The Vinery

By Adam Calder

On an oppressively hot and humid August morning, I went and visited The Vinery, one of the newest local farms to work with the Wheatsfield Cooperative produce department. This Iowa business grows an impressive array of flowers and decorative winter squash, and also offers a self-serve flower bouquet bar out on their farm. You can even bring your own vase to make the arrangement in!

I met the owners, Amy Cox, and her mother, Robin Collins, at their home and farm just outside of Nevada. Their farm is a family affair, Cox said, with several generations living together and pitching in. “Mom and Dad live out in the shop,” Cox said, “me and my two kids and husband live here so it’s like a family compound. My brother is a mile down the road, and my sister is like two miles the other way. They all help out in their own ways, but we are the only two that like this is our full-time job.”

Cox said she and her mom came up with the idea for the flower farm on a road trip in 2019, and Collins added her love of flowers began much earlier than that. “I’ve always been a gardener,” Collins said, “Since I was a child even, and flowers particularly so it’s something I always wanted to do and now I’m a retired farmer…my husband farmed corn and soybeans. I work just as hard, but I’m going to be doing something I enjoy because I didn’t enjoy farming soybeans and bookkeeping.”

The farm started slowly, taking into account the respective gardening experience of both business partners. “Amy was the one I couldn’t get into the garden for anything as a child,” Collins said, “so I said I’ll take it really slow and see how it goes. The lilies, that was my hope, that was the big experiment, forcing lilies I started in February.” “They were in the shop under lights,” Cox added. “You can grow them all the way and cut them. You never have to bring them outside.”

Cox elaborated on the success of their experiment, and the reason for the attempt. “We started this trying to grow flowers long term” Cox said, “We wanted to extend our season, the lilies were kind of a practice. We weren’t going to sell them, but they were fine. We succeeded!

The Vinery has always been on the same family farm, but the flower production has moved around within the farm looking for just the right spot. “We have a little vegetable garden, since I was a child, we always had it” Cox said. “My great-grandpa, same spot, that garden. We grew there for two years, then last year we moved production to an old sweet corn patch. Then we rented this section from the neighbors, because we can see it from our shop. It was a hayfield, they didn’t do anything with it, just mowed it. I would love to buy it from them. We want to put in perennials, we want to build a border between the soybeans and us. Hopefully, that becomes our permanent garden. But you never know.”

The Vinery delivers fresh bouquets weekly to Wheatsfield during the spring, summer and early autumn months. In early and late autumn, they provide us with a gorgeous array of unique winter squash and gourds that are perfect for decorating. Many of them are also edible! We look forward to doing business with The Vinery, this year and for many years to come. Stop in and pick up a fresh bouquet today, and fill your house with the sights and smells of a multi-generational Iowa flower garden.