professor of Agriculture. (1869 photo courtesy Minnesota State Horticultural Society) Samuel B. Green, the first professor of Horticulture at the University of Minnesota (1888) and the chief of the Division of Horticulture until 1910. (Photo courtesy University of Minnesota Extension Service archives) Lyman M. Ford, often considered to have been Minnesota's first florist, started his 'nursery' in St. Paul's Midway district in 1851. (1898 photo courtesy Minnesota State Horticultural Society)

The Minnesota Pioneer, Minnesota's first newspaper, was launched in St. Paul about 1848. A few years later the Daily Press appeared in St. Paul. The Daily Press cofounder, and its editor in 1862, J.A. Wheelock, later served as President of the St. Paul Board of Park Commissioners and as St. Paul Postmaster.

Obviously there were numerous leaders among the early residents who appreciated horticulture and its benefits. In 1851, a native of New York State, Lyman M. Ford, started Minnesota's first nursery. His Groveland Garden and Nursery was situated on his 160-acre claim nearly midway between St. Paul and St. Anthony on St. Anthony Road (now Avenue) in St. Paul. In a few years, Ford added the "pioneer greenhouse" and hired "a good bouquet maker" from Cincinnati to provide "floral luxuries" for people in the "two embryo cities" of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Ford ran the business until 1885. Later the Minnesota Transfer (railroad) was built on part of the land, and the area became a part of what is now Merriam Park in St. Paul.

In 1857, Dr. Alfred E. Ames of Minneapolis brought gardener William Buckendorf from Germany to Minneapolis. Buckendorf was considered by some to be the first florist in Minnesota, although Ford and his "bouquet maker" may be challengers to that claim. In 1858, Ames and Buckendorf built two greenhouses on Eighth Avenue South between Fourth and Fifth Streets for private use. A few years later, Buckendorf began operating greenhouses on a commercial basis.

The St. Paul City Market, an outlet for the sale of horticultural products, opened at 7th and Wabasha in 1853.

Horticultural clubs began springing up. The first garden club in Minnesota, the St. Paul Horticultural Society, was founded on February 20, 1860. Within a month, on March 17, 1860, the St. Anthony and Minneapolis Horticultural Society was formed. The state's population was only 172,000 in that year's census.

The Minneapolis Farmers' Market was established at Hennepin Avenue and First Street by Harlow Gale in the 1860s.

In 1866, Colonel Daniel A. Robertson helped organize the Minnesota Fruit Growers Association and became its first president. In 1868, the name was changed to the Minnesota Horticultural Society, and in 1873 the present day name, Minnesota State Horticultural Society was adopted.

The Austin Ladies Floral Club was organized in 1869.

Comparing the pace of agricultural development in the United States shows Minnesota clearly at the forefront. For instance, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was only established in 1862.

Early Florists and The First Flower Show

Wyman Elliot bought 80 acres near Franklin and Chicago Avenues in Minneapolis and started the first market garden in that city. In 1862, he built two greenhouses to supply plants and flowers.

The first Minnesota Flower Show was held on July 4, 1863, and Charles M. Loring reported a profit of over $600.00.

Also in 1863, nurseries were started in Minneapolis by William Hanson at Market and Fourth, and by August H. Weigelt at Broadway between 9th and 10th.

In 1865, R.J. Mendenhall built a few small greenhouses at Ni-collet and 18th Street South for private use. He hired Henry Buckendorf, brother of William, went commercial, and kept adding to the plant until it was, as reported by one source, "one of the foremost in the country." After growing his complex until it covered more than a city block, a second range was begun at 28th Avenue South and 38th Street. In 1908, Mendenhall sold his property to L.S. Donaldson, and the greenhouses were torn down one year later. William Buckendorf erected a greenhouse on his own property at Fourth Street and Seventh Avenue South in 1866.

Truman M. Smith started a nursery on Dayton's Bluff, St. Paul, in 1866, selling hardy roses, fruit plants and evergreens. A diversified businessman, Smith was also a banker and a seller of marble. That same year, Colonel Daniel A. Robertson started a fruit farm and nursery on Summit Avenue, offering bedding plants, flowers, plants in pots, bouquets and fruit plants for sale. His interests too were expansive. By 1869, he was the Sheriff of Ramsey County. Also in 1866, Schiller and Schmidt started their nursery on Third Street above St. Peter Street.

