About
The Baumhoefeners built a Tudor-style home on 40 acres that would become their landscape nursery and design business.
“His wife, Helen, my grandmother, was an English teacher,” Baumhoefener said. “They studied English architecture, so the grounds around the house have that English look, with the hedges and the different elevations of the gardens.”
Baumhoefener worked for his father’s landscaping business in California for about five years after earning his own degree from ISU in aerospace engineering. He returned to Cedar Rapids in 1976 to take over his grandparents’ nursery.
As the city moved west, the family sold parcels for a housing development and Concordia Lutheran Church, and the nursery now occupies six acres.
“We grew more back then,” Baumhoefener said. “We actually did propagation of seedlings and nursery stock because it was so expensive.
“We’ve transformed to more of a retailer. We have five or six wholesale growers that supply us. They have much more ground than we do.”
