Flower Business Is Booming and Blooming At Malvern Nursery

It’s the most colorful place in Mills County.

With annuals, perennials and hanging baskets galore, The Blooming Barn is bursting with color and bustling with gardeners and flower lovers looking for that perfect plant to place in the garden or basket to hang on the deck or patio.

The nursery, located at 706 randview Ave. in Malvern, has been a hub of activity since opening for the season in April.

“We’ve been busy. It’s been a crazy season despite the weather,” Blooming Barn owner Jessica Burdic said. “Our peak time is Mother’s Day weekend – the week before is typically the busiest.”

If there’s a flower that can be grown in Iowa, you’re probably going to find it at The Blooming Barn - everything from petunias and geraniums to marigolds and daisies. The flowers can be purchased as individual plants or in a colorful hanging basket.

“We go through 2,000 hanging baskets a season,” Burdic said. “It’s amazing. That’s kind of our niche. We like unique baskets that you can’t find just anywhere.”

The flowers at The Blooming Barn come from multiple growers, some local and some from other states, like Michigan and Missouri. Burdic said many of the flowers are grown “specific” for The Blooming Barn and the hanging baskets are customized.

“We have growers that are kind of specific for us,” she said. “Our hanging baskets, we pretty much order specifically what we want in them. We kind of know what we like from each place and they grow it for us.”

In addition to the flowers, The Blooming Barn has a wide selection of garden vegetable and herb plants in a separate green house.

Since opening nearly a decade ago, The Blooming Barn has established a reputation for its high quality plants and friendly, detailed customer service. Customers come from places as far way as Omaha, Nebraska City, Creston and Corning.

“I would say most of our customers come from a ways,” Burdic said. “It’s amazing, all the different towns that people come here from.”

Burdic has had a green thumb for most of her life. When she was 14 years old, she started working at Williams Nursery, which was located north of Malvern near Highway 34.  She gained valuable experience working at the nursery.

Larry and Linda Williams retired from the nursery business in 2012, but Burdic said the timing wasn’t right to take over the business at that time. Her children were still young at the time and needed most of her attention. Three years later, however, things changed when a piece of property on the east side of Malvern went up for sale.

“Nine years ago, when this property became available, it was a horse pasture,” Burdic noted. “I said to my husband (Jay), ‘Let’s build it.’ I talked to Larry and Williams about moving the greenhouses.”

Larry Williams disassembled the greenhouses, brought them to the former horse pasture and put them back together.”

The rest of The Blooming Barn’s story is history.

Burdic manages the greenhouse with her assistant Kristen Kendall and a team of high school-aged helpers.

“Every day, Kristen helps me, but otherwise we have a great group of high school kids that come and help. They’re amazing and I couldn’t do it without Kristen,” Burdic said. “My husband, he’s my flower delivery boy. He has a trailer. We get a lot of these (flowers) down in the South, so he brings them all up.

“We love doing it. We have fun.”

The Blooming Barn will be open into June, close for the summer months and reopen in the fall, when an assortment of mums and pumpkins will be available. In addition to the plants sold at the nursery, an old horse barn on the property has been converted into a gift shop.

The Blooming Barn is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.