GROWING A BEAUTIFUL CROP

Myron, Brett, Darin and Clark Knobloch in one of their production areas at Knobloch’s Greenhouse. Photo by Bob Fitch. All additional photos courtesy of Myron Knobloch.

by Bob Fitch

The crops grown by Myron Knobloch and his sons – Brett, Clark and Darin – are not the traditional corn and soybeans of northwestern

Iowa. Nevertheless, success at Knobloch’s Greenhouse of rural Alvord requires the same inputs as their neighboring farms: good soil, timely water, the right fertilizer, sound business decisions, and hard work.

Having grown up on a traditional farm (which his brother Lance now operates), Myron’s career in horticulture started by accident. “I ended up taking horticulture as a junior in high school because I didn’t get into the class I wanted and I found out I had an interest in it. During my senior year, as an FFA project, I started with a little tiny greenhouse that measured 7 x 16.” After graduating from West Lyon High School, he attended Iowa Lakes Community College in Emmetsburg where he

Knobloch’s Greenhouse sells more than 4,000 hanging baskets each year. Their baskets and pots feature multiple species of annuals in a wide variety of combinations.

studied general horticulture. He followed college with eight years of work at Wally’s Nursery in Hills, Minn.

In 1987, Myron and his new wife Beth decided to strike out on their own, planning to grow strawberries and apples. “In 1988, our first strawberry crop cooked on the vine – literally. The day before we should have harvested, it got to 106 and no wind. And that was zero harvest. We had to do something different – we were young and newly married and needed to make a living.

“We had a very big garden, so we grew for the farmer’s market to help the cash flow side of things for eight years. In the meantime, we started the greenhouse and it slowly took off.” By the mid-1990s, they found that trying to grow strawberries and apples conflicted too much with the crop cycle for the annuals, perennials and vegetables in the greenhouse. “At that point, we just focused completely on the greenhouse, from 1997 going forward. We had quit selling at the farmer’s market a year or two before that.”

Knobloch’s Greenhouse grows predominantly annual flowers, but Myron said they’re also proud of their selection of both vegetables and perennials. They sell some shrubs and miniature trees, but no shade trees. “Pretty much anything you plant in the spring, other than shade trees, we sell.”

Beginning March 1st each year, Knobloch’s begins planting hanging baskets, most of which include multiple species of plants in a wide variety of combinations. “We have a lot of not-so-common annuals that you’re not going to find just anywhere,

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like 50 varieties of trailing petunias. We use a lot of unique colors and grow plants you’re not necessarily going to find anywhere else,” Myron said. Over the course of their 11-week retail season, they typically sell 4,000 hanging baskets.

The Knobloch family in 2012 when the company celebrated its 25th anniversary. Beth and Myron are front and center with their children Laura, Darin, Brett, Clark and Amy.

Myron and Beth Knobloch with their daughter Laura in 1990.

Yesterday: The Knobloch horticultural operation in the early days with their 7x16-foot greenhouse and the garage they used as a sales area.

In addition to the baskets, they grow Memorial Day planters and thousands of annuals and vegetables in 4-inch and 4.5-inch pots, as well as in multi-packs. There are three crop cycles to stagger production for the retail season. “We don’t want to sell plants that are too small or overgrown,” said youngest son Darin. Knobloch’s grow more than 40 varieties of tomatoes, 20 varieties of peppers, and close to 1,000 different types of flowers. “Everything we grow, we sell and it goes out our own front door,” said Darin.

Beth Knobloch, who died from a brain tumor in 2015, was the family’s retail expert and her expertise continues to guide the retail experience the family delivers to their customers. “This was our 10th year in this facility and it handles a crowd really well,” said Myron. “Our retail sales area is all indoors, it’s all concrete and it’s all handicap accessible. So that minimizes the impact of the weather on us. They can still shop even if the weekend weather is bad.” Darin added, “We’ve got wide aisles for carts, scooters and wheelchairs.”

Myron said, “Beth was an interior decorator by education, but retail was her specialty. There’s a lot of things you’ll see that you won’t see everywhere, such as our angled benches and signage galore. Her motto was if you get asked a question more than once or twice, you need a sign. The angled benches are important because, first, it helps the appearance of the sales area. Second, if the benches are straight, you only see the plants on the corner. At an angle, you can see all the way down. It catches your eye more.

“Every variety has a sign with a picture and key points such as height, width, and price; and, for vegetables, days to maturity. All those with yellow stakes are sun-loving plants; and those with blue stakes are part-sun/part-shade plants,” he said.

Another one of Beth’s priority was cleanliness in the greenhouse sales area. In fact, when the family was traveling and visiting other greenhouses on the road, “The first place Beth would go when we visited a greenhouse was the restroom,” said Myron. “If the restroom was presentable, then we could spend time there. She said if the place couldn’t figure out how to take care of the restrooms, then there wasn’t much else we could learn from them.”

This attention to detail has helped the business build an extremely loyal customer base, one willing to travel 30- 50 miles, the final stretch on a gravel road. Darin said positive word-of-mouth about their quality plants, reasonable prices and customer service has been their primary avenue of marketing. Through word-of-mouth, the medical community in Sioux Falls has become one of their largest segments of customers.

Social media marketing also helps drive traffic. Myron and Beth’s oldest daughter, Laura, is married and lives in Michigan, but still does media for the company, including social media, ads and design of signage. She and her husband have two children who come back to Iowa for a couple weeks in the spring. Daughter Amy lives in Rock Valley and works as an ultrasound technician for Sioux Center Health. She helps

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