Developments were also occurring beyond the metropolitan area. The Faribault Nursery was established by Oliver F. Brand in 1867. It was to become a leader in peony breeding. The firm name was changed to O.F. Brand and Son in 1899 and to the Brand Nursery Company in 1911, by Oliver's son, A.M. Brand.

Jewel Nursery (and florist) was started in Lake City in 1868. The Jewel Greenhouse was still operating in 1995.

Pfeiffer Nursery was established in Winona in 1872. It produced a variety of outdoor cut flowers and plants over the years including peonies, iris, gladiolus, dahlias and other perennials. In the 1930s and 1940s, Pfeiffer sold railroad carloads of gladiolus corms to firms such as Sears Roebuck, for retailing in east coast cities such as Boston and Philadelphia. The business closed about 1960.

Twin City Parks

St. Paul's City Council created a committee in 1867 to develop and maintain the park lands that had been donated in 1849. The Minnesota Legislature in 1872 required a Ramsey County judge to appoint a commission to locate and contract for 500 to 650 acres of land near St. Paul for a public park. In 1873, land on the shores of Como Lake was identified, and Como Park eventually became the largest of more than 100 parks in St. Paul. A second park, Phalen Park, was established in 1890.

St. Paul parks were under the direct control of the City Council from 1873 to 1887. The Council hired 'Professor' Horace W.S. Cleveland in 1873 to design a park system. Over the years, he designed the park systems for both St. Paul and Minneapolis, including the systems of parkways connecting individual parks. He also designed Lakewood and Oakland Cemeteries, plus other tracts.

The Minneapolis Park Board, established in 1883, and the St. Paul Board of Park Commissioners, in 1887, took over responsibilities for their respective park systems from their city councils.

Cleveland also advised the University of Minnesota on the development and landscaping of its properties. He was one of the first generation of landscape architects or landscape gardeners. He came from New England and was largely self-taught. Although never associated with a college, he was addressed with the honorific 'professor' because he was well read, widely traveled and articulate. Cleveland Avenue on the west border of the St. Paul Campus (actually located in the community of Falcon Heights) of the University was named after him.

Industry Development in the Twin Cities

Early industry listings in St. Paul's city directory were all under the section on 'Nurseries.' By 1869, a 'Greenhouse and Gardens' section was added to make a clearer distinction between florists and nurseries. Overlap remained, however, because many of the pioneer firms offered both floral and nursery products. By 1873, the separate classifications 'Florists' and 'Nurseries' were in use.

There were 26 St. Paul florists and six nurseries listed in 1890 edition of the St. Paul City Directory. Some of the new firms and their founding dates were:

The St. Paul City Market, which included sellers of plants and flowers, expanded with the construction of Market House at 7th and Wabasha in 1881.

The industry was also developing and expanding rapidly in Minneapolis. New florists on that side of the river included C.A. Smith, who began his greenhouse range on Portland Avenue in 1880. L.S. Donaldson purchased the plant from him in 1899, selling its products in connection with the department store he had opened in 1888. W.D. Desmond managed the greenhouse operation for Donaldson.

Other new Minneapolis horticulture operations included the international agricultural firm Northrup King, which began in Minne-apolis in 1884 as a lawn, garden and farm seed business.

Sunnyside Greenhouse, at 817 Fifth Avenue Southeast, was begun in 1885 by Miss Hilliker, and was later operated by Walter Pier, who became her husband.

Henry 'Fred' William Busch started growing vegetables in the 1870s, and in 1885 began building greenhouses on Lyndale Avenue at 50th Street South, then considered to be far out in the country.

Wesling and Hartman started what became the Lakewood Cemetery Greenhouses in 1886.

The John W. Vasatka Greenhouses were built at 3365 Chicago Avenue in 1888. John had worked for R.J. Mendenhall. Unlike many early growers, he grew only floral products from the start.

In 1890, Senator Washburn's greenhouse was erected at Stevens Avenue and 24th Street, Minneapolis. Desmond's greenhouse, erected at Portland and 24th Street, was sold in 1898 to R.J. Mendenhall.

Industry Development Outside the Twin Cities

Expansion of the industry also continued apace outside the Twin Cities. Some of the new, non-metropolitan area, outstate florists and their founding dates were:

The Agricultural College

The first University of Minnesota Horticulture Building and Greenhouse, erected in 1898-99. The building cost $35,000. (Photo courtesy Department of Horticulture Science archives)

The Territorial Legislature established an Agricultural College at Glencoe in 1858. Local citizens provided funds to purchase land and erect a building, but because of the Civil and Indian Wars, no building was erected. Minnesota became a state in the same year.

