U-pick flower biz evolves into 'experience'

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By Alma Gaul | Sunday, August 27, 2006 2:32 AM CDT | () comments

Photo by Larry Fisher/ QUAD-CITY TIMES One of the appeals of Miss Effie’s is its L-shaped, 1892 farmhouse with peeling paint, the kind of home that was common in the early 1900s.

A funny thing happened on Cathy Lafrenz’s way to building a U-pick flower business.

She noticed that while customers needed only 10 or 15 minutes to cut their flowers, they often stayed an hour at the two-acre Donahue, Iowa, farmplace she shares with husband Cliff.

They lingered at the open back porch of her 1892 farmhouse where several of her 18 cats might rise, stretch and purr their way around their legs.

They wandered down to the shed where 25 chickens and ducks cackle and scratch, sending feathers drifting through the air.

And they were drawn to the north side of the yard that looks over a Grant Wood countryside of rolling corn and bean fields, a place where the quiet might be broken only by singing cicadas and wind in the trees.

The epiphany, Lafrenz says, came one day when an older woman, her daughter and granddaughter came to pick flowers and the older woman said, ” ‘You are so blessed.’”

“And I thought, ‘OK, what do they mean by that?’ ” Lafrenz says. “Because I know the neighborhoods they come from — the $300,000 and $400,000 houses. And here I have no air conditioning, I have no heat upstairs, I have one bath. It had to be something else.”

She realized that what made the 18-mile drive from the Quad-Cities — part of it on a dusty gravel road — so worthwhile was not only the chance to pick zinnias and lilies, but the opportunity to be out in the country.

Denise McMonagle, of Davenport, says she takes her young son to Miss Effie’s because “it is a simple, beautiful experience.”

“It’s a place where I feel safe,” she explains. “It’s not Nickelodeon, it’s not plastic. It’s real and sincere.”

Paula Witt, a Scott County Master Gardener, calls Miss Effie’s “a country oasis for ‘city folk’.”

Lafrenz didn’t realize this sense would be such a strong draw when she began her business, Miss Effie’s Country Flowers and Garden Stuff, five years ago. A kitchen designer for several years, Lafrenz was just looking for work that would be more personally satisfying that would bring in an income.

She researched U-pick flower businesses on the East and West coasts, selected an old-fashioned name, and planted a 20- by 20-foot plot to produce blooms for cutting from June to October.

The business took off from the start, she says, and although it doesn’t generate enough income to make her self-supporting — she also has a part-time retail job and her husband is a manufacturing engineer — she is happy with what she’s doing and hopes to make the business grow in the direction of offering even more experiences.

Next year, for example, she expects to offer classes in canning jam or pickles, making simple glycerin soap, basket weaving and using herbs in cooking. “They seem to want it, and they aren’t getting it,” she says of these old-fashioned skills.

She also hopes to link up with Silos & Smokestacks, a nonprofit group based in Waterloo, Iowa, that seeks to tell the story of American agriculture through preservation, tourism and education. With improvements such as restroom facilities and activities for children, the farmstead might grow into an agritourism site.

“We have a lesson to teach,” she says. “You can buy flowers anywhere. People will hand me money and then give me a hug. And these are people who pulled in our driveway an hour ago (that) we never met before.”

Molly Guard, of Davenport, drives to Miss Effie’s every two or three weeks because, as she says, “visually, it’s a pleasure to go out there.” And on one visit her 10-year-old daughter got to hold a baby duck that was just an hour old.

“This is what Iowa should be,” says McMonagle, who was born in New York City, raised on the Jersey shore and lived in Chicago before moving to the Quad-Cities. “This is what we should be proud of. This is why we live here.”

Alma Gaul may be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.

FLOWER ARRANGING TIPS

Want to make a pleasing flower arrangement yourself? Following are some tips from Cathy Lafrenz.

* Think “main event,” second stage and filler flowers. “Main event” flowers might be a lily, gladiolus or lisianthus; second stage might be a snapdragon, and filler might be statice, eucalyptus or “jewels of opar.”

* Think odd numbers.

* Greens aren’t necessary. You can use them if you want, but you don’t have to.

* Don’t worry about making the bouquet pleasing from all angles; a one-sided bouquet is just fine.

* Although flower arrangers used to recommend that the flowers be two-thirds taller than the vase (a 6-inch vase would have 18 inches of flowers above it, for example), that’s not necessary. And Lafrenz is a strong advocate of unusual vases, such as old tea pots, decorative tins or milk jugs.

* If you’re mixing a wide range of colors, it’s best to use all the same kind of flower. If you’re staying in the same family, you can more easily mix up the kinds.