Blumen Gardens celebrates 30 years

This year, Blumen Gardens is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Located in Sycamore, Illinois, Blumen offers home and garden items, landscape services, and wedding and event rental space. Blumen was featured in Garden Center magazine’s August 2017 issue, when we showcased how the company transforms its space for weddings.

Blumen, owned by husband-wife team Joel and Joan Barczak, will host two special events this year commemorating its 30-year anniversary. On April 25, it will host its Spring into Fashion and Garden Show, and on July 25, it will host an evening celebration in the gardens. Details are still being worked out for both events and will be available soon.

“Blumen started as a love story,” according to a news release about the anniversary. “On the first day of greenhouse management class, back in 1981 at Kishwaukee Community College, Joel set eyes on Joan. He eventually worked up the courage to ask Joan for a ride home from school, and the rest is history.”

According to Blumen’s press release, Joel and Joan’s relationship endured long distance as Joel interned in Germany for a year. Joan later joined him, and they traveled Europe and North Africa together. Once home, they worked in various horticulture endeavors, but after getting married and starting a family, it was time to find a home together.

“The perfect home for Joan was not Joel’s ideal,” according to the press release. “It was quite the fixer-upper and across from an abandoned factory, little did he know what this neglected lot across the street would eventually become.”

Founded in 1989, Blumen was started so Joan could work less, and she desired a landscaping company to maintain her garden designs. They began by growing plants out of their own backyard and eventually grew into renting and then purchasing “the dump” across the street in 1993, according to the press release.

“This land consisted of a small white building that once was the weigh station for the railroads that ran through Sycamore and a dilapidated factory from the 1860s,” according to the press release. “Throughout the years, Joan and Joel sculpted their dream business and renovated these historic buildings.”

The couple transformed the old 4.5-acre manufacturing plant and property into a nursery, retail shop, event space, design studio and shop, and landscape services with gardens.

“This year we celebrate our 30th year and we are thankful and grateful for our wonderful customers, staff and the local community in which we live and work in,” according to the press release. “We are excited to keep growing with you and yours for the next 30 years to come!”

According to their website, Blumen’s also hosts many community groups and activities such as garden clubs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4-H clubs and various school groups. They also host special events such as yoga, garden talks and small, community markets for local, hand-made goods.