From flower farm to flower shop: new owners bring fresh blooms to Over The Rainbow Floral
by Trinity Gruenberg
Over The Rainbow Floral in Wadena is under new ownership.
Samantha and Christian House of Verndale have been working on rearranging their new brick-and-mortar shop.
The couple has operated Flowers of the Field, a flower farm, for the past four years. Samantha took over her grandfather’s former dairy farm located in Verndale shortly after marrying Christian.
Flower farming is becoming a trend in the United States.
“It’s become kind of the same thing as, like, fresh farm food, you know, it’s called field to vase. It’s the fresh product from the area that lasts longer and helps the local economy,” explained Samantha.
She studied horticulture at Central Lakes College, learning design, arrangements, and hydroponics.
Samantha began selling flowers at farmers’ markets and then moved into flower shares. The flower shares have become popular, paying a fee for a fresh bouquet every week without the hassle of growing them yourself.
Christian has taken up the “grunt work” around the farm but also has an eye for design.
Purchasing the shop wasn’t planned initially.
“We actually didn’t have any intention of buying the flower shop, and we went in there, asking her [previous Owner Shelby Cooper] what she wanted for her coolers. She offered us the shop. We ended up thinking we needed to take this seriously, and we closed within a week because we had time to think about it while we were at the hospital having a baby, you know, a great time to make business decisions,” Samantha said with a giggle.
The couple is excited to have a family-run business. They have two children, Asher and Lizzie, named after the lisianthus flower....