A Brief History of Wickman's by Fred Wickman:
Farming on the edge of town
The F.M. Emhoff Greenhouses began in 1922, according to company records. Floyd M. Emhoff and his wife, Love, owned and farmed 10 acres at 1345 S. Fort Ave., on the southwest edge of Springfield. The farm covered a city block bordered by Meadowmere and Bennett streets and Fort and Newton avenues.
The Emhoffs built an eight-room two-story house with a full basement on the west side of Fort Avenue. In the center of the property, they erected about 40,000 square feet of greenhouses, along with other buildings for truck gardening and growing flowers and plants. The Emhoffs also had a flower shop in downtown Springfield.
Among the crops the Emhoffs grew in their fields were tomatoes, celery, cabbage and peppers. The greenhouses held cut flowers such as chrysanthemums, snapdragons, sweetpeas and carnations. Emhoff was a good farmer. His wife was a great cook. Customers knew the Emhoffs as hospitable people, according to an autobiography by Gus Wickman.
Wickman became acquainted with the Emhoffs because they were coal customers of Merchants Ice and Fuel, where Wickman was general manager. A friendship grew between the Emhoffs and Wickman.
As World War II drew to a close, Floyd Emhoff bought a cattle farm northwest of Springfield near Willard, Mo. The Emhoffs moved there and sold the downtown flower shop. Floyd also was ready to sell the 10 acres on Fort Avenue.
The ice and coal business was winding down as the war ended. So, Wickman told Emhoff “…darned if I wouldn’t buy it.”
The path from potatoes to posies
Gus and Frances Wickman took over June 26, 1945. They renamed it Wickman Gardens.
That spring, the Wickmans planted cucumbers, lettuce, squash, beans and radishes alongside the Emhoff crops. Some grew in the greenhouses, too. Besides the bountiful fields and greenhouses, a flower shop hummed.
The Wickmans moved into the house in April 1946. Their son, G. Fred Wickman, was born July 6, 1946. While Frances labored at the hospital, Gus washed harvested celery.
But flowers were the future. Before long, Wickman Gardens supplied eager distributors with large amounts of flowers cut from its fields and greenhouses.
Business moved from wholesale to retail. Customers lined up to buy spring bedding and vegetable plants. The flower shop took off, selling flowers for births to funerals, proms to weddings, church flowers to blossoms for business events. If you wanted a Christmas tree, you went to Wickman’s, particularly if you wanted it flocked by Gus. Wickman’s grew the best poinsettias.
Gus and Frances noted every customer’s birth date. Every year, when it arrived, Wickman Gardens delivered a little vase with a jaunty flower or two and a sprig of greenery to the birthday man or woman. It wasn’t really your birthday unless Wickman’s proclaimed it.
Gus, business leader, also served his city. He spent 12 years on the Springfield City Council, some as mayor pro tem.
When G. Fred decided to pursue journalism, and his parents neared retirement, they looked for a successor. A Southwest Missouri State grad, Glenn Kristek, was the one.