The University of Minnesota, whose existence predated the establishment of the State of Minnesota, was reorganized in 1867 and a College of Agriculture established. The federal land grant authorized by the Morrill Act was then assigned to the University. One year later the University Regents purchased 90 acres, one-quarter mile east of the University's Minneapolis Campus for $8,500, to provide an experimental farm. Soon, 30 additional acres were purchased. The previously proposed, but stalled development of an Agricultural College at Glencoe was halted.

In 1869, the first Professor of Agriculture was appointed, the ever active Colonel Daniel A. Robertson of St. Paul. There was a rapid turnover of professors at the College of Agriculture between 1869 and 1882.

The Minneapolis experimental farm, bought by the University in 1868, was sold for $150,000 in 1882. The land was sold because it was found to be unsuitable for agriculture. The money from the sale was used to purchase 248 more suitable acres in Falcon Heights, in the St. Anthony Park area, at the location of the current St. Paul Campus and Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. The funds were sufficient to also erect four buildings. Edward D. Porter, Ph.D., the fourth in a series of men hired as Professor of Agriculture, was appointed Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1885 and was responsible for planning and guiding the development of the new facilities.

The College of Agriculture's Division of Horticulture and Forestry was established in 1888, with Samuel B. Green appointed as its head. Green, one of six persons selected as members of the new Agricultural Experiment Station staff, laid the foundations for the University's strong horticultural program.

The School of Agriculture officially opened on the St. Paul Campus in 1888 with a two-year practical high school level program. A dedicated effort of the Grange supported the School and 47 students enrolled for the first year. In 1897, the School was made co-ed. It provided a high school diploma to farm boys and girls who attended school for six months and obtained agricultural experience for six months of each year.

Horticulture Building

The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $35,000 in 1898 for a University Horticulture building that included a 4,000 square foot greenhouse. Construction was completed in 1899. Horticulture shared the building with Agricultural Botany at the start.

Breaking new ground in teaching horticulture, in 1899 five college courses in horticulture were offered on greenhouse practices, nursery practices, fruit growing, vegetable growing and plant breeding. This was one of the earliest horticulture programs in the United States. By comparison, the first floriculture faculty members elsewhere in the country were hired in 1901 by Michigan's agricultural college, followed by Illinois and Massachusetts in 1903 and Maryland in 1912. Cornell University established the first Department of Floriculture under Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey in 1913.

Professor Samuel B. Green was Chairman of the University of Minnesota's Committee on the Course of Study for the College of Agriculture. He set high standards, and college courses in floriculture and greenhouse construction were added by 1912.

Como Park

Como Park remained neglected and undeveloped for 14 years after its purchase by the City of St. Paul. Frederick Nussbaumer, a native of Germany employed at London's Royal Botanic Gardens, met Horace Cleveland in Paris. Cleveland persuaded Nussbaumer to come to St. Paul, where he was hired as a gardener by the St. Paul Board of Park Commissioners, starting about 1887.

Nussbaumer was foresighted, artistic, a skilled florist, and a good manager. He was an active, progressive Superintendent of Parks from 1892 until his retirement in 1922. Nussbaumer used Cleveland's plans as a starting point, added his own ideas, and spearheaded the development of the land at Como Lake into Como Park. A 17 x 40 foot lean-to, propagating greenhouse with a wood and coal stove for heat was erected in 1892. Additional propagating houses were erected in the 1890s. Nussbaumer added a 'Gates Ajar' planting in 1894, which is still planted each year. In 1899, the Park Superintendent reported the need for a palm house and a pretentious show house.

The quality of Nussbaumer's work was appreciated by his employer. In 1897, J.A. Wheelock, President of the St. Paul Board of Park Commissioners wrote: "The area of park land under cultivation, exclusive of parkways is but little, if any, greater in Minneapolis than in St. Paul, while we maintain a large greenhouse and extensive areas of floriculture and floral animation which they do not. The comparison reflects credit on the careful and economical manner in which our parks have been managed." In the summer of 1899, one million people visited Como Park, with more than 40,000 reported in the park on a single day.

Industry Status

In 1882, there were 18 professional flower growers in the state of Minnesota, operating an aggregate total of 86,000 square feet of greenhouses. This was a very small portion of the slightly more than 1,000 florists in the entire United States at that time. The Society of American Florists (SAF), which represented and was comprised of members from all branches of floriculture, was created in 1884. It remains the national organization representing all branches of floriculture to this date, and one Minnesotan has served as its president (Appendix A).

J.H. Hale, compiler of U.S. Census Reports, noted in 1890 that the commercial florist business made most of its development in the preceding 25 years, with the largest proportion in the previous ten years. He noted that Minnesota floral business growth kept pace with that in most other states.

A.N. Kinsman purchased Harrison's greenhouse and floral business in Austin in 1890 and added a series of 18-foot-wide green-houses. In 1893, his crops included cut roses, carnations, English double violets, cyclamen, cacti, begonias, Easter lilies, foliage plants, fuchsias, geraniums, heliotrope, marguerites, palms and primroses. He issued catalogs and shipped plants and flowers by mail and express almost daily to North and South Dakota and southern Minnesota. The range was moved to a location close to the city's Water Works Park in 1901. A flood and storm almost wrecked the physical plant. Local business and professional men presented Kinsman with a gift of five or six thousand dollars to help him restore the plant. He insisted on repaying the donors with interest a little over a year later.

In 1892, August S. Swanson presented a paper to the Minnesota State Horticultural Society on "Progress in the Florist Business in the Last Decade" in Minnesota, and how it compared to other areas and industries. He reported that the annual cost of heating Minnesota greenhouses averaged $70 per 1,000 square feet of glass. Florists in eastern states paid out one-fourth as much for heat and still received the same prices for their products. He concluded that Minnesota growers were at least as advanced as eastern growers, or the latter would undersell the local growers. The increased efficiency of the Minnesotans was attributed to improved growing structures, improved methods of heating (steam heating was almost universally adopted for larger establishments), growing better classes of crops, discarding crops that did not pay, and by more efficient use of labor.

Swanson also noted the industry's large dependence on the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, on its 40 to 50 established florist operations with 352,000 square feet of greenhouse under glass. The remainder of the state had 87,000 square feet of glass-covered greenhouses in smaller cities. Further, he speculated that there was prob-ably $50,000 worth of flowers shipped into Minnesota from other states in 1882. In the next five to six years, that sum appreciated considerably, but more flowers were exported than imported by 1892. Obviously, the early Minnesota florists were intelligent, hard working, progressive individuals who also participated in industry affairs, organ-izations and advancements. Thus, Minnesota florists kept abreast with industry to the south and east.

Minnesota growers were still thriving and expanding in 1892, despite about a 60 percent fall in price averages since 1882. In most respects, Swanson's ideas are applying equally well more than 100 years later.

Catalog Firms: Farmer's Seed Company

Farmer's Seed Company was founded in Chicago, by William F. Kueker and his brother-in-law, Otto Kozlowski in 1888. They were associate editors of a monthly farm publication and were accustomed to receiving many inquiries for seed sources. Noting that a large portion of the sales were to farmers in southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, they moved their firm to Faribault in 1893. A small seed catalog was printed in German, and 10,000 copies were distributed. The last German catalog was printed in 1913.

English catalogs were also printed by Farmer's Seed Company. Garden seeds and nursery stock were added to the catalog and the firm's name was changed to Farmers Seed and Nursery Company. Their list of offerings continued to expand through the 1920s, the depression years and after World War II, through a series of owners that included: E.J. Kiekenapp and Nick Bieter, E.J. Kiekenapp and R.J. Kiekenapp (father and son), R.J. Kiekenapp and Ken E. Relyea (brothers-in-law), and then Relyea alone.

Subsequent owners of Farmer's Seed Company were less fortunate. Rauenhorst and Bellows from Olivia bought the firm in 1976. Unfortunately, both were killed in an airplane crash three years later. Jacobsen and Prodoehl, the next owners, declared bankruptcy.

Current owner Richard Owen, of Bloomington, Illinois' Owen Nursery, bought the company in 1983. Prodoehl, one of the previous owners, remained with the company as its manager. The company is Minnesota's largest horticultural mail order firm, distributing about one million catalogs throughout the country. Two garden centers currently operate under the Farmers Seed and Nursery name, but are independently owned and operated. They are located in Rochester (Keith Stangler, owner) and St. Cloud (Jerry Lund, owner).

Owners of Farmer's Seed and its successor companies throughout the decades have kept in touch with horticultural cultivar developments at the University. They have been a reliable retail outlet for all of the University's horticultural introductions, including fruits, vegetables, flowers and woody ornamentals.

