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Prairie Pedlar
1609 - 270th Street
Odebolt, IA 51458
712-668-4840
Store Hours:
Mon- Sat,11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Sunday,1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
April thru Mid-October
(By Appointment in Nov. & Dec.)
See the calendar at the
Prairie Pedlar web
site
Facebook page
Blog
site |
A bit of history What started out as a hobby for Jane and Jack Hogue has
led to a thriving family business. Both
Jack's and Jane's parents have been involved in the growing business
through the years, as well as their three children. Jane has
lectured extensively all over the United States and in Canada.
Tour busses have made the approximately 75 themed gardens a regular stop for years, and
more recently the "Red Hat Society" ladies make the gardens a
destination.
Prairie Pedlar has also hosted many weddings,
reunions and other private events. The grounds include the restored
rural one-room school, Cook #8, and the barn is adorned with one of the
Sac County Quilts. The Prairie Pedlar web site gives you a better
understanding of the scope of this business, which includes a "Kids
Club", gardening lectures, a tour of the
gardens, events during the
spring & summer and much more.
Over the years, Prairie Pedlar has been featured in
several national magazines: The Iowan, Country Living
Gardener, Country Gardens, Garden Shed, Midwest Living, and
several other farm magazines.
Saturday, June 22nd, 2006 turned out to be a beautiful
spring day for Prairie Pedlar's spring plant fair, and it was well
attended. The cars in the parking lot had license plates from
surrounding counties and further afield. My sister, Bonnie Ekse,
and I had planned one of our periodic visits to Odebolt in order to
attend the event, as well as to be on hand for Prom night in Odebolt.
We had been surprised when we mentioned to several Odebolt residents
that we were going to the plant fair and they replied that they had
never visited Prairie Pedlar! If you have not been there, you are
missing out!
The greenhouse was bursting at the seams with
perennials, annuals and pond plants. Customers were busy loading
up flats of plants for spring planting. There were also many
attractive container plantings for decks and patios.
Outside were long tables lined with potted perennials
and herbs for sale. Vendors from other nurseries sold their plants
from tables set up under awnings.
Lunch was being served in a small building near the
greenhouse, and many customers were eating at tables and chairs set up
on the lawn. Others were busy looking at the unique items in
the barn gift shop. The upstairs "hay loft" in the barn is full of
thousands of hanging dried flowers from the extensive gardens.
These are used in creating beautiful dried bouquets and floral displays.
People roamed through the many themed display gardens to
see the emerging perennials. We had gone to the "Moonlight Garden
Party" at Prairie Pedlar last summer, so we know how beautiful the
gardens can be. The gardens are in full bloom the last couple
weeks of June, into July, and that is a great time to visit!
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Tables outside featured
perennials and herbs |
Customers checking out with
flats of plants |
We ended our visit by listening to presentations by the
plant experts and heard quite a few helpful hints on gardening,
including information on prairie plantings, pond plantings and hosta
cultivation; how to discourage deer from grazing in your garden; and
information specific to certain varieties of perennials, as well as many
other topics.
Attendees listen to a lecture by a
nurseryman from over by Iowa Falls in the
spring sunshine. Visiting vendors' plants were on display under
the awnings.
Lunch was being served in the building to the rear.
We always enjoy our visits to Prairie Pedlar. We
hope that this article will encourage others to visit as well.
- Barb Girvan Horak
For more information, please visit the
Prairie Pedlar web
site
Facebook page
Blog site
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