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History
To start things off we would like to thank those of you loyal customers whom shopped by us year after year. Honeymoon Acres is a proud greenhouse business that could not have made it so many years without you. Since it seems like we share the same love for plants as you, you may be interested to know who we are and how this fine establishment started. One of the owners is Joe McShaw and here he is to tell his story.
Hi, my name is Joe McShaw. You may have seen me around the greenhouse and maybe you haven’t but that is where I spend most of my day. I’m the one whom is responsible for the plant’s quality and plant care. So please remember if there is any issues with the plants in the greenhouse, it is my problem not Marci’s or Falena’s. They are located at the front checkout. Any issues, problems or concerns regarding the plants, please ask for me to answer them. Marci and Falena have their hands full just cashiering and answering other questions to answer the questions to a problem they may not know even exists. Who am I do you ask?
Well I, Joe, grew up in a Pennsylvania home with many siblings and many chores. My Dad, Andrew, and my mom, Ann, ran a greenhouse, vegetable farm, honeybee farm, and also the business of carpentry. So I grew up learning a versatile abundance of many things. It sure made me realize what hard work was. I learned a lot on the famr that has helped me in the greenhouse to this day. One the farm I was the youngest of 10 siblings. Going from oldest to youngest; Dave, Don, Judy(passed away battling cancer), Larry, Ron, Joann, Fred, June and Jane(they are twins) and then there is me. My mom passed away when I was 9 years old, so my dad was left to raise us. We learned a hard life and the struggles that goes along with t. In 1980 after some years left doing work at home and spending sometime in Wisconsin, Canada, and Florida (helping my brothers with their businesses), I graduated high school and found it was time to move permantly to Wisconsin. I worked for my brother, Don, in the greenhouse and also worked with my other brother, Dave, with his honeybees. In 1983 I married my lovely wife, Marci.
Marci and I have four children. Chad (34 years old), Clinton (24 years old), Dwight (21 years old), and Falena (20 years old). As of right now two of them, Dwight and Falena, work with us at the greenhouse. The other two wished to pursue other goals in life. They did not find that the greenhouse life was for them. Working in the greenhouse is not just a job, but a way of life. To live this way of life, you must find a job that you love. The way I got started to love plants was from my past.
At age 22, year 1984, Marci and I started Honeymoon Acres. At the beginning, we would tear down many old barns for people and would use them to build the greenhouses that first started us off. The first greenhouse we had a total of 1,000 square feet, a 20’x50’ greenhouse. During this time, Marci and I had both full time jobs, had children to take care of, and we also had our 5 acres of vegetables. We would take the produce down to the corner of the old Red & White resturant in New Holstein to sell on Saturdays. However, the next few years we expanded more of our greenhoues. It has been truly an American Dream that we achieved so much. I moved to Wisconsin in 1980 and with my wife in 1984 we stared our business with on $5.00 in our pocket. We had a young family and a business to hold up. At around 1990 our greenhouses were beginning to expand much more.
We had to decide to either do more with the greenhouses or expand the vegetable farm. At the time of this debate the greenhouse was doing much better than the vegetable farm. So we put all of our atttention towards the greenhouse and it took off to what it is today. 2002 was the next time we had to make a large decision. We had about 60,000 square feet of greenhouses on Honeymoon Hill Road so we had many customers coming through. Having many people come to our greenhouse on Honeymoon Hill Road, made things change for us.
In 2002 after another great season of all of you coming to our place on Honeymoon Hill Road, we wanted to make your visit to our greenhouses even more pleasureable to visit. So instead of having Port-o-Potties, we looked into putting restrooms at our Honeymoon Acres on Honeymoon Hill Road. We called the State of Wisconsin. We were then told by the State Employees that if your business had 25 people or more there at one time, it is a state law that you need to have public restrooms. After that statement made by the state and the fact that Port-o-Potties are not good for handicap to use, we knew we had to do something about it. At this point, we looked to add restrooms to our place on Honeymoon Hill Road but found that the land around us could not be purchased. So insteand we looked around and got the property on Ford Drive. That land is a TIF District and so we started to look at the land to build. With our family getting oldr and the kids seemed to be interested in doing this for a living, we went to the bank to see what we could do. It has turned into what we have today. We do miss the quiet little place on Honeymoon Hill Road, but we really had no choice but to put restrooms in our place. It always has amazed me that other greenhouses don’t have public restrooms. It costed us a fortune to invest our whole lives into the place we have now. Even though all of that happened to build our place located by the highway, we find it truly beautiful for people to enjoy such a nice place to come and shop for plants. So after 6 months of mostly building the whole place by ourselves we opened in 2003. It was quite enjoyable to see our customers think of our place as a “Plant Heaven.” The store on the highway consists of an “annual” greenhoue of 27,000 square feet, a “perennial” greenhouse of 10,500 square feet, a “vegetable” greenhouse of 7,000 square feet, and a salesroom of 3,000 square feet. We also have and outdoor area for displays of lawn ornaments and our nursery stock. Although we have this nice location on the highway we still have our old place on Honeymoon Hill Road. It consists of all production area for plants to be planted, and grown to full potential to be moved and sold at the location on the highway. Just think we need to water and take care of plants in about 3 acres of greenhouses and we fill both areas for spring too.
However, our business is truly a blessing. Through all of the struggles and situations we always seem to pull through. Another blessing is our kids. They are all a pleasure to work with and be around. Dwight helps me out in the greenhouse growing part of the plants and moving them from the growing location, Honeymoon Hill Road, to the store location, Ford Drive (Hwy 57). Dwight also started his own business recently. It is called Hilltop Gardens. He grows and sells pumpkins and mums for fall at farmers markets. The markets that he goes to now are Fond du Lac’s on Saturday, and Oshkosh’s on Saturday. There are other ones but those are the two main ones. Falena is there to assist Marci in the salesroom as a cashier and customer service. She also works as the designer of the website you are viewing right now. Both Marci and Falena help a lot to grow the plants unitl we get busy enough that they need to help customers instead. So we run on a four person staff. We would appreciate it if you could continue to be patient with us. We understand that the wait in spring is long at the checkout, but we try to go fast. We also apologize that it may be hard to find a person to answer questions. We are sorry but we try so very hard to make this the best place to buy plants. We are provided with some help by close friends that eases the stress of our spring. It is very nice to have friends to help out in our tought time of the season. Clint, our son, also comes and helps a lot in spring also. Some people ask why we just have four full time people to do what other greenhouses need ten to twenty people to do. One is to keep the cost of our plants down. We cant afford too many people working. Another reason is that it is hard to find people to hire who have an abundant knowledge of plants to assist customers. We only need extra people for four to six weeks, then it slows down. So there would be no point.
There is a lot more to add to this story but it is getting pretty long. I hope this gives you an idea how much me and my family love our business. We are truly thankful for everyone who comes to our place to purchase our plants. We are proud to be one of the best greenhouses in Wisconsin!