Late Century Newcomers

H.F.W. 'Fred' Busch Greenhouse range at Lyndale Avenue and 50th Street in South Minneapolis at the turn of the century. Busch started by growing vegetables in the 1870s. Detail (left) shows a windmill, hard to distinguish in the original, that supplemented power for the facility (photo courtesy the Busch family). Two other windmills bracket a barn at the right edge of the image. The area today is a developed residential area at the southern edge of Minneapolis. (Photo courtesy Ann B. Mykleby)

Henry T. Puvogel started in business at 1021 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, in 1892. His greenhouses were across Summit Avenue from his retail business. He moved to the corner of Chatsworth Street and Grand Avenue in 1904. His sons, including Henry Jr. and Frank, took over the business and operated it until 1960 when the site was sold.

In 1894, Edmund Behrens opened for business at 160 Kent Street in St. Paul and sold house and bedding plants, bouquets and decorations. Christian Hansen started production of cut flowers and plants at Dale Street and Como Avenue.

Henry Spencer Lyndes started in the greenhouse business at Sweeney Lake, Golden Valley in the 1890s (exact date unknown), and moved to Glenwood and Xerxes Avenues about 1900. Second generation Charles Lynde operated the firm for many years and moved it to Maple Grove in 1971. His son and current owner Edward S. Lynde took over the firm in 1978, greatly expanded the range and added a retail shop. He is a business school graduate of the University of Minnesota.

A new Central City Farmers' Market managed by Harlow Gale opened in 1893. It was located between Second and Third Avenues North, and Sixth and Seventh Streets in Minneapolis. The new facility was not, however, open very long. It was destroyed in an 1894 fire, but was rebuilt at the same location in 1896.

In 1895, E.P. Holm and O.J. Olson founded Holm and Olson at 336 St. Peter Street in St. Paul. They built a substantial floral crop growing range on Duke Street and later opened a retail store on Fifth Street. They also took advantage of improvements in shipping, and expanded their retailing throughout the region through a network of sales agents.

At the turn of the century, florists were found primarily in population centers (i.e., cities). Funeral directors served as agents in outlying districts, selling flowers with the help of illustrated catalogs. Most flowers were shipped quite efficiently via Railway Express. Holm and Olson had over 400 such agents in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and northern Wisconsin, and their floral designers worked day and night shipping orders. After World War I, florists built greenhouses in most towns of any size to handle the local trade, and the agent system gradually faded away. Locally, Holm and Olson was known as the Summit Avenue Florist, as it serviced homes of the well-to-do who lived on the Avenue. Herb Holm and George and Gene Olson were the second generation owners.

A flower shop and greenhouse owned by Christian Bussjaeger opened at Charles and Dale in St. Paul in 1896. F.W. Topel ran the business from 1908 to 1912 when Bussjaeger returned and renamed it Dale Street Greenhouses. There were a series of owners from 1927 to 1936.

In 1897, E.C. Lindsay started Lester Park Florist and Greenhouses in Duluth. William Jap bought the firm in 1903 and enlarged it. After he died in 1949, his daughters Edna Jap and Gretchen Peterson operated the business. In 1967, Gretchen's daughter Marilyn Solem became the owner. The establishment was sold to Rod Dunbar in 1975 and current owners, Rod and Cathy Lafeve, purchased the business in 1979. They have opened two additional retail outlets. Two sons of William Jap, Walter and Ernest who also opened retail flower stores independent of Lester Park, are no longer in business. John Morris was the grower at Lester Park Greenhouses from 1947 to 1991.

John J. LeBorius arrived in Duluth in 1897 and worked for W.W. Seekins, who started his business in 1896 at 115 West Superior Street. By 1904, the firm was Seekins and LeBorius and had greenhouses at 921 East Third. In 1906, LeBorius became the sole owner and started building a greenhouse range at 2501 Woodlawn Avenue. It became the largest range in the area. LeBorius died in 1946 and the firm ceased doing business in 1954.

There were six greenhouse establishments in Winona in 1899, including the Orlowski West End Greenhouses, Woodlawn Cemetery and Charles Siebrecht's Central Greenhouses. Siebrecht's widow closed down the greenhouses in 1980, and the downtown retail shop about 1989.

At the age of 21, in 1898, Robert L. Gould founded a company to sell produce. The company developed a large retail business with gardeners, and also was one of the largest firms selling supplies to truck gardeners, greenhouse growers, garden supply centers and the turf industry in the upper Midwest. After Gould died in 1945, the firm was run by employees for eight years with Arthur Davidson as president. A branch store was opened in Duluth in 1952 with Gordon Miller as manager. It ceased operating when the building burned in 1958. Employees purchased the firm from the Gould Estate in 1954.

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