WRITTEN BY CHERYL WELLS
It is so exciting to introduce you every month to another new business in Le Mars that has just opened. This building has been so fun to transform into a beautiful space that is a new business in the Le Mars area called Wildflowers. It has been especially fun because of the new friends that we met from Marcus, Iowa – Tom and Peg Hohbach. It felt like we instantly bonded with them from day one and I have heard from lots of people in the area that Peg is well known for her beautiful floral creations. Peg has been working in the business for a few years and has already made a great name for herself, with a reputation for doing amazing work. They are going to be a wonderful addition to Le Mars. Tom has a few businesses that he operates, and this couple are known for being movers and shakers. They are worker bees and were getting involved in community events from the very beginning.
It was really fun how it came to be that we crossed paths and what our dreams were for the old Pinned Up building on Central Avenue that we o`wn. We believed that it was to be a flower shop and so we started asking around and we actually started planning how the building should be laid out to accomplish that. I kept reminding Mike that I didn’t know how to do flowers and that I didn’t want to run another business. The plans were coming along, and we had talked to several people that were speaking into it and that we thought might be interested, but those plans kept falling through. One day I was shopping in Omaha, and my phone rang. I remember all the details. It was Peg and she told me that a local realtor gave her my name and she had heard that we were trying to find someone to open a flower shop. She informed me that she had been looking for a building and was wanting to be in Le Mars. When she told me that she already had experience and that her husband was all in, that was even better. I had questions about living in Marcus and opening a business in Le Mars, but she assured me that they were ready for this and might even consider moving to Le Mars someday. That excited me even more because I can’t imagine living anywhere else myself, and our development plan is all about more people living, working, playing, and shopping in Le Mars.
I met with Peg to be sure to catch the essence of who she is and her love of the business and speak from her perspective. Peg has had a love for flowers since she was a little girl, one of five girls in her family, and both of her grandma’s had gardens and she has many memories of learning about flowers with them. In high school careers class, she did a project about owning a flower shop one day. Peg and Tom were high school sweethearts and they have been married 33 years. They both have worked their whole lives to get where they are today, really starting with nothing. They have both owned their own businesses for years. Tom started Hohbach Construction in 1997, and he also is a farmer through and through. Peg has been motivated to start a business on her own since she was very young. She started her own beauty shop in Marcus when she was 25 called Sophisti-cuts. Tom built it for her, and she was very successful and sold it in 2002, when someone approached her, and she couldn’t turn down the offer. It is still in operation today. Peg went to work in 2003 for Bloominghouse in Cherokee answering phones and doing odd jobs. She learned from a florist there and that was her beginning.
In 2016 she started her own business called Flower Girl in Tom’s machine shed doing studio florist work. She has grown her business and got to a place where she knew she wanted a building in Le Mars somewhere. She had been looking for the last couple years and Tom kept encouraging her to be patient and wait for the right opportunity. In May last year she heard we were building out a flower shop downtown and the rest is history. When we got done with the building Tom also added his touches for Peg, and she has a great eye for beauty, and she knew what she wanted. The beautiful building she is in is just a shell of what it was. These buildings are all about 150 years old, so there has been a lot of work on things like foundational kinds of things, as well as new roofs. Of course, all the electrical and plumbing and HVAC is new now. Front and back entrances and cement work that had to be done, and not only are the front of the buildings beautiful, but the alley side also from top to bottom. I think that Tom saw the work that had already been done on the second floor and he knew that it was being done right, and that gave them confidence also.
Peg will do a wonderful job, and she wants people to be excited and come in and say – wait till you see what Peg has in her shop! She will have florals, gifts, and home décor. She wants to have unique things and some artwork and of course she will have memorial gifts too. She will also do floral workshops and has already done one in Le Mars at our Uptown Event Center. It was well attended, and everyone had so much fun, as well as we took home a beautiful fall floral that we made ourselves with her tutoring us.
Check out her Facebook page and her webpage to see some of her work. We are super excited about this partnership, and I’m trying to encourage Peg and Tom to make Le Mars their home – they might be considering! Tom will just need somewhere to drive his tractor.
You’ve got to go to Wildflowers and experience it, as well as go to a few other places in downtown Le Mars. Hope to see you there!
ADDRESS: 34 Central Avenue NE, Le Mars, IA 51031
PHONE: (712) 540-4140
WEBSITE: wildflowerslm.com (Coming Soon!)
SOCIAL MEDIA: Click Here for Facebook link